What's the deal with protein?

If you're thinking about switching to a CO-wash regimen, or are currently CO-washing and trying to find the best conditioner for your hair, you'll want to figure out if your hair likes or dislikes protein. Some conditioners contain proteins, sometimes under names like biotin, or other times under more direct names like soy protein. Some conditioners don't contain proteins at all. Figuring this out is necessary for you to get the most benefits from CO-washing.

There are a couple of things you can look for as symptoms of protein-sensitive hair. If, when using a conditioner that contains protein, your hair becomes drier, tangles easier, becomes more straw or hay-like, these are the first signs that your hair dislikes protein. These are not typically resolved by adding more moisturizing products to your hair. Increasing the frequency of conditioning with the protein conditioner, or continuing it over a long period of time will increase these negative effects on the hair. These effects can only be combated by ceasing to use the protein conditioner altogether and switching to a non-protein conditioner.

On the other hand, some hair absolutely loves protein, and a protein containing conditioner will leave the hair silky smooth and beautiful. The only way to figure out what your hair likes is to experiment with different conditioners. In my personal experience, my hair is not a fan of protein, and I experience drier hair and a gross buildup-y type of feeling. I don't experience any of these problems with non-protein conditioners.

Review: Tresemme Naturals conditioner

Tresemme keeps coming out with new variations of their Naturals line of silicone-free conditioners, so every time I see a new one, I have to try it. The newest one I found is called 'Vibrantly Smooth' and contains coconut and jojoba oils. The two previous variations I've tried, sweet orange and avocado/aloe, have worked equally well for CO-washing, and I can't speak more highly of them. All of the conditioners have very similar smells, and it's difficult to tell them apart, unless you sniff them one right after the other.

I figured it's probably about time to write a formal review on these conditioners, now that I've been using them for months. I think I grabbed my first bottle of Tresemme Naturals in about February. I was combing through the local drugstore for a different conditioner that was perhaps cheaper than what I was using at the time (Desert Essence Organics). I didn't want to use Suave, despite being a very popular conditioner for CO-washing, because it contains methylisothiazolinone.

Starting with the ingredient list, it is not perfectly clean, but it is much less offensive than the majority of other conditioners I've seen. The conditioners, as they advertise, are free of silicones, which is excellent for those on a no poo regimen. Instead of the silicones, they contain stearamidopropyl dimethylamine, which is a lipid-based emulsifier, and also a cationic surfactant. It serves as a conditioning agent, but it is obviously more lightweight than silicones, which prevents buildup that can sabotage your no poo hair. There is some alcohol, although I have not found the alcohol to be at all drying. It also contains lauroyl lysine, which is an amino acid, the building blocks of protein. Although you might suspect this would be bad news for hair that tends to hate protein, I have protein-hating hair and have had no problems with this conditioner. None of these ingredients have any known toxicity or danger of bioaccumulation (unlike methylisothiazolinone).

Using the conditioners, they all seem very similar, with the more moisturizing versions (aloe/avocado and coconut/jojoba) being only slightly heavier than the volumizing sweet orange version. You might want to consider this if you have issues with your hair being weighed down, but if that's not a problem for you, then there is very little difference between the three versions I've tried. These conditioners have good slip and coat the hair very well. They also rinse out quite easily compared to other conditioners I've tried. The fragrance is strong, but not overly sweet. I personally think these conditioners smell amazing, although if you are sensitive to strong smells, I think you'll want to give it a sniff before picking it up.

These conditioners do a bang up job of detangling my hair, and leave it soft and smooth with minimal flyaways. In short, these are the best conditioners I've used for CO-washing and I have no intention of switching any time soon.

*photos are promo pictures from the Tresemme website

OCM: Oil Cleansing Method

So, I will be the first to admit that I thought this sounded completely crazy when I first heard about it. I have got some pretty wacky skin that is somehow oily and dry all at the same time (?). I thought it sounded absurd to wash my face with oil, but the only thing that's really absurd about it is that more people aren't doing it.

I first tried the oil cleansing method back in January of this year. I figured since I don't use shampoo on my hair, what's stopping me from ditching soap on my face? So the deal is, you mix some oils together, usually castor oil and some other kind of oil like jojoba or olive, depending on your skin. I personally used olive. I mixed it about 70/30 olive/castor. You then take the oil mixture and massage an ample amount into your skin; you want to spend about 3-5 minutes massaging your face with the oil. While you're massaging, you want to have a towel soaking in hot water. Once you're done with the massaging, wring out the towel and drape it over your face and let it sit until the towel essentially cools to near room temperature (only takes a couple minutes). Then use the towel to gently wipe the excess oil from your skin. I swear your skin will feel amazing. I don't do it every day, only because sometimes I'm so tired by the time I get to bed, I just don't have it in me to spend 10 minutes on my face.

It's also a great way to remove makeup - since most makeup is oil-based, oil is the most effective method for removing it. This method also avoids the harsh drying effect of many detergent based facial cleansers, and is about as squeaky clean as you can get, in terms of ingredient lists. It does a very good job at cleansing, and I've had absolutely no problems with breakouts using this method.

While I'm at it, I may as well do another little no poo update. I'm on month 15, I think, of no poo and I've pretty much got things down to a science. I'm still CO-washing daily, and my hair is loving it! I finally went and got a haircut about a month and a half ago. I just CO-washed my hair before going, and it was still wet when I got to my hairdresser, so she said it wasn't necessary to wash it again... whew, dodged a poo! I can't believe the condition it's in; it's so healthy. She cut off probably close to 6-8 inches, so what's left is in great shape. I'm still using the Tresemme Naturals no silicone conditioner for CO-wash, although I'm currently using it in the Radiant Orange scent. Apparently, this one is volumizing the and Avocado and Aloe one is moisturizing, but to be honest, I really can't tell much of a difference between the two. They both smell good and work equally well as CO-washes. I takes me about 5-6 weeks to get all the way through a bottle.

Month 9

No, I haven't given up on no poo; I just haven't been posting because I've been so busy during the last eight months. So I thought I'd give an update on how my hair is doing and what my current routine is.

I went for quite a long period of time where I was using nothing but weekly vinegar rinses and water-only washes, with very occasional baking soda washes if there was a lot of buildup. I actually noticed that my hair seemed to be getting drier over time when I was doing that, however; I was definitely not achieving the desired results.

So very recently, I went back to CO-washing. I've been CO-washing for a couple of weeks now, and I've seen a huge improvement in the moisture in my hair. I usually use Desert Essence Organics Apple Ginger conditioner, and find that it works pretty well for CO-washing, plus it smells great. I also occasionally use Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose conditioner to CO-wash, although it takes considerable more effort to make this one work effectively as a CO-wash. It is much thicker and has less slip than the Desert Essence, but with a lot of scrubbing and a very thorough rinse afterward, it does produce some nice results.

I know the most popular conditioners for CO-washing are Suave Naturals and V05, although I do have reasons for choosing not to use these. They are a lot cheaper, which makes CO-washing more affordable to do on a regular basis, but Suave Naturals also contain methylisothiazolinone, which this NIH study found could trigger neurodegenerative disorders in humans; it was found to be highly toxic to neurons in culture. And V05 contains some other weird chemicals for which published findings in the Journal of Toxicity indicate may not be exactly safe. Although this is not irrefutably conclusive evidence, it is enough for me to keep it out of my bathroom. So, even though Desert Essence Organics and Aubrey Organics are considerably more expensive, I choose to use them for health/safety reasons, because I can identify pretty much every ingredient in both of them, which gives me at least a little peace of mind.

I usually wet my hair only three times per week. The other four days, I just take a shower without getting it wet. On one to two of those days that I wet it, I CO-wash. The remaining day(s) that I wet it but don't CO-wash, I do a water-only rinse. Since my hair is not unusually dry, as is typical with curlier hair, I have to wet my hair at least three days per week, or it will begin to look oily. At the beginning of my no poo experiment, my hair was pretty trashed; I guessed it was probably a 1c/2a type, which is pretty different from the 1a hair I had in childhood. However, as my hair gets healthier, it is not as dry, and I would call it maybe 1b at this point. As I rid it of damage, it seems to be reverting back to the way it was when I was a kid; straight and silky. Especially on days when I do just a water-only rinse, I will rub the ends of my hair with coconut oil that has had plumeria petals soaking in it (for added fragrance). This does a pretty good job of keeping my ends in good condition.

I haven't had a haircut in 13 months; I'm actually really afraid to go to my hairdresser, because I know she's going to want to shampoo it. Also, it actually is in such good condition; the split ends are very minimal considering how long it's been since I've had it cut. Alas, I do need to get it cut soon, because it is getting very long. Surprisingly though, it is actually still quite manageable at this length, just because it has sustained a lot less damage than it normally would have by the time it was this long, had I still been shampooing, straightening, etc.

I also want to address heat styling. I do as little heat styling as possible. The most I do is on days that I wet it, I will quickly blow dry the roots, but not the length, on low. I hate having wet hair right up against my head, so that is why I just blow the roots quickly and let the ends air dry. As for straightening or curling irons, I rarely ever use either one anymore. I used to use a straightener on a daily basis, because my hair was out of control. But now that it's getting straighter and silkier, it is for the most part, unnecessary anymore for me to straighten it. I rarely curl my hair to begin with, so this is reserved really only for special occasions a couple of times a year.

So that's it! Although I am always tweaking and evolving my haircare routine, this is the summary of what I've done for the last eight months and what I'm doing now. At the very beginning, I doubted it would ever be possible for me to not have to wash my hair every day, or that nine months down the road it would be in such good condition. The first couple of months were rough, and filled with really, really bad hair days. But there is light at the end of the tunnel! My boyfriend has even been no pooing for the last nine months with me, and he loves it too. He mostly does water only, and CO-washes only once every couple of weeks, but he can get away with that because his hair is so short.

Day 31

Think I've figured out the fine art of WO-washing. I last WO-washed on Thursday night, so this morning, I decided to try it again. It wasn't super greasy, I really probably could have gone all day, but I'm going out with some friends after finals, so I wanted to try styling it to see what I would be working with. So I WO-washed it this morning, and it got very nice and clean. The key is definitely water pressure. And rinse, rinse, rinse for several minutes. I probably spend a good 10 minutes rinsing my hair and massaging my scalp. I wanted to try a straight style, but for obvious reasons, I haven't been using heat styling because I want to let my hair have a chance to get healthy again. But I can't go straight without at least a little heat (I'm somewhere between a 1C/2A hair type, in case you're wondering), so when I got out of the shower, I gently detangled with a wide-tooth comb, and then took my trusty blow dryer on the lowest setting possible (both heat-wise and how much it blows), so it was just a very light breeze of barely-warm air coming out of my dryer. The test was that I held the dryer right up to my hand. If it doesn't even bother my skin, it's probably okay for my hair. I slowly and gently dried my hair, using my fingers to smooth over it. And the finished product is great! It's sleek, smooth, and very, very clean. It doesn't stink at all, and I have fewer fly-away hairs than I used to after shampooing. And to boot, I don't even need hairspray!

The way my hair was just one month ago, I never would have dreamed that I'd be able to WO-wash so soon. My hair used to be a greasy, matted mess after only one day of not shampooing, but now I haven't CO-washed in a week, and my hair looks great every day! My hair seems to actually be doing better without CO-washing. Why was shampoo ever even invented? Oh right, profit motive!