How to Wash Your Hair – Focus on Your Scalp

The best way to shampoo your hair is to apply shampoo only to your scalp. This is because curly hair is very dry. The sebum from your scalp almost never makes its way down the twists in your curls.Even if this happens, there is no difference; The volume of curly hair to spare. Your curls will not notice this small weight. Tight curls can manipulate the oils left in them, because some weight is a good thing.
Shampoo is meant to clean your scalp because it’s your scalp that produces the oil. Your hair will still get clean from the shampoo that is applied to your scalp. The sudsy water will run down your hair as it’s rinsed off. Directly shampooing the ends of your curly hair is harsh and drying— and unnecessary. Following are some recommended ways to cleanse all of your hair, but, happily, these techniques will keep your ends moist and conditioned.

How to Shampoo Those Curls while Keeping Them Calm 

• The first step in shampooing is to let the water run over your hair for a minute or two. Keep your hair hanging down and as smooth as possible. This saturates your hair, ensures that it’s soaked, yet keeps your ends smooth. Because curly hair is thick, you might need to give the water time to soak in. To help it along, gently place your fingers under your hair to lift it off your scalp. This gives the water a leg up, figuratively speaking, to reach all the way through your hair. Also, poke your fingers through your hair and open it up in places to make sure the water gets all the way in.

• Once your hair has been saturated, take a small palmful of mild shampoo or a cleansing conditioner and rub your hands together, making sure your fingers are coated. Smooth the shampoo onto your scalp only, by inserting your fingers beneathyour hair. This way, your hair has as little direct contact with the shampoo as possible.

• Now gently rub the shampoo into your scalp, under your hair, so that you don’t disturb your hair. Remember, shampooing is for your scalp. It’s your scalp that gets oily. Your hair is an innocent bystander. Use only the balls of your fingers, never your nails, which will merely scrape your scalp.

• When your scalp has been lathered, it’s time to rinse. It’s important to rinse your hair thoroughly. Help the water get into your hair so that it can do its job. Slide your fingers under your hair at your hairline, and lift your hair up a little. Let the water flow through your hair while you make small, cautious openings to ensure that it’s flushed with water. Your ends should be hanging straight down during every step. Your curly hair can be quite thick, and without conditioner it behaves as a solid mass does. Be especially gentle at this time.

• While your hair is being rinsed, watered-down shampoo will flow through it. This, along with the next step, will clean your hair thoroughly, but the next step will moisturize it at the same time.

The After Rinse: Shampoo, Rinse, Repeat— Improved

The after-rinse step ensures that your ends are fresh and clean, but— surprisingly—moisturized, too

This step uses a conditioner instead of the misguided second shampooing that is often recommended on most bottles of shampoo. Your conditioner will step in to perform the role that’s usually played by the shampoo. By swapping conditioner for shampoo, you’re still using something that will grab and hold onto any remaining dirt or excess oils. Conditioner can attach itself to grime as well as shampoo does. The conditioner will take the grime down the drain with it as you rinse it off. The big advantage here is that you’ve bypassed the harsh drying that comes from a second shampooing and replaced it with something healthy.

I do this last cleansing of my hair before the final application of real conditioner.

It ensures that my scalp is clean and my hair well rinsed. This is especially helpful if my hair happens to be very dirty. If it is, I add more rinsing conditioner and really poke and squeeze it all through my hair. The advantage is that if I have to do it several times for some reason (sprayed by a skunk, sand poured into my hair), it’s no big thing. Because I am using conditioner, I can repeat as many times as necessary.

Rinsing with conditioner is an optional step, but it’s a healthy substitute if shampoo is trapped inside the matted areas and it’s hard to get it out of there. Like a mole, the conditioner likes to burrow in tangled spots. This conditioning rinse lubricates your hair and helps loosen your mats so that it’s easier to rinse your hair.