Poo-less and conditioner-less for Curly hair??

I have some fairly kinky curly hair that has a mind of it's own and is very particular about what touches it. I have un-intentionally been transitioning to poo-less for years now. I used to think I had to shampoo my hair everyday and that left me with basically a fro I had to tame with a gallon of mousse. I finally realized my hair was happier if I skipped a shampoo here and there. Gradually I have reduced my shampoo usage to maybe once every 1-3 months. At one point in time I attempted the baking soda/vinegar thing and that made my hair feel crazy and impossible to brush.

I guess my main issue is conditioner. I absolutely have to use something or I cannot get a brush through it. I would really like to stop using commercial conditioner though.
I have tried a bunch of diy conditioners but nothing is convenient enough for daily use (I'm not going to mash up an avocado and egg yolk every morning before I shower). Everything Mr. Google tells me about homemade conditioners is for something like an every once in a while deep conditioner. And it's not really conditioning that I am looking for, it's detangling that's an issue. And not brushing just leaves my hair a mess, I think the brushing actually realigns the curls or something.

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone out there has curly hair and has successfully stopped using conditioner?? I would also love to hear about anything you do to care for your curly hair. Seems that everyone has a different routine and what works for some curls doesn't work for others...

Hi. I rarely if ever use shampoo and have never used conditioner. I have curly hair unless I comb it straight, then it becomes an annoying mess.
Just let the natural oils in your hair take care of itself or use almond or jojoba oil.
I swim a lot (in the sea) also wear hats to keep my head warm. My hairs a mess, I just live with it, it's been untameable all my life. I thought about using beer but that requires forethought.
A crewcut was my best solution. I think I'm a bit old for that now. A scarf may be?

Unfortunately, I have an office job and need to look semi-professional :/ Otherwise I wouldn't bother with it. I actually usually throw it up in a pony tail the second I get in my car to go home and I keep it up through the weekend. And it is waaay too hot here to wear anything on my head. My hair alone feels like I have a wool blanket on my head in the 95 degree weather.
I do put some coconut oil in it occasionally but if I'm not careful, it ends up looking like a greasy mess. It does help quite a bit with the frizzies when I don't put too much in though. I think I'll try the Jojoba oil though, that should soak in better than the coconut oil...

Abbey Battle wrote:Hi. I rarely if ever use shampoo and have never used conditioner. I have curly hair unless I comb it straight, then it becomes an annoying mess.
Just let the natural oils in your hair take care of itself or use almond or jojoba oil.

I also almost never use shampoo or conditioner. I have long coarse and curly hair and I used to use 'anti-frizz' everything and all I had was massive amounts of frizz and embarrassment.
Now I have a different approach.
I comb it in the shower first with my fingers and then with a widely spaced comb, no shampoo or conditioner, just water. (combing with the fingers first is key if you don't like crying)
After the shower I spray some kind of oil into it, I don't recall specifically what brand, but it is from the local 'superstore' so I will assume that it is low quality and it certainly is low priced.
After the oil, I comb it with a finer comb and then walk away. It dries on it's own and I get no frizz at all, just curls. I can go camping for a weekend and when I get home, still no frizz. The less I do to fight the frizziness, the more I win.

If I do use shampoo or conditioner, I get a couple days of less than satisfactory hair conditions. For reference my hair isn't shoulder length, it is booby length.

I should have also said that I don't necessarily add oil every day, just when I seem to need it.

Miranda Converse wrote:I have some fairly kinky curly hair that has a mind of it's own and is very particular about what touches it. I have un-intentionally been transitioning to poo-less for years now. I used to think I had to shampoo my hair everyday and that left me with basically a fro I had to tame with a gallon of mousse. I finally realized my hair was happier if I skipped a shampoo here and there. Gradually I have reduced my shampoo usage to maybe once every 1-3 months. At one point in time I attempted the baking soda/vinegar thing and that made my hair feel crazy and impossible to brush.

I guess my main issue is conditioner. I absolutely have to use something or I cannot get a brush through it. I would really like to stop using commercial conditioner though.
I have tried a bunch of diy conditioners but nothing is convenient enough for daily use (I'm not going to mash up an avocado and egg yolk every morning before I shower). Everything Mr. Google tells me about homemade conditioners is for something like an every once in a while deep conditioner. And it's not really conditioning that I am looking for, it's detangling that's an issue. And not brushing just leaves my hair a mess, I think the brushing actually realigns the curls or something.

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone out there has curly hair and has successfully stopped using conditioner?? I would also love to hear about anything you do to care for your curly hair. Seems that everyone has a different routine and what works for some curls doesn't work for others...

How do you handle your hair when you don't shampoo? Just a rinse? How do you dry it?

My daughter has hair similar to what you are describing. For her, I just rinse once every couple days. No rough towel dry though. Only a gentle squeeze then it is much easier to comb.

The way I understand, curly hair is flat instead of round and tends to have a rougher cuticle. Point being, if you rough it up when you dry you are creating more tangles.

If you do happen to come up with a good detangler I would love to hear about it

The way I handle my hair when I don't shampoo (which is almost always now) is to just rinse and I use a terry cloth towel but I don't rough my hair up with it, usually just flip my head and twist the towel around my hair to make a towel hat (you know what I mean). I leave the towel on for maybe 20 seconds and take it out. Then just brush and scrunch a tiny bit of gel into it.

I made a detangler out of marshmallow root that actually worked really well. Only issue with that is there are no preservatives so it will get funky fairly quickly. I used that for a little while without conditioning or shampooing and I was able to brush my hair no problem. Now, I can brush my hair pretty easily even without using it. The problem I am having now is what seems like a waxy buildup. It's weird, it only feels waxy while it is wet, once it's dry it feels pretty normal and healthier even. It makes it difficult to do anything with my hair while it's wet though, I can't braid it because all my hair seems to stick to itself. I guess it could be greasy, I've always had dry hair so I have no idea.

Left alone, my hair becomes a flat-top floppy afro.   I don't cut it because I need the length to pull it out of the way.  If it is too short to pull into a pony tail,  it creates a sauna on the back of my neck and head.

My anti-tangle method is technique - not a chemical.   And it probably will be rejected by most.

I run a comb through my hair and get the tangles out just before washing it.   I wash it while sitting on a stool and leaning over a tin washtub setting on a 5-gallon bucket in front of me.   I put about 2 quarts of warm warm baking soda water in the washtub and ladle it over my head until it is fully saturated.   Then, I run a comb through it again while in that position.   I wrap a towel around it to get it towel dry, then comb it again - pulling it into a pony tail & then into a bun held in place by an elastic.  I don't rinse with pure water.   The water that remains goes into squirt bottles that I use for bidet water.

This has solved my tangle issues completely.   The fact that my hair is not stripped of natural oils probably acts as a conditioner on its own.  

Once in bun - I leave it alone until the next washing.  I have found that combing it between washing causes it to aggressively tangle.   I pull out the elastic and re-gather it into the ponytail/bun - a comb goes no where near it between washings. I know some people go a full week between washings, but I cannot stand the smell of stinky scalp.   In the winter I can leave it alone for up to 5 days, but in the summer the longest  I go is 3 days.

I am not big on fashion, so my hairstyle is whatever is convenient for me, not what looks good to someone else.   They have my permission and blessing to look away if the sight of me hurts them.

I have curly hair - soft, loose ringlets - the fragile type that quickly turn to frizz in the wind, and I have used conditioner only on it for years; no shampoo and never a comb or brush. The only time it gets combed is at the hair dresser's, and then it takes a few days for the curls to recover from that torment.

The conditioner I use is a coconut one for dry hair by Dessert Essence. Partly, but not 100% organic. The label claims that it does not contain any parabens, sulfates, phthalates, artificial colours, silicones, EDTA, glycol or any petroleum-based ingredients.

I read the book, Curly Girl, The Handbook, by Lorraine Massey about 6 years ago and it has completely changed my hair care routine. Lorraine addresses the different curl types and how to care for each of them. It has a few natural recipes to try out too, if you want, but they aren't necessary. You may find this book helpful. Maybe your library has a copy.

Good luck finding something that works for you.

Have you tried diluting ACV and using it as a rinse? Don't rinse it out. Calms my tangles and makes my hair shiny. The smell is gone by the time your hair dries.

Sue, do you condition your hair every day? If not, how often do you condition it?  I find that I can very easily over-condition mine and it gets weird, almost stretchy like.  Then the curls don't form very well, even though it is soft, it doesn't look good at all.

I did recently buy a bottle of coconut conditioner that sounds like what you are describing (free of all the junk) but I can't recall the brand name.  I've only used it a couple times so far and that was mostly because I used henna in my hair and was trying desperately to wash it out without using shampoo. So I can't really judge how well the conditioner works so far...

I'll see if I can find that book, sounds interesting!

Liz,  I did try ACV a while back when I attempted using the baking soda method.  I may try it again without the baking soda.  I had a hard time getting it on my hair evenly without using a ton, I may just get a spray bottle to make it easier...

We always used an old dishwashing liquid bottle with the squirt top to apply it. Remember to dilute well. I think it's a tablespoon vinegar to a cup of water. Same dilution rate for a spray bottle and they say it even works on dry hair.

Do you blow dry your hair? I found out that blow drying made mine tangle more. I stopped blow drying, it didn't tangle as much.

I condition every time I cleanse. Every 2 or 3 days. I say cleanse because I use the conditioner for "shampooing" too. I slide conditioner dipped, splayed out fingers in at the root and cleanse just my scalp, not the whole strand. Then I add more conditioner at the vanity and actually leave it in. I use a diffuser on the hair drier set on medium heat, low air. It took me several weeks of trial and error to find the amount that works on my particular hair type, and I'm sure I will continue to learn as I go grey. Not everyone is the same as you know. You can search for YouTube videos of the Curly Girl method to get the gist of it while you look for the book.

Oh no, I only blow dry my hair if I plan on straightening it, which is only maybe once or twice a year for special occasions.  The second a hair dryer touches my hair, it turns into a fro, even with a diffuser (trust me, many hairdressers have tried).

I actually believe I already follow the curly girl method for the most part. I do brush my hair whenever I get out of the shower, it's the only way I have found that realigns the curls. Otherwise they look like a very poor version of dreadlocks when it dries. And I probably cowash less than most, it varies but I would say I only do it once a month or so.  And it always takes my hair a couple days to get back to normal after I wash it in any way with anything more than water.  I would love to get to a point where I can skip the conditioner altogether but sometimes it just needs something more than water...

It sounds like you really know what works for you. I hope you find a way to resolve your quest.

It's taken me a few years to figure out a system for my curly/wavy, thick, and very frizzy hair.  At least twice a week, or more if my hair becomes a tangled mess, I use diluted apple cider vinegar with warm water, let it sit for a few minutes and then use my fingers to detangle.  If the tangles are bad, I'll do it under running water.  I sometimes add honey to the mix or just do a honey warm water mix on my head for about 10 minutes before getting my hair wet.  the ACV works as a great detangler and the honey really makes my hair shiny.

When I need my hair to look fancy and curly, I use a small amount of coconut oil in the shower, let it sit for a minute and then rinse with pretty warm water.  I use to put the coconut oil in my hair after I showered but it didn't spread evenly and made it look to greasy so using the warm water to rinse and spread has been a game changer, giving my curls more definition and shine.  If my hair ever is really oily or feels dirty or itchy, I'll put baking soda and water on for a few minutes before my ACV concoction.  

Still experimenting with putting other stuff on my hair, usually whatever I have lying around in the kitchen just to see if I like it.