It was shampoo night last night. My hair was fuzzy and frizzy and needs to be re-done, but I want it clean, clean clean. I decided to do a Suave CO with ACV rinse. I'm looking forward to the salon visit on Sat. And my scalp is very comfortable thanks to the constant ACV rinses (best thing I ever did!) CO Wash Experience I tried this before but this time I did it right and it worked very well. Slopped on about 1/4 bottle of Suave Balsam cond. and worked it in, I didn't really get a lather but I did feel a creamy clean as I stroked my scalp. I let it sit a bit as I showered. Rinsed away. And did it again. Rinse rinse rinse and then rinse and rinse again. I poured on the ACV rinse. And then I took an almost empty bottle of cond., filled it to the top with water and poured it on my ends from the ears down and smoothed my edges with it also. I rinsed wellin cool water. It felt silky with baby soft edges. I enjoyed this and will keep it up until I order new products for comparison. I

*~~~Balleryna~~~* Ears~Collarbone~Waist Type2c3bcFiii Botticelli &Corkscrew *~Chestnut/Auburn to Golden*~ ****Fairy Tales: My Story**** www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/247824 I LOVE: ballet, ballet & ballet... fairy tales..any&everything pink.... pearls&lace...ruffles&frills..movie musicals...classic novels...an evening at the opera...victoriana

Buy a cheap conditioner. White rain seems to work the best for most people who have posted here. Wet hair. Work a lot of conditioner through your hair. Keep applying and working through until all of your hair feels slippery and covered with conditioner. Let is sit while you wash everything else. Add a little water to hair. Work through (conditioner will lather ever so slightly). Rinse out conditioner (very well).

Those who have had bad results with CO washes, and finally solve the problem usually say the problem was one of the following:
-they didn't use enough condioner
-they didn't rinse it out well enough

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.

Thanks Martine!

CWC means "Condition, Wash Condition"
by Martine, originally written March 16, 2002

This is a method I came up to help my hair grow longer since long hair has
different needs than shorter hair:


The CWC Method

1. Wet hair, apply conditioner allover except scalp unless dry
2. Apply shampoo to scalp and head area with conditioner still on the hair
length
3. Rinse shampoo and conditioner out at the same time
4. Condition a final time
5. Rinse

Practically, you can apply the conditioner when you first get into the shower
and leave it on to deep condition while you do your regular shower routine.
Then shampoo at the end of your shower.

You can do whatever variations suit you such as holding the length out and
backing your head under the showerspray to rinse the shampoo out if you
plan to shampoo twice for example. If your scalp is dry you could apply
the conditioner to the scalp as well as the length before you shampoo (provided
you have a conditioner that can be used on the scalp). The final conditioning
is optional but I think it is good to do to ensure you cover any demanding
areas that may have been missed or that the shampoo disturbed as it was
rinsed out.

You would use this method on most washing days but skip the first conditioning
whenever you felt the length needed a complete cleaning. The conditioner
DOES clean hair so you can do this as many times as your hair feels good
continuing with it. Some buildup will occur, but build-up of conditioning
ingredients can be protective.

When my hair was bralength was the time when I began to find it difficult
to have long hair. The length just got so tangly no matter how I washed.
Since then it's been one experiment after another with many successes and
many failures. I think this method will help others who experience problems
finding the right products.

Usually the problem is finding a shampoo that isn't too drying for the hair
but works well on an oilier scalp. I think this method will work to improve
the performance of your products, whether they are standard synthetic products
or natural ones.

Note from Martine: Some of My Favorites
I normally use products from one line together and that's only because I like to use "brand systems" not because they can't be combined because they most certainly can.
My current system is Lush and I've been using only Lush products for several weeks now. Unfortunately in the Lush conditioners there are no heavy ones but I've had very good success with the American Cream Conditioner.
Keeping in mind that I normally use brands together as I mentioned, the heavier conditioners I like and recommend are:
Aussie 3 Minute Miracle
AO Islands Spice, GPB and Sea Buckhorn & Egg
Nature's Gate Herbal Original

The lighter detangling/sealing conditoners that I like are:
Infusium 23 Moisturizing
AO Swimmer's Conditioner
Aussie Real Volume (beautiful floral scent!)
Aussie Moist (not sure whether this is heavy or light but it's detangling so I'll put it here)




*~~~Balleryna~~~*
Ears~Collarbone~Waist
Type2c3bcFiii Botticelli &Corkscrew
*~Chestnut/Auburn to Golden*~
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I LOVE: ballet, ballet & ballet... fairy tales..any&everything pink.... pearls&lace...ruffles&frills..movie musicals...classic novels...an evening at the opera...victoriana

Thanks Dulci for this Book Review:
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Curly Girl Book Review:
"Curly Girl: more than just hair ... it's an attitude: a celebration of curls: how to cut them, care for them, love them, and set them free."

By Lorraine Massey with Deborah Chiel
First Printing January 2002, ISBN 0-7611-2300-8, 148 pages.

I paid $9.95 at my local Books-a-Million.

Find it online here:

http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/compare/isbn/0761123008

This is a very interesting book; this lady really knows the trials and tribulations of growing up with curly hair. I mean, she really gets it, she grew up like I did when long, straight hair was the ideal. She claims that 65% of women have curly or wavy hair, and she wants to teach these women to love their hair and learn to work it instead of against it.

And while this book is not specifically aimed at longhair care, there is much in here for longhairs to consider.

Included are washing and styling routines for different types of curls; how to choose products; home recipes; African American hair routines [including a well illustrated way to "straw set"]; how to Cut curly hair [this chapter alone is worth the price of the book]; how to color gently and sensibly; caring for curly kids; some great easy updo's; and more.

She explains that curly hair is much drier and more porous than straight hairs. An interesting fact is that the average curly head has 100,000 hairs as opposed to 120,000 on straight heads. Because there is less hair, there are fewer follicles and fewer sebaceous glands to produce oil.

Her system for typing curls differs from Andre's System (Types 2, 3 and 4) [see Andre's system here: http://www.bbahneycomm.com/longhairlovers/hairtype.html. She described curls as Corkscrew, Botticelli, and Wavy, and includes care routines for each. She also addresses the "Spring Factor," or the tightness of your curls. [This is why I measure my hair soaking wet, I am interested in how long it is rather than how long it looks that day LOL. ] How to check? Pull a strand of dry curls down to its full length. Mark the spot with your finger and let go. Measure the distance from your finger to where your curl naturally ends and you have your Spring Factor:

9- to 12-inch spring = Corkscrew curls
5- to 8-inch spring = Botticelli curls
2- to 4-inch spring = Wavy curls

If your hair is shorter than say shoulder-length, your spring factor would be about half of the figures above.

Ms Massey's hair care routines will not sound so revolutionary to many on this board, but I can see that these instructions would be very surprising to the general population. She says Wavys will have to cut back on how often they shampoo, but she recommends that most curly girls throw out the blow dryer and all their shampoo, and follow a conditioner-only wash routine.

I have been following her routine for Corkscrew and Botticelli curls for 4 days now, so I will briefly outline that one.

WASHING

Stand in the shower "as if you're standing under a waterfall." Resist the urge to scrub your head and disarrange your hair's basic shape. Take a half teaspoon of your conditioner (she does not like 'cones for curly hair) and start rubbing gently at your temples, go under your hair to the top of your head and finish up at the nape. She reassures the reader that the combination of friction, water and conditioner will remove everything that needs to be removed without stressing your scalp or hair.

Take another quarter-sized blob of conditioner and smooth it over the outer layers, the "canopy" of your hair. Take another small blob and gently work it under your hair at the nape. Work another small blob through the hair at each side of your head. Fingercomb through your hair from underneath, and don't worry about losing too much hair, 100 hairs a day is normal. The idea is to distribute the conditioner through the curls so they don't fuse with each other.

She says at this point, your hair should feel almost like "wet seaweed," and eventually you will instinctively know whether or not to rinse the conditioner out. If you do rinse, let the shower spray fall over your head for just a few seconds to evenly distribute the conditioner without removing all of it.

She also included a recipe for a weekly scalp exfoliation scrub, which I tried and liked very much.

1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons conditioner.

Wet your hair, make the paste, apply to scalp and massage in a circular motion starting at nape and moving upward. Rinse thoroughly, then continue with the conditioning step.

DRYING and STYLING

Bend forward, cup your hair loosely in a towel and scrunch upward. Continue all around your head, remembering to treat your hair like a fine sweater.

Take a tablespoon of clear styling gel, rub into your palms, bend over and let your curls fall free. Starting at the ends, scrunch the gel in towards the scalp, using an "accordion" technique. Start scrunching at your nape, work around your head and do the canopy last.

Go to the mirror and start shaping your curls. Push them up, squeeze and scrunch them into shape. Twist them around your finger and clip. If you like the way your hair looks now, you will like the way it looks when your hair is dry. Take another little blob of gel, rub your hands together and gently graze the canopy to minimize frizz.

She also gives a technique to add some height at the crown, involving those small metal rectangular clips, which worked very well for me.

She prefers air-drying, but recommends using a travel blow dryer [it's weaker] and diffuser if you don't have the time.

Now is the hard part, leave your hair alone! Do not touch it for an hour or it will frizz!

When it is dry, fluff and shake your hair from underneath. Don't touch the canopy!

Also included is a routine to freshen your curls if you don't feel like showering or going through the whole routine every morning.

SOME COMMENTS

While I have followed this routine for only four days, I got some impressive results. My scalp is very sensitive, but I have not had any "itchies." This may be because I have washed every morning for the past 4 days [I normally wash about 2x a week]. My hair seems "fluzzier" than normal, but she explains that it will take 2-3 weeks for the hair to get used to this routine. I used GM 60 second conditioner, and aloe vera gel for the scrunching [I know nothing about gels, can anyone recommend a good non-sticky one?]

My hair fell in long ringlets and waves. I pulled the sides back and up with small combs, and while this looked kinda like Paula Jones' hair before her makeover , I could see myself wearing it like this to the once-a-year company dress-up dinner. Another trick I liked was to take a one-inch section from behind each ear, bring it back behind my head and tie in a granny knot! I was surprised that this stayed all day, it controlled my hair and kept it from falling forward in the way all the time [I'm not used to wearing my hair down at all], and the knot was easily undone that night!

VARIATION FOR WAVYs

This sounds alot like Martine's CWC. Wavys may choose to use shampoo, but only once a week. Wet your hair as above. Applying conditioner from mid-shaft to the ends. If you are using shampoo, put half teaspoon (no more) onto fingertips and apply to scalp and roots only, starting at forehead, rinse thoroughly. Add another half teaspoon of conditioner, work into hair with fingers and rinse quickly.

Blot and scrunch as above. Scrunch gel as above. She includes a few more styling tips if you want to encourage more waves or more curls.

HOW TO CUT CURLY HAIR

This chapter was the reason I bought the book. For years now, I have described to stylists how I got my hair cut 20 years ago in Memphis, TN, and they thought I was crazy. Ms. Massey described the technique exactly as I experienced it.

First the customer is seated in the chair with dry hair. The stylist examines the hair carefully, paying attention to every curl; the condition of the canopy, what the hair underneath the canopy is doing, if the left side is curlier than the right etc. Next, the hair is thoroughly wetted, washed with conditioner, scrunched and dried under a heat lamp. Only then are the scissors brought out!

Each curl is "read" separately. Some need only a little trim at the ends to reduce frizz. Curls fall into a natural "S" shape, and "S" shapes are simply "C" shapes reversed and sitting on top of each other. She cuts the curl at the beginning of each "C." Some curls are have a thick and heavy top layer, which weighs down the curl underneath. In this case, she will divide the curl in half, and trim the inner curl shorter in order to support the outer curl and add volume. This leaves the hair with more natural looking ends than what we are used to seeing on straight hairs.

She says in general, it's better for her client to leave the salon upset because her hair is too long rather than too short [!!!]

Ok, I am going to end this now, I have written more than I meant. It is a very interesting book for Curlies and I recommend it highly!

[ps, Ouidad is releasing a book on Curly Hair Care in June 2002, some online bookstores are taking pre-orders now...]

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Oops! Important omission:
I neglected to add an important point in the Curly Girl washing routine..

The author explains that curly hair is much more porous that straight hair, and that the detergents in shampoo are very damaging and hard to completely remove. This is the reason she recommends washing curly hair only with a non-silicone conditioner.

She says while weaning yourself off of shampoo, you may want to wash your scalp with small amounts of conditioner twice a week . Afterwards, you will find you need to wash your scalp with conditioner only once every 7 to 10 days . On non-wash days, simply apply conditioner as described on and under the hair and rinse briefly.

The author claims that the combination of running water and the friction from your fingers is enough to clean your scalp on most days...

The way I wrote it sounded like she meant for Curlies to wash their scalp every day with conditioner, sorry!