Co-Washing

We have always been taught to shampoo our hair to get it clean.  Well, as you have read in my previous blogs, I've learned that this is not the best way for me to keep my hair clean, manageable and healthy.  Lots of the shampoos on the market are made with sulfates in them.  The sulfates' job is to strip the hair of oil and impurities.  We curlies know that our hair tangles easily when there is no moisture/oil in our hair.  That is why I started trying to find a shampoo that was not so "mean" to my hair.  I talked to my stylist and she told me to begin looking for shampoos that had no sulfates (sulfate-free) in the ingredients.  She even suggested using KeraCare because they had a shampoo that was sulfate-free.  Immediately, I went and purchased the KeraCare shampoo and it worked ok but my hair still seemed to tangle.  I then began reading articles and I kept running across the term co-washing.  I had NO CLUE what that meant.  So, I went to CurlyNikki's website and looked it up in her natural hair dictionary.  The light bulb came on!!!!!!!!!!  I had been crying and detangling and all this time I did not know that I didn't even have to shampoo my hair on a regular basis to get it clean.
Conditioners also have cleansing agents in their ingredients. Therefore, it is safe to co-wash your hair to retain the oil and moisture without all the dirt and product build-up on your hair.  I co-wash my hair once a week and since I am a PJ (product junkie) I use all kinds of conditioners to co-wash my hair but I don't use the same conditioner to deep condition as I do to co-wash. 


Here's a website so you can read more about it. Here is an interesting article that you can read about it too!