Hey collegiettes! I wanted to talk to y’all about co-washing. Well, this article is more specifically directed to our curly-haired readers because if you are anything like me, your hair tends to be more frizzy than curly. I decided that maybe I should actually look up haircare for curly hair since it is most likely different than what our society has deemed as “normal”.
This is true, curly hair is thicker and tends to be drier than straight hair. This is most likely due to the fact that the natural, moisturizing oils from your scalp have a harder time getting to other parts of the hair strand. This leads to an oily scalp but dry, frizzy hair overall. Not a good combination, I know.
A tried and true method to help alleviate this problem: co-washing, or conditioner washing. This method eliminates shampoo-ing from your showering routine. Shampoo harshly strips curly hair from its much needed oil. People have hypothesized that there is enough cleansing ingredients in most conditioners that it could replace shampoo while also making sure that the hair is conditioned. This means softer and less frizzy hair.
Co-washing is pretty simple and straightforward. Take generous amount of conditioner and massage it thoroughly into your scalp to ensure the pickup of dirt and other buildup then wash out properly. Voila, you are done!
Test it out to see how often you need to co-wash your hair. It shouldn’t be every day. Over conditioning is possible so check to make sure that your hair texture isn’t becoming spongey. Also, if you don’t feel like it is cleansing well enough try shampoo-ing (with a non-sulfate shampoo) maybe biweekly or whatever you feel works.
Note: Stay AWAY from conditioners that have silicones in their ingredients. Silicones are water-insoluble and coat your hair and can only be washed out by sulfate containing shampoos which you should be no longer using.
This method isn’t for everyone. But try it out and tell us how it goes!