I have been promising for a while now that I will do a post on my new hair care routine and that I will tell you all about CoWashing and why I try to use sulfate-free products only so here it goes.
To start, I would firstly like to describe what my hair is like because it honestly just makes sense.
My hair is quite thick, but I do not have a lot of it, just due to genes and also because of something my doctor prescribed a year ago and it made me shed hair like crazy! I also colour my hair, and I have been doing so since I turned 15, I think.
My natural colour is dirty blonde, a colour that does not suit me well because I am to pale for it, but I did bleach it for years. I even stupidly dyed my hair to a very dark brown colour and then back to blonde in a few months. So as you can imagine, my hair was really ruined. And on top of that, I basically fried my hair with straighteners, as I used them everyday without any protection. Then two years ago I cut it to a shoulder length lob and stopped with the bleaching, but I still dye it to a dark brown/mahogany colour.
So yeah, there you have it, my hair.
After what I put my hair through, I decided to really try and get it in better shape, because who does not want long louscious locks. I did some research and after reading copious amounts of different articles I decided to try the CoWashing method, which stands for conditioner washing only and cutting shampoo out of your regular routine. I know, it sounds scary and completely unhygienic, since it seems that only shampoo will really clean your hair, but I swear conditioners do wonders without really stripping your hair.
I started with CoWashing my hair everyday, but now I wash them every 2 days, and I use shampoo only when I feel it is really necessary or when I put on a coconut oil mask. My scalp is also very oily so that is why I wash my hair every two days, but if you do not have that problem you might not need to do it so often. I try to avoid using dry shampoos but sometimes I do, but that is mostly before I wash my hair with a shampoo. Normally I use cleansing shampoos once every few months, and I use a sulfate-free shampoo every two weeks or something like that.
What I do in the shower is, I get my hair thoroughly wet and then I apply copious amounts of sulfate-free conditioner, work it in and massage it into my scalp, which is easier if I keep my head hanging upside down. Now some people say they need a second round of conditioner but I find that for me it does not really work. I also recommend doing this at the start of your shower and letting the conditioner on your hair as long as possible, because the oil needs to be dissolved by the conditioner.
My tip is also to comb your hair before every shower, and to let your hair air dry since heat will also damage your hair. And also when massaging your scalp try to avoid using nails but rather your pads.
I used a few different conditioners before, but the one that suits my hair greatly is called L'oreal Paris EverCreme Sulfate-free conditioner and the shampoo is basically called the same.
I use the first two in these picture, because I cannot find the other ones in stores in Ljubljana.
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| (Not my picture) |
I chose this line because it does not contain sulfates and it has been working wonders for me. SLS can cause irritation to the skin, meaning to the scalp. Plus some people claim that it can cause damage to the hair follicles. And since I am trying to grow my hair I really want to treat it the best way I can.
This i am aware about sulfates that damage hair:
ReplyDeletesulfates that damage hair