Blogging from A to Z challenge: C is for Conditioner-based washing methods

Yesterday I mentioned blogging as one of the best tips I ever encountered when it came to growing out my hair. I think there were three really important tips I learned and valued very quickly:

1. Blogging
2. Conditioner-based washing methods
3. And the last one I will reveal on the 14th

Having sensitive skin, using conditioner to wash with always made a lot of sense to me. It's so much more gentle on your hair and scalp and with the right emulsifiers (And some practice and trial and error), it's just as good as cleaning as shampoo. Just without that dry and stripped feeling. 

I started off with CWC. Conditioning the ends to protect them from shampoo, shampooing the scalp and finally conditioning everything. Then I started working towards CO, conditioner only. I knew it would be a process and it probably took me more than a year to transition from having to shampoo 2-3 times a week to shampooing maybe 1-2 a year. It wasn't easy. Often I wanted to give up. My scalp took forever to realize I had stopped trying to strip it from it's natural oils and it was often greasy and unhappy. But eventually it stopped overproducing oils. It was worth the process. 

If I could CO all the other skin on my body, I would. 

(Yes, I actually tried. Yes, it was every bit as nasty and regrettable as it sounds)

Here's a bit of math:

Say I used to shampoo twice a week just to take the low end number. Say I used to keep the shampoo on my hair and scalp for five minutes at the time.

5 x 2 x 52 = 520 minutes of marinating my hair and scalp in shampoo in a year. 

520 / 60 = 8,6666... Hours in a year. 

We can multiply it with the age of my hair... Uhm, probably 15 years or so at the ends?

That would mean my ends should have been exposed to 130 hours of shampoo, or almost five and a half days straight of being dipped in shampoo.

These things add up. I doubt I could have grown my hair to the state it's in if I hadn't gone shampoo free. Long, healthy hair is all about building solid, healthy habits.