Why would you skip shampoo and just use conditioner? It’s been trending around for awhile now, and so far it hasn’t gone away. Is the conditioner-only wash for you?

Shampoo – even gentle shampoo – contains chemicals that dry out your hair. Shampoo cleans the unwanted dirt and oil out of your hair, but it also strips your hair of the oils that it needs. That means that your hair gets dried out and your scalp works overtime trying to produce more oils to make up for the ones that are missing.

The idea behind conditioner-only washing is that you eliminate those chemicals that strip your hair and just add moisture. Complete elimination of shampoo doesn’t work for everyone, but it does work for some people. Here are some steps and options for cutting down on the ‘poo.

First, don’t go off shampoo cold turkey. Your hair will be greasy and gross (which may happen a little bit, but not as much if you ease into it). Start by not using shampoo a couple of times a week and just washing with conditioner. You might also try not washing your hair every day when you do this.

When you wash with conditioner only, you can either wash your hair with just water and then follow it up with conditioner as usual, or you can scrub your hair with conditioner and follow it up with moisturizing conditioner.

When you wash your hair with conditioner, start with a wet head. Use plenty of conditioner. You’ll want to scrub your scalp with your fingers – probably harder than you would with shampoo, since there’s no lather to help you along.

Make sure that you rinse very thoroughly. Conditioner can build up in your hair and attract more dirt if you don’t make sure to get your hair really clean.

If you need to shampoo once a week or so to really get a deep clean, it shouldn’t mess up your goals. This is common with this kind of cleaning.

This probably isn’t for everyone, but for people with dry and damaged hair (especially anyone who regularly uses heat styling) it can really help to restore your hair to something softer and healthier.