Hi Ella,

It's never too early to try to minimize damage to your hair. However, CO doesn't suit everyone, so I would give it a try and see what you think. It also takes your hair a while to adapt. When I started, I had to wash (CO) every other day because my hair would get so greasy. Now, after 6 months of COing, I usually wash every 3-4 days.

There's nothing magical to CO, it's just a gentler (and cheaper!) way of cleaning your hair. You can always use shampoo every once in a while if you feel the need.

Good luck!

/Kate

Washing your hair only with conditioner will clean your hair, just as shampoo does. However, since your scalp is used to the harsher chemicals in most shampoos, and is therefore used to producing more oil to combat these chemicals, you may get greasy hair when you first start doing CO. Even I did, and my hair is naturally dry as straw. Persist with CO for at least 3 weeks (washing as often as you need to), and the greasiness should subside as your scalp adjusts.

Or, as I mentioned in my other post, use shampoo occasionally if you feel the need. It's all about what feels right for you!

/Kate

Thanks, guys!

I think what I'm going to do is take it in phases and see how my hair adjusts.

So, phase one, since I have NEVER, EVER been known to regularly skip shampooing, is going to be this:

Shampoo every other day. CO on the days in between. See what my hair does. 

I'll try that for November and see what happens.

And for anyone who knows more about this stuff that I do, the conditioner that I use now is Nature's Gate Rainwater Awapuhi Conditioner for fine and limp hair...no cones, mostly a bunch of natural ingredients, but cetyl alcohol.

Is it better to CO with cones? And, I didn't know that CO involved doing more than one wash with different conditioners...I don't know anything about this process. Anything that anyone can elaborate on would be great, thanks! My conditioner so far seems to be working beautifully, so...

Anyway, I'm off to do my first CO wash!  *grins*

Ella

Hi folks,

Cones coat the hair shaft and make the moisture attractors stick to the hair to "do their thing". And they make hair shine. I love 'em myself, but some hair types don't like cones (mostly fine haired or curly haired folk). You'll have to determine your hair's preference before considering cones for CO.

For coarse thick hair I find it better to CO with a coneless and a cone in that order (I have coarse Asian/Native American hair). and many coarse haired folks swear by cones.

As for fine hair, there's been a survey that found finehairs to NOT do well with cones. For finer hair or hair that doesn't like cones to begin with, then a coneless followed by a coneless. The trick is to use a LIGHT conditioner as your first C-- e.g. anything from V05 is coneless, and anything Suave Naturals is coneless as well. 

The Suave Professionals line (I use BioBasics for a CWC) is too heavy/leathery/coneladen for a first C in my opinion. They contain massive cones so I wouldn't want my scalp coated. The first C should be safe for the scalp.... Plastic ingredients can make the scalp break out. The Humectant contains a less flexible cone than the BioBasics, but I use Humectant while camping or cherry picking. Both are relatively expensive for CO. In CO, expect to use up to 3x the amount you'd normally use, just because C doesn't lather.

Whoooo! That was mucho loopy.
Good luck with your CO experiment, Ella!   

Anais

I have fine straight hair.

I use Pantene Pro-V as my last condition, and my hair loves the cones.

I think the difference in success for different people trying CO wash is most often due to the products they choose, the order they use them in, and their techniques.

Except for the first time I did CO wash (when I used the wrong conditioner, leaving my hair greasy but dry) I have never had a problem with it, and I have CO washed every 2-3 days, just as often as I used to shampoo.