Haircare: The mistakes most of us are making when conditioning our hair

Jody Coffey

If you’re like me, washing your hair is a place of refuge where you switch off your brain and tune out the world.

I often go into a state of meditation while washing, rinsing, and repeating, and follow the motions of hair washing on autopilot.

However, there is actually a knack to it that we should maybe be paying closer attention to and following if we want to get the best results out of our conditioner.

The most obvious one is never to skip the conditioner step in post-shampoo. This may seem pretty straightforward, but apparently it is one some people put on the back burner.

Speaking to Glamour, Jenna Spin, hairstylist at Chicago’s Maxine Salon, says skipping on the conditioner can have some unwanted hair consequences.

“I would never skip the conditioner when shampooing my locks. Many people think conditioner will make their hair flat, but even those with fine hair need a little conditioner, even if it’s just on the the ends.”

Jenna’s reasoning for this is that shampoo does its role by removing dirt and grease, but while doing so, it ‘strips the hair’ of its natural oils, the ones responsible for keeping our hair moisturised. So, ensuring the conditioning part is ticked off the list will give our locks the hydration it needs.

The next conditioning woe—one I am hugely guilty of—is applying the conditioner when it is wringing wet.

Hairstylist and L’Oréal professional global ambassador Min Kim told the outlet that we should be squeezing out water before getting into conditioning.

According to Min, here’s why: “Hair is a fibre; squeezing out the excess water before applying conditioner allows the conditioner to penetrate instead of rolling off hair that’s saturated with water.”

Okay. So, you’ve stuck around in the shower long enough to squeeze out the water from your tresses and therefore prepped it for conditioner. What’s next and where? Well, anywhere from the mid-lengths to the ends.

Avoiding the roots is key if you want to get the most out of your hair washing because applying to the roots is “unnecessary as this is newer hair that doesn’t require conditioning, unless you’re naturally curly, and can leave hair feeling flat especially if you’re on the fine side,” Kim explains.

Celebrity hairstylist Marc Mena shares the same sentiment as Kim and warns that your skin can also reap the misfortunes if you apply conditioner directly to the roots.

“It makes your hair and scalp greasy, and let’s say you’re using a conditioner that has silicone in it; it starts to drip into your skin, clogs your pores, and can cause breakouts on your back and skin,” he says.

“And after a while, using too much conditioner in the scalp increases buildup, clogs your hair follicles, and can cause hair loss.”

Yikes.

So you’re coming towards the end of your showering session, but there is one final box to check off before you step out.

Spino notes another common error we may be making, and that is not rinsing out the conditioner properly, undoing all of our hard work.

Rinsing thoroughly will avoid your tresses being left feeling greasy and flat once it’s been dried (arguably the biggest hardship of the entire hair washing process).

The rule of thumb, she says, is to check that the slippery texture and feeling of conditioner are completely gone before towelling up.