Incidentally, I can’t decide if I hate people who shave in the shower or if I’m just insanely jealous. I’m extremely nearsighted so me shaving in the shower without my glasses on would result in Psycho happening on a regular basis in my bathroom.
Regarding the OP, I leave the conditioner in, but I also wash my hair every other day, especially in the winter. I put a dry conditioner (basically spray-powder for those of you who don’t know) in my hair on the no-wash days and I have to shampoo twice to get it all out. Conditioner gets everything back to status quo.
lol. I wish. The best “dessicant” shampoo I’ve found is this weird stuffthat promises curly hair. It does not, in fact, curl your hair. But it does make my hair feel drier, as in, less gunky oily so fast. I use it for that reason, not for any curl (which, again, is does NOT do.) I use conditioner on the “fall” of hair - the part that isn’t on my scap, because if I don’t, it tangles something fierce. But I don’t use conditioner on the part of my hair up against the scalp.
The first wave of “what can we sell 'em besides shampoo?” was “cream rinse.” Around the time when it was being advertised into our consciousness my uncle worked for Proctor and Gamble and at that time he shared that he’d learned in a product meeting that the only difference between the formula for Prell Cream Rinse and that for Bounty fabric softener was the fragrance.
I know that R&D in the intervening years has made the products quite different. I shared this only to illustrate why I think of conditioner as fabric softener for the hair, even though “moisturizer for the hair” is more accurate.
Before there was conditioner (or cream rinse) that stayed in the shower my sister and I would get our hair shampooed and then our mom would comb through the snarls with “No More Tangles”, which I guess in today’s terms would be a leave-in conditioner.
Like Rhiannon8404 (or possibly because of, I’m pretty sure I first learned of the idea on these boards) I no longer use shampoo. I comb conditioner through and then take care of getting the rest of me clean before rinsing it out. I don’t know if it makes a lick of difference as opposed to applying it and rinsing right away.
How long is your hair? Conditioner is (generally speaking) used for hair that isn’t near the scalp itself. If I had hair that didn’t go “past” my head (so the longest pieces still fell along my head instead of down my neck/back or hung in space), I probably wouldn’t bother with conditioner.
Hair that’s close to the scalp will get conditioned naturally by the oil the scalp produces. But the length of the hair won’t benefit from that oil unless you wait a reallllly long time between washes or if your hair is super super oily.
I’m extremely nearsighted, too, but I always shave in the shower with no cuts at all. I just make sure to always always ALWAYS move the razor perpendicular to the blades – IME, nicks and cuts happen when the razor is pulled at a non-90° angle, because the blades can then potentially do their blade-y job and start to slice.
I don’t believe it ‘repairs’ the hair in any sense; at best it might stick fractured hairs together for a day or less. What I expect happens to my hair is the oils and waxes in the conditioner coat the hairs and soak in some. They weigh the hairs down enough that my head doesn’t look like a wheat mill exploded on it and help to hold other products on until they’re all washed out in 24-48 hours.
My hair is fine but wavy and I have a lot of it so I’ve used all manner of leave-in and rinse conditioners. So far the oil-based ones work best for me but as I’m going through menopause I see the texture of my hair changing and I need to use more products than I used to for the same control.
Now that ya’ll have me thinking of it, I believe I’ll dig out my cap dryer and do a heat treatment on the old mop today. Any suggestions for what to apply?
I have very short hair. But I put in conditioner in and give it at least 30 seconds to do its thing before rinsing out. Don’t know if it makes a difference, but I figure it can’t hurt.