DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR CO WASHING, a la LisaJaney
I get in the shower, wetting my hair and then wash my face. (it's this crazy notion I have, that if my face is unwashed, the forehead oils will re-dirty my clean hair. Thus, I always wash my face first. Compulsion? Who's to say?) Anyhow, once my face is clean, I rewet my hair and then get out the big jug of conditioner. I personally find that if I use a heavy or moisturizing conditioner, it leaves my hair heavy and it seems to get greasy-looking faster. For that reason, I use a cheap one: White Rain Original/Classics conditioner, the Extra Body kind. Usually, it costs about a buck for a 15-oz bottle; sometimes you can luck out and get a BONUS size for the same dollar. That helps, considering I use about 1/3 cup of the stuff per 'wash'!!
OK, so now my hair is wet, and I've got the mondo jug of conditioner in my hand. I put as much conditioner as my hand can hold, then apply that to the top of my head, working it down onto the scalp. Then I reload (another big handful) and apply that to the backside of my head, and work it into the crown (the place where it gets greasy) and down the ends. Sometimes I need just a little more conditioner to do the ends; sometimes not. At any rate, I work that all into my scalp, using stroking (finger-combing) motions, sometimes a little zig-zaggy movements as I stroke my scalp. You will know you have enough conditioner applied when your hair feels slick all the way to the scalp. At first, the hair seems to DRINK the conditioner, and there will be dry-feeling places; when you have enough, the whole mass of hair is slippery and slick. This won't quite make a lather, but it will start to feel a little lathery. That's good. Then forget about your head and move on to the rest of your shower. Wash, shave, whatever. Take a good 5 minutes or even longer if you've got the time (and the hot water!). Let your head just soak in that conditioner. There are surfactants that are working to loosen and lift dirt.
When the rest of my shower is complete, I return to the hair. I stick my head under the shower for a split-second, getting a few tablespoons of water on my head. Now that conditioner WILL lather for me. Not a great lather, but a thin, watery lather. I work it into my scalp again, finger-combing et al, until I get a bit of a lather. My hair will begin to really FEEL clean; you will see what I mean. Then begin rinsing. And rinse and rinse and rinse some more. And at last, when you think you've got it all (it takes a LOT of rinsing), rinse another full minute. THe only thing that will leave my hair greasy-looking after a conditioner-wash is one of the following:
1 - not using ENOUGH conditioner (I slather it on)
2 - not rinsing enough, or
3 - using a too-heavy conditioner (I told our Tori that I use "a cheap, crap-conditioner for this", but that's not really nice; it's an inexpensive, LIGHT conditioner. It's just right. I tried the White Rain Passion Flower conditioner - smells GREAT - but since it was a moisturizing one, it was too heavy and didn't work right)
So: rinse rinse RINSE! After I've rinsed it out, I like to then use a small dollop of Mastey Frehair, as a creme rinse, then rinse that out. The FreHair bottle says: "Eliminates Static, Detangles, Tames Flyaways". I like that. You don't need to let that set on your hair for more than a moment before you rinse it out. Then, I follow it all up with a half gallon of cold, soft water over my head. That closes the cuticle (and makes me murmur nasty things under my breath) but it sure makes my hair shiny. You can even add a little vinegar to that cold final rinse. Just 1/4 cup of vinegar is fine. This last time, I had put a small bit (maybe a tablespoon) of Aussie 3-Minute Conditioner into my cold final-rinse water: Talk about SOFT!!!! I used it as a leave-in, and really like it. THen, of course, I do a tiny bit of Monoi oil on my ends while they are still damp.
I do this every other day, or every third day. I like to wash my hair on Mon, Wed and Sat. On about the 1st and 15th of the month, I use shampoo and conditioner. One of those times is Finesse Moisturizing shampoo and conditioner (love that stuff) or Clairol Herbal Essences Fruit Fusion, Revitalizing (GREAT stuff! Satin-y hair with that!) and the other time in the month is Suave Daily Clarifying Shampoo to remove any buildup, with Mastey's FreHair creme rinse as a conditioner because it's light and will NEVER build up because it contains no oils or waxes. That stuff is GREAT. It can be hard to find, but I saw it at Fred Meyer's last night....Wahoo!!!
That's what I do. I use vinegar in my final-rinse probably once a week, to help with any buildup that may occur in between my 1st-and-15th-of-the-month shampoos. I soaked rosemary sprigs (from my garden) in vinegar for a few weeks to make Rosemary Vinegar - good for adding shine to dark hair. My ends have never felt SO good. They are moist and soft and just like the hair at my scalp with this new treatment. I highly recommend it.
Good luck, happy growing! Let me know if I missed anything you needed to know. I believe it will remove monoi; pay attention to those ends as you 'wash', just as you would with the scalp-oils, and I am sure you will be fine.
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