Karen

Alberto VO5 Tea Therapy Clarifying Conditioner in Vanilla Mint Tea

It’s usually standard operating procedure to wash your hair with shampoo every day. While this may work for many women, it doesn’t work for me because my hair is thick, wavy and dry. No, I don’t walk around with a stinky head of hair a la Pig Pen. I “shampoo” using a cheap drugstore conditioner!

Why Skip Shampoo?
I started skipping shampoo when my hairstylist noticed my hair looked and felt overly dry. She asked what my routine was, and I told her I was coloring my hair, and then on top of that washing and blow drying it straight every day. She suggested skipping a day (even skipping two or three days if I could handle it) between washing and blow drying. That way, my blow out would last longer and I wouldn’t have to subject my hair to the daily abuses of heat styling. Another alternative she mentioned was to skip shampoo entirely a few times a week. She suggested using water to rinse my scalp and hair and then following up with a conditioner.

I did this for a few years until I realized that I hated spending so much time with my hair dryer. If you have thick, long, curly hair and wear it straight, you know it can take from 45-60 minutes to blow it out. If you’re blowing it out at least four times a week that’s four hours spent with your blow dryer! When I had this epiphany I realized, holy crap, all that time I spent fighting to get my hair straight I could’ve been doing other things like learning French or building a better mouse trap.

So about a year ago, I decided to stop fighting nature and embrace my wavy hair. That’s when I learned about the world of conditioner washing.[Continue reading…]