CO, or conditioner only washing, is pretty much what it sounds like. Rather than using the sulfates or detergents in shampoo to cleanse your hair, you take advantage of the milder surfactants in conditioner (I believe the friendly chemical we're looking for here is cetearyl alcohol) for a gentler, less stripping cleanse. This technique is favoured mostly by curly girls, for whom it can apparently be a godsend, and longhairs, which is what I am aspiring to be.
I'd been contemplating trying this for awhile, but was instead doing the less challenging CWC method (condition, wash, condition), but was thinking about it last night when I realised that today is the first of a new month, and so surely a great time to start trialling something new.
And so, this morning I began the CO wash experiment. I had a bottle of Nature's Gate Biotin conditioner, which I had junked because it was too thin to really condition and I thought it had too many chemicals. Score 1 me, because for CO washing you need a conditioner that is- thin, has plenty of cetearyl alcohol, no silicones, and is not a 'moisturising' variant. Conditioners designed for clarifying or the like are ideal, but I think for my purposes the Nature's Gate will do just fine for now.
I'd put a little oil and aloe vera gel in my hair, then put it into a night braid, then gone running and gakked it all up goood, so it was nice and grubby. I also hadn't washing it since Monday (today is Wednesday).
After combing my hair out dry, I hopped into the shower and made sure that my hair was really, really, wet. I shook it out with my fingers, rinsing gently. I'd read that I'd need anything for 1-2 good palmfuls of conditioner to a quarter of a bottle, but ended up settling for perhaps 3 really good handfuls. If I'm to subscribe to this method long term I will be going through some serious amounts of conditioner! Fortunately the conditioner need not be an expensive type. I worked it into my scalp and length, scrubbing gently with my fingertips, then piled my hair on top of my head and popped a claw clip in.
It's important to let the conditioner sit, again times used vary widely but I elected to just let it sit for however long it took to wash down my body, face, brush teeth etc, so perhaps 5 minutes.
The next step was rinsing. I am a typically lazy, basic hair rinser, but for CO washing you must rinse very thoroughly. Rinse, rinse, and rinse some more, to give the conditioner a chance to wash away the grime.
I put a tiny tiny bit of oil in the very ends of my hair, just for protection, but didn't put any hairspray etc in the rest of my hair, as I want to see it au naturelle.
Result? Well, my hair has only really just finished drying, and I think it looks pretty normal. If anything, rather than looking all weighed down and flat, it looks a little fluffy, or flyaway. It feels a bit different, not as clean or even a little wet at the roots....but then, do I normally feel my hair at the roots, checking to see if it's clean? No sirree bob.
Soo, day 1, and so far the results are interesting. I've done a lot of reading to make it this far, and still have lots of questions.
I know silicones are out, but can I use some sort of hairspray to hold down my fuzzies? If not traditional hairspray, can I make a natural hairspray?
Do I need to CO wash everyday, or is it ok to wash 3-4 times a week as is my usual?
Most importantly, will CO washing improve the condition and length of my hair?
Some people have great results from CO washing, and only wash this way, doing a clarifying shampoo every month or six weeks. Some people CO wash Monday to Friday and do a wash and deep treat on the weekend (I must admit, this sounds attractive to me).
