It sounds like a particularly constipated diet but bear with me here!
I was having a lazy moment in the shower when it happened. It was late at night and I was tired and debating whether to wash my hair at all, though I knew I'd regret it in the morning if I didn't. My hair didn't feel terribly dirty and suddenly I vaguely remembered reading something about conditioner-only washing somewhere online at some point way back in time and I decided that skipping shampoo and using conditioner only couldn't really hurt.
I rinsed my hair well with warm water as usual and then chose a mild conditioner and applied slightly more of it than usual, lightly working it from my scalp down the lengths of my hair, before combing through and then leaving it in while I got on with the rest of my shower. After a few minutes I rinsed it out well and proceeded to style my hair as usual.
I was pleasantly surprised by the results - my hair certainly felt as clean as usual, but my scalp (which is usually dry and itchy, no matter what I use) felt a lot more comfortable than usual and my hair was ultra soft and easy to blowdry straight.
NO POO ?! - SERIOUSLY
Now if you've never read about this before and are intrigued by the method, I must give you one warning before you go off to google it for yourself. The people who swear by conditioner-only washing and rave about it online can only seem to refer to shampoo as "poo" and conditioner as "dish". I don't know if it's some kind of not-very-subliminal way of putting us off the sudsy stuff altogether, but reading about the "No Poo Movement" and "No Pooing" sort of had the reverse effect on my interest in the idea (and let's not even start on the extremists who move from conditioner-only to water only washing).
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DRY FRIZZY DAMAGED
Basically, the premise with conditioner-only washing (or CO-washing if you're so-inclined) is that if you have certain problems with your hair, such as a dry, sensitive scalp, dry and damaged hair or frizzy and unmanageable curly hair, then the detergents in shampoo may not be helping and you might find cleansing with conditioner will make your hair and scalp look and feel better. You'll need a silicone-free conditioner, so no residue is left and then you use the conditioner to cleanse the scalp and hair as well as doing the conditioning.
My hastily invented lazy version wasn't quite the full-scale plan of attack that the proponents of conditioner-only washing recommend. And to be honest I don't think I'd take the full plunge and toss out the shampoo bottle altogether. However, it's good to know that every once in a while I can skip it and my hair won't just tolerate it, but might even thank me for it.
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What do you think? Would you, have you or do you currently do the conditioner-only thing? Let us know in a comment!
