Extra Special Something for Growing Long Hair

There are a lot of things I've been doing differently since I discovered better hair care, but for me, the "extra special something" is something that I gave up - I no longer use shampoo on my hair. I condition with a light conditioner, scalp massage, then use a moisturizing conditioner and a silicone conditioner one after another. That is what i think has made the most difference.

This past April, my hair was past my waist, but the ends were thin down to nothing. Now I've had 4" of trim, and it's growing in thicker than ever, and totally healthy. Tangles are way down. The ends could be thicker, but you have to look really carefully to see this.

Eventually, I'm going to go back to trimming, as I'd like the ends to be as thick as the hair at the top of my ponytail. Right now, I've no urge to trim, so it'll wait at least until I reach classic.

Thank You eKatherine and AnaisSatin for replying to my post. Both of you ladies have beautiful hair and that "Extra Special Something" that you have been doing DEFINANTLY shows!!!! You both said that you gave up on shampoo for your hair and you only do conditioning routines now. Please educate me on the reason's for avoiding the shampoo process and why the conditioners seem's to be essential. I would also like to know what conditioner hair products you prefer and where I can purchase them. I'am always looking for ways of achieving better hair health and improvment.

Way back when, I grew my hair long. During this period of time, I used a combination shampoo/conditioner or Head and Shoulders. When it reached a certain length, I started braiding it, and would wear it in that braid until the next wash. This was my whole hair-care regimen. Eventually my hair reached my knees, by which time I was sick of being saddled with a long-unfashionable braid, and I chopped it.

More recently, I was shampooing my hair two times a week, either applying a separate conditioner in the winter, when the air is dry, or a combination shampoo/conditioner in the summer. My hair would get just past my elbow, but the ends always looked damaged and thin. A trim would look good for a week or two.

Then, in April of this year I discovered long hair boards. I was amazed to read "hair journals" written by women who spoke about "goals", or hair growth as a "struggle" or "journey". For me, growing long hair had always been a default situation. It just happened if I did nothing.

I read about CO (Conditioner Only) wash on these boards, and also an article that described how shampoo is designed to strip the hair because Americans expect hair to be cleaner than clean. At least partly because I like to test out weird things I decided to try it.

The first time I tried, I used something I had in the shower (a VO5 product), which left my hair feeling greasy but dry. I decided to give it another shot, this time buying VO5 Kiwi-Lime, which many women were using successfully. It got my hair clean, but made my scalp break out, so i abandoned it after a couple of weeks.

White Rain Extra Body conditioner was also highly recommended, but I was unable to find it at the time. So based on the name only I purchased Suave Daily Clarifying conditioner, which it turns out works well for this purpose. Since that time I have found White Rain Extra Body, and have also had success with VO5 Free Me Freesia and VO5 Hydrators.

It is very important to buy the exact conditioner. All of these brands make unsuitable products.

All of these brands are cheap. I think cheap conditioners are better as cleaning conditioners than expensive ones. You expect expensive ones to leave a residue - that's what you're paying all that extra money for!

Also, I found it helpful to dilute the thicker ones to help them penetrate. And you do need to scrub longer when using conditioner than you would with shampoo.

I eventually decided that the ideal would be to use a light conditioner to wash, a moisturizing conditioner, and then a finishing conditioner. So here's what I currently do:

I wet the hair with 1/2 cup vinegar dissolved in a quart of water to remove any buildup (I never get buildup, and I attribute it to this step).

I wash my whole length once with the cleansing conditioner I'm in the mood for.

Then I do the scalp again, scrubbing vigorously to remove any gunky skin buildup that used to bother me.

I then apply Elasta QP Intense (bought online from Texas Beauty Supply), a conditioner intended for use on damaged African-American hair. I leave it for a few minutes.

I gunk on Hollywood Beauty Carrot Cholesterol. I leave that for a few minutes, then rinse it out

I slick on Pantene Pro-V, which makes my hair slippery, shiny, coarser-feeling and untangly. While the hair is rinsing, I comb through with a wide-tooth comb. When I'm done with my shower, I squeege out water from my hair alternately with combing again. In about 5 minute my hair is dry enough that it's no longer dripping.

I put my hair up in a giant towel for about 10 minutes. After taking it down, I put a couple of drops of jojoba on my fingertips, rub my hands a bit to distribute, then work it into the ends. I then bend over so my hair goes forwards and work the jojoba into the hair at my nape, where I have maximum damage.

I usually go to bed with my hair still damp on the nights I shower, but this doesn't cause a problem for me. I just toss the hair over the pillow, down the head of the bed and it hangs, regardless of how much I toss and turn.

Hi LongBraidz,

Not meaning to advise, just sharing my take on shampoo... I need to use the stuff, but I dilute it with water in a clear plastic bottle. I use a mixture of anywhere from 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce of shampoo diluted with 5-6 ounces of water (approximate measures), swishing the mix (not shaking - that would make foam in the bottle). And I wash my hair about once every 5 days. This way the shampoo does not strip all of the oil from the hair, but just gets rid of the excess.

Also, my medium-fine hair does not like heavy doses of -cones in conditioners.

Lately I've been mostly using Phytojoba shampoo and alternating between Biolage conditioning balm and EP deep conditioner. Will probably change the routine in a month or two.

Longbraidz, I have very thick hair as well, although that probably has little to do with CO results. I tried CO a few months ago and it was a total disaster for me.. my scalp apparently produces a lot of gunk that can't be removed by CO. Otherwise CO would have been my first choice because it's a heck of a lot cheaper in the long run than s/c or CWC. so... I borrowed Dave's dilute-the-shampoo technique and went on my way....:)

Anais

I am a “long hair in progress” so I follow these threads to learn!

I also had the CO disaster, switched to the diluted shampoo method and it works wonderfully! I think like Anais said, I think my scalp also produces too much gunk (not surprising considering how oily my face is including related pore problems).
It is nice to see that my results were not all that weird.

Thank you LongBraidz for starting this very informative thread!!!

I have a foolish question, Dave (or anyone else who knows).

What is EP Deep Conditioner?

TIA,

strawberryfine

may i ask what the first c and second c are?
tobi

AnaisSatin wrote: Thanks Longbraidz! Actually my CWC routine does involve shampoo as the "wash" step, but it's a gentle one (not the Pert Plus I used as a shorthair!) My conditioners (V05 Tangerine for the first C, Suave BioBasics for the second C) probably wouldn't work EXACTLY the same way for you because I have an unusual mixed-race hair type. I think eKatherine or other longhairs are more likely to have a type like yours. I think the Longhair theory is that conditioners do have a small amount of cleansers... and the moisturizing compounds further dissolve the oils and gunky stuff... eKatherine's done a lot more research on CO(conditioner only) washing so... we need her help here! :) Anais