Why we don’t recommend co-washing

Co-washing, also known as the no-poo method, is when you’re washing your hair with a conditioner instead of your standard shampoo product. A practice that is common in the curly, natural hair community and among people who are trying to manage damaged hair. Do we recommend this method, the short answer is, no. We’ll explain why, and what you can do instead. Let’s get into it!

Why we don’t recommend co-washing

Co-washing means you’re trying to clean oil and dirt…with more oil. While there are some cleansing surfactants in co-wash products, they are just not enough to really clean your hair, and most importantly your scalp.

Shampoo draws itself to dirt and oil to remove them from your scalp and hair. This is a critical step in your hair care routine to ensure that you don’t suffer from any scalp buildup and buildup of product on your hair which can lead to other issues. More about this in our scalp build up article which you can find here

Washing your hair and scalp is equivalent to washing your body. I’m not going to apply an oil to my body and consider it a ‘shower’, the same applies to your hair wash routine.

What you can do instead

If you’re looking for a shampoo with gentler cleansing surfactants, then look for the following ingredients:

Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate

Cocamidopropyl betaine

Sodium C14-C16 Olefinsulfonate

Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate

Coco Glucoside

“But I’ve been co-washing for ages, and it works fine for me”

If it is working fine for you then ok, but I would encourage you to clarify your hair 1-2 times a month, to make sure you’re removing buildup.

The other thing to consider is sometimes damage takes a long time to come to light. So, let’s say you’ve hopped on the co-wash train and have been doing so for a few weeks or months, and you feel like your hair and scalp are coping fine. The damage from this practice might be realized much later.

Do you co-wash? Have you tried it? Let us know in the comments