If you haven’t read my bittersweet hair history, you can revisit my past by looking at this post: “Embrace Yourself!”

Through the Naturally Curly website, I have been introduced to several amazing hair products especially designed for the Curly Girl, or Boy. The best bit of advice that I can pass onto you it that regular shampoos are generally too harsh for most hair. Curly and Wavy hair in particular needs its natural oils or sebum to give the hair weight and hold in moisture.

Mainly, we curly girls feel we need to shampoo our hair because of our scalps feel gross. Rarely does my hair ever feel dirty or “greasy.” The regular shampoos strip the hair and scalp of its natural oils. Our scalp becomes dried out and itchy, and our hair becomes dry, frizzy and unmanageable. Blow drying and hot iron straightening doesn’t help either!

In Lorraine Massey’s book, “Curly Girl” she recommends limiting or eliminating the shampooing step altogether. Instead of using a regular shampoo, she claims that a conditioner has enough surfactants to effectively wash our hair and scalp. By using a water-soluble silicone based conditioner, you can wash your hair with condtioner, and termed this process CO-washing. By C0-washing, you can effectively clean your hair and not strip the living daylights out of it!

On Naturally Curly’s website your can find several recommended conditioners that contain water-soluble silicones. Curly girls do not want to put hair products that are not water-soluble, because non-soluble silicone’s will build up on our hair and add to your hair troubles. You will need to check the labels on your conditioners, and you want to find a conditioner that has PEG-modified dimethicone or Dimethicone copolyol.

My favorite all around great conditioner for Co-washing is:

DevaCurl’s One Condition

It’s all in one! This super-rich conditioner will keep the moisture level of hair and scalp balanced to perfection. One Condition restores, hydrates and neutralizes detergent and product residue with the fresh scent of lemongrass.

  • Simply rinse your hair like you would before regular shampooing
  • Massage a generous amount of your conditioner with the pads of your fingertips
  • Use a wide-tooth comb and comb through wet conditioned hair
  • Let sit for 3+ minutes, rinse 80% out with warm water
  • Finish with a “cold as you can stand” rinse of your hair

If you find that your hair isn’t feeling quite clean enough by the “Co-Shampooing method,” you can try one of DevaCurl’s emollient based shampoos. I would try DevaCurl’s “Lo-P00“ or their “No-Poo” Shampoo instead. DevaCurl’s One Conditioner can also be used as your weekly Deep Conditioner.

Try this “Co-Poo” Routine with your locks and see if your hair responds well with it. Damaged and dead hair cannot always be revived, but over time, your hair can repair itself and return to its natural healthy state.

The “Naturally Curly Challenge” is to not traditionally shampoo, blow dry, or straighten your hair, and then style according to the “Curly Girl” rules for 3 weeks.

  • shampoo (never daily)
  • conditioners (use lots of water-soluble conditioner)
  • No blow frying
  • Combing (only when wet and well-conditioned)

Go on, I dare you to try it! You may never be the same again…

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