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.
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
A lot of people wonder when they first decide to go no poo how they will need to change their styling habits. I know I did. Heat styling and the use of styling products are usually the two biggest questions.
In terms of styling with product, it's not necessary to stop using styling product - I would just say don't use anything you can't get out with whatever alternate method you're using to wash your hair. Baking soda can most certainly get out just about anything, but based on my own personal experience, using baking soda daily is probably just as bad as shampooing daily; at the very least, it's every bit as drying. If you're doing WO washes exclusively, it's probably best to steer clear of product altogether, because getting product out with just water is going to be difficult to borderline impossible, depending on what you're using; you're certainly going to have an issue with buildup. One of the great things I've found with CO is that you can get most things out with it. I still CO on a daily basis, and my hair is loving it. So, after I wash my hair, I use a little spritz of a detangler called Repair Me by Lamas, and I also usually dab a bit of coconut oil on my ends. Both of these come out fine with my daily CO. Most things, including hairspray and mousse I've found come out quite easily with CO; my only recommendation would be try to avoid things with silicone, as these can be more stubborn to get out and can build up over time, making your hair look limp and oily.
Now for heat styling. This is really just a matter of personal choice. I decided to go no poo because my hair was trashed from shampooing and heat styling. After going for over a year without shampooing, I've found that my hair is healthy enough that I no longer need to do much heat styling to make it look good. But in reality, if you just don't think you can give up heat styling, don't let that deter you from going no poo. Think about it: both heat styling and shampoo are damaging to your hair, so if you choose to cut out shampooing but continue heat styling, you're still reducing the amount of damage you're doing to your hair by quite a bit. In any case, regardless of your styling choices, your hair will probably ultimately thank you for skipping on the harsh detergents.
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.
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!
The tresses are looking pretty good today; very shiny and full of body. My last CO-wash was on Wednesday, and I did a WO rinse yesterday. No need for any cornstarch today, my hair is not in the least bit oily. I am not wetting it today either; it doesn't seem to need anything.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Day 24 So I've been doing CO-washes about once every three days, because that seems to be the only thing that's really agreeing with my hair as of right now. Last week I did a baking soda rinse, and I used less, and it worked better on my hair, but it was still pretty drying. My last CO-wash was on Wednesday and it is now Saturday. I didn't wet my hair on Thursday and it was not greasy at all. I also didn't wet it on Friday, but it was pretty greasy by then, so I picked up some cornstarch from the store and fluffed it through my roots, then combed. The result was actually surprisingly good. I was afraid I'd look weird and powdery, but that was not the case. I have started combing my hair more than brushing it, as combing seems to not aggravate the oiliness so much. Today, I decided I should wet my hair, so I did a WO rinse, massaging my scalp for a good 10 minutes in the shower. Air dried. To my surprise, my hair really wasn't very greasy. There was a slight amount of greasiness in a few spots (temples), but really not nearly what I expected it to be.
I'm actually pretty pleased with the result; my ends aren't as frizzy as they used to be, and some of my natural waves are gradually returning. The cornstarch is actually working amazingly well to clean up little oil patches without having to wash my hair with anything other than water. It really just looks super shiny - not greasy at all. So there you have it - four days since my last CO-wash, and this is coming from someone who used to be a greaseball after one day of not shampooing. It seems that my scalp is beginning to adjust its oil production, now that I've stopped stripping it. My hair is super low maintenance on in between days, and it's beginning to look a bit healthier. Also, my boyfriend still confirms that it doesn't stink. It actually still has a slight fragrance of my conditioner that I use for CO-washing. It's Dessert Essence Organic Apple Conditioner. My ends need to be trimmed, but I'm a little hesitant to visit my hairdresser, because I know she's going to want to poo me. I think when I go, I'll CO-wash my hair that morning, and then tell her that it's already been washed, so she can hold off on the poo.
Day 11 Today is Monday, and this is what I did to cleanse my hair this morning:
First I massaged my scalp to loosen any dirt. Then I rinsed with a dillute ACV rinse. I then scrubbed my scalp with a sea salt water mixture and rinsed again with a camomile tea mix that I allowed to steep overnight. Then I rinsed with A LOT of water and finished off with a blast of cold water to seal the cuticle.
The result? Awful. All this did nothing to help with the grease factor, and it looks pretty much like I did a WO rinse. So much for not looking like a greaseball at school...
Day 10 Pretty oily today, but I'm not going anywhere, so I'm going to stick it out until tomorrow morning. I have to go to school tomorrow, so I prefer not to start out the week looking totally gross, because my hair will be plenty gross by the end of the week.
Day 9 My hair is not looking too bad today. It's not really too greasy, but it's also not good enough to wear down, so I have it up again. I can tell it is going to be pretty oily by tomorrow. Today is Saturday - I think I'm going to try to hold out until Monday morning, when I think I'm going to try tea and/or salt rinses. I doubt I'll try the baking soda again, because I felt it was too drying, which is kind of going
against what I'm trying to do, which is to get my scalp to produce the appropriate amount of oil. That won't happen if I'm drying my hair out with baking soda, just like it wouldn't happen using commercial shampoo. I think I am starting to notice a slight difference, in that the second day after a wash still seems a little bit greasy, but not as bad as it used to. Hopefully, this is a good sign that my hair might be adjusting.
Day 8 My hair was unbearably greasy today. It looks like it's wet. I know my adjustment period is going to be horrible, because I've got fine hair and an oily scalp to start with. I started out the day with a hat on, but mid-day, I couldn't take it anymore and decided to try a CO-wash today. It worked beautifully. My hair got very clean, but the ends felt a little dry, so, lacking any other oils, I put a very small bit of olive oil on my ends.
Day 7 Another super greasy day. Wore it back with the headband again, and am really trying to minimize the look of the greasiness. I tried to fluff it up a bit at the crown so maybe it just looks like I have too much product in it; actually, it looks like I styled it with vasoline...gross. I've been really self-conscious about it the last couple days. Not that I usually put that much effort into my appearance on a regular basis anyway, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with looking dirty. On the plus side, it does not smell. I've had my boyfriend check it every day, and he confirms it doesn't smell.
Day 6 I did another ACV rinse, but it didn't help much with the oiliness. Very greasy today, so I wore it back again with a cute headband to detract from its tragic state.
Day 5 My hair is quite a bit greasier today, so I wore a hat. I did not wet it today, because I felt like wetting it made it look even greasier. Thankfully, I only had one class today, so my appearance at school was only brief.
Day 4 I wore my hair back because it was starting to look a little bit greasy. When I got home for the evening, I took another shower and rinsed it with water only.
Day 3 I had a wedding to go to today, and my hair was pretty greasy, so I decided to do my first baking soda wash, followed by a weak ACV rinse. My hair was VERY clean, but I feel like the baking soda was too drying. My hair tangled a lot throughout the day and my ends hate me for it.
Day 2 My hair is a little bit waxier today. I did a dilluted ACV rinse, and the hair around my temples is starting to get pretty oily. The ACV rinse didn't seem to help with the oiliness.
Day 1 I've always been one of those unfortunate souls who has fine, limp hair that gets oily at the scalp within approximately 8 to 10 hours of washing, but whose ends are terribly dry. I've been trying to be nicer to my hair for the last few years, and have seen marked improvements, but it's still not the way I would like it. I haven't colored my hair in over five years, and stopped the daily blow drying about two years ago, and started using natural, SLS-free shampoos about two years ago. The only vice I ever used really was my straightening iron on rare occasion when I had a special event to go to. I've got a natural wave to my hair, but it's not the cute wave that every girl wishes she had. No, it's the crazy wave, where it is really curly in one place, straight in another, and a psycho poof-ball in another. It's just nonsense. I recently realized that in all of my efforts to be nicer to my hair, I was overlooking one big thing: my shampoo, although better than most, was probably doing most of the damage. I got online and started looking around at various people who were basically on the low poo agenda, when I happened to stumble across some people talking about no poo; this was the first I'd ever heard of it. I read all these wonderful stories about people who'd had success with it, and I started thinking maybe I should give it a try. I thought that maybe my hair isn't so bad - maybe I'm not genetically doomed to this seemingly illogical "combination" hair. Most of what I found online was directed at people who had very dry, curly hair, which is definitely not me. I've found some information from people with hair types similar to my own, one of them was pretty comprehensive from which I've gotten many ideas, but I wanted to make a log of my own journey. Today is February 19, and this is day 1 of no more shampoo.
Today was the first day of not shampooing my hair. It's not too bad, but seems a little waxy. I did a water only rinse today.
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.
