Lately I've been seeing various blogs posting about this new beauty trend called "Reverse Shampooing." It's a new trend in which you put conditioner in your hair first, and after letting it sit between 3 and 5 minutes and without rinsing it out, you then wash your hair with shampoo. Now, I know this sounds crazy, right? The claim is that it is especially beneficial for those of us unlucky enough to be blessed with thin hair that needs to be washed every day. I'm one of the unlucky ones that literally has to wash my hair every single morning. Dry shampoo doesn't even cut it for me, all it does is make is weighed down, tangled, and look extremely dull. That's why I decided to try out this new trend.
Now to begin with, I started using a new haircare line, OGX thick and full shampoo and conditioner. This line is supposed to help thin hair look fuller and have more body throughout the day. Since I was trying a new line, I wanted to try the traditional way of washing hair before I tried reverse shampooing so I could compare the differences.
With regular washing, my hair is always extremely easy to brush out after the shower thanks to the conditioner. However, with this hair care line, I noticed that while my hair felt thicker, it seemed extremely weighed down and my hair would actually have more oil than usual which really bothered me. It looked even worse by the next morning and my hair just felt like a huge mess and washing it became a pain in the ass. So really my hair was only doing having of what it was supposed to with the new shampoo and conditioner, more "thickness" without the added body.
After about a week of trying traditional washing and dealing with gross hair, I switched to reverse shampooing. Now I did lots of research on it before I did it because I wanted to do it the right way. Everything I read said your hair needs to be completely saturated with water (you can wring out the excess water first) before you put in the conditioner. While you let the conditioner sit for a few minutes, go about your daily shower routine: body wash, face wash, shave, whatever you do. The really important step is that you do not rinse out the conditioner. I splash a little bit of water on my head just to make it easier to put the shampoo in. Then you put a little shampoo in your hands, you really don't need a lot since there is slippery conditioner in your hair already. The point of the shampoo is to literally "wash" the conditioner out of your hair. With the conditioner in your hair, it is protecting the natural oils your hair has from the shampoo, while the shampoo is pulling out the weighted conditioner that weighs down your hair all day.
The worst part I've had with reverse shampooing is how much more difficult it is to brush my hair after the shower, it is super tangled. However, my hair is shinier throughout the day, has more body, and is cleaner the next day than is was with traditional washing. The important thing to note when considering trying traditional washing is to know your hair type and how your hair works. For people with thicker or dry hair, it seems like reverse shampooing works if you add another conditioner round after shampooing out the conditioner and rinsing— just helps with moisture if you need a little more.
Overall, I really like reverse shampooing and I plan on keeping it in my regular shower routine. My advice for anyone looking to try this beauty trend: do your research. It works best with different hair types and even different lines of shampoo and conditioner, so you may have to play around with it a little bit. Happy hunting and washing, my beauty friends!
