Co-Washing, AKA washing your hair with ONLY conditioner

What It Is
It's pretty self explanatory, washing your hair with only conditioner. That's right, no shampoo.

What It Does
It cleans your hair gently, leaving your scalp and hair less stripped of moisture. It may not be enough to get out super sticky styling products but it will wash out almost everything. Yes, it really does clean your hair just fine.

Who Should Try It?
It is most popular with people that have curly hair and chemically processed hair. I would recommend it to anyone concerned with dryness, brittleness, and/or breakage. Some people that struggle with greasy hair found relief co-washing so it might be worth a try for those that struggle with oil. It may not be best for certain scalp conditions that require medicated shampoo. As someone that struggles with hereditary scalp eczema I found co-washing has alleviated a lot of my symptoms. Those will dyed hair will likely love it because NOTHING (aside from not washing at all) comes close to the co-wash's color saving power.

Products
There are a lot of products on the market specifically marketed as cleansing conditioners. They're really not that special and you can cleanse with just about any conditioner. The only thing I recommend avoiding is silicones. A conditioner that contains silicones will cause build up and will make your hair feel heavy, dirty and gross if not washed out with shampoo... which is what we are trying to avoid. Many so-called cleansing conditioners are full of silicones. Many cleansing conditioners will also tell you to use a ton of product, "30-50 pumps" every freakin' wash. Aw hell naw, don't buy into that crap and use just enough to completely coat your hair. Just work it in, leave it in a few minutes if it has penetrating natural oils, then rinse it out.

I suggest experimenting with different conditioners until you find one (or more) that you like for cleansing. You can also cleanse with one conditioner and then condition with another more moisturizing conditioner afterward.

Co-Washing Favorites
Suave Tropical Coconut 
It's not super moisturizing but does a great job for cleansing. It's silicone free and super inexpensive. The consistency is a bit runny so it's easy to work into your hair and scalp. For me, I need to follow with a more moisturizing conditioner.

Tresemme Naturals
Another inexpensive silicone free conditioner. I find this more moisturizing than the Suave one.

L'Oreal EverCreme Cleansing Conditioner
If you can find it (it's been discontinued) grab it! The only place I still find it at is Harmon's. This is my favorite cleansing conditioner. For me this product works as a single step, I don't need to moisturize afterward. I also don't need to add any anti-frizz serums or leave in conditioners afterward. It cleanses beautifully, removes any and all stubborn styling products and whatever else gets stuck in my hair. Also it totally restores my hair after it's been bleached. SO SO SO annoyed it's been discontinued. The only negatives I have to say about this (other than it not being available) is how little product you got for the price.

As I Am Coconut CoWash
Very easy to work into your hair due to the slightly runny consistency, similar to the Suave product. This stuff is very moisturizing and I like to leave it on for 20 minutes as a deep conditioner. This is a really nice product and is particularly recommended for those with curly hair or chemically processed hair. Never had any issues with buildup with this product.

EDEN BodyWorks Coconut Shae CoWash
This product is pretty similar to the As I Am product. If you like shea products for your hair you'll probably like this. For me shea is a bit heavy and caused some buildup.

EDEN BodyWorks Peppermint Tea Tree Conditioner
THIS is my go-to for my scalp eczema! This stuff is amazing. It's insanely moisturizing though and may be way too heavy for most hair. I love the minty scent and the tingling sensation on my scalp, but most of all I love that I gets rid of my crusty patches. While it is heavy, it's oil based and doesn't cause buildup. It may leave you with greasy feeling hair if you don't thoroughly rinse. With thorough rinsing, this oil based conditioner does a great job removing styling products.

small update...

 No, I'm not dead LOL! Haven't had much time for blogging. I started a new full time job in January, went down to part time at my old job and started hitting the gym so I haven't had much free time.


My hair is currently Adore Neon Pink, Adore Sunrise Orange and a little Manic Panic Electric Banana. I'm really loving Neon Pink and having pink hair again. People are nicer to me when my hair is pink than when it is orange. >_> 



I have not been doing anything remotely interesting with makeup. Boring cat eye, but it's classic and looks good.

I bought these Superga 2750 leopard print sneakers last month. I love them! They're very comfy but holy foot sweat, Batman... these are full on furry (go ahead, pet them) leather and don't breathe at all.


Currently I have a bad cold. It's nearly 90 degree weather so being sick is really obnoxious. Hot tea makes my throat feel better but it's just not what you want when you're sweating. Wake me up when it's October! It's been in the high 80s since the first week of may which is really abnormal for the Northeastern US. I loathe shorts and love jackets so I always hate hot weather, I never feel like I look good. I think I'll just suffer the heat in pants all year rather than risk blinding someone with my snow white thighs!

updaaaate

I started a new job over the summer and it's sucking the life out of me. Basically my life is this: wake up, get dressed, go to work for 10 hours, come home and eat dinner, shower, go to bed. My work commute is long and just adds to the exhaustion.

Now I am job hunting, trying to find something closer to home with a more steady schedule so I can have some sort of life outside work. This unfortunately means I have to tone down my hair. I got rid of the pink at the end of summer by fading it and applying Manic Panic Electric Lava which gave me a lovely orange ombre and I would've left it alone if I wasn't trying to find a new job.

Any way, I wanted to stick with red and wanted it to still be bright. I took my inspiration from L'oreal Feria Mango Intense Copper. I'm allergic to PPD used in permanent dyes (and did not want the extra damage) so I could not actually use the Feria dye. I created a similar shade with Adore colors. I used Ginger, Orange Blaze and Paprika. Next time I dye I will use less Orange Blaze and Ginger and more Paprika because it took 3 attempts to get it to look more brown and less traffic cone orange.

The color on the Feria box looks more muted than pictures of it on hair, a quick google search shows how bright it is.

Conair You Curl and Garnier Wonder Waves

Recently picked up the purple Conair You Curl curling wand. I never ever ever curl my hair because every attempt usually winds up as a big fat fail! I just can't do the right side of my head with a curling iron or a straightener so this curling wand thing was my final attempt at having curls/ waves. (I also have those bendy foam stick things to curl with out heat but they are super uncomfortable to sleep in and give me large tight curls that make my hair shoulder length.)

As you can see, I am totally able to use the You Curl! I will do a proper review of this thing after vacation, one with pictures of the product and all LOL. I can't guarantee you will see pictures of me using it since I haven't mastered taking a photo on my phone with my foot, but there will be before and afters at least.

The styling product I use to hold the curl is Garnier Wonder Waves. It holds them really well but I don't like how it makes my hair feel. My hair gets dry and kind of crunchy and I have to wash it out at the end of the day. If I sleep with it in my hair gets tangled very badly. Ugh, but NOTHING else seems to hold curls for me. Well, at least my hair looks soft.

Hair Dye Primer

This is going to be a brief explanation of the different kinds of hair dye- semi, demi, and permanent. The terms are often confusing and can cause people to choose the wrong dye.

Ombre Hair

Been working towards lighter ends and making a red-orange-yellow ombre instead of going Napalm Orange. Special Effects STILL is not producing or shipping colors regularly. I make my own neon orange by mixing Sparks Orange, Sparks Yellow and N'Rage Bubble Gum Pink.

I'm not sure my ends will be able to go as light as I'd like due to the hair being old and possible staining from all the red and orange dyes used previously. They are down from a level 4 to about a level 7 now so I think that's pretty good.

OOTD: Spikes, Studs and a Skull

Finally got a day where the sun was out, it was warm and the wind wasn't enough to knock me over. I was beginning to think winter was never going to end! The goth look isn't always easy to pull off in warm weather but I've added some more sun friendly pieces,

The flowy tank top is from H&M, Shorts are from Infectious Threads, tights are Leg Avenue and boots are from GoJane.

I love these tights to death but they are humongous on me, I can pull them all the way up and over my boobs! The joys of being short...


I love my Demonia Riot 20s but knee high boots are best left to cooler weather.

These pleather shorts are not going to be the most comfortable once it really starts getting warm but they're great for spring. The studs are actually sewn on like buttons rather than having little prongs on the other side that inevitably come up and stab you. The button broke the first time I wore them but I put a new one on.

I got these boots from GoJane when they sent me a 40% off coupon. I think I paid about $22 for them. They are not great quality but they are comfortable at least. I replaced the shitty laces they came with with regular flat laces so they stay tied. The soles of these leave a lot to be desired, there is little tread and they don't grip well. I have to be careful walking on smooth tile floors because I slide around as if I were wearing socks.

I also wore my bird skull necklace. I bought this years ago off Etsy and I don't remember the seller's name. These bird skull charms are pretty generic though.

I do like that this one has a decent chain and has a more natural bone color than some of the other bird skull necklaces I've seen around.