I have tried co-washing before and quite liked the results but for some reason I got out of the habit of doing it, using blonde toners & SLS free shampoos instead. I’m on a summer pre holiday kick of getting my hair in tip top condition so that the ravages of chlorine, salt water, heat and humidity don’t take their toll too badly. I never slave over my hair on holiday, I literally wash and go, leaving it to dry in to my loose curls most days. Battling the heat AND straighteners just isn’t my idea of fun!
I am now on to my 3rd wash with WEN and I can honestly say I am blown away. My first dalliance with it was astounding. I got a full extra day of “hair down” and probably could have got a 4th day out of the wash if I wore it up. Normally I have to wash every other day because my hair is dirty by then. Obviously the less I have to wash my processed hair, the less natural oils I will be stripping so this is the first thumbs up!
Initially on reading the instructions, I was horrified to read I needed 10 – 15 pumps of the cleanser for my hair. I am still quite dubious of how quickly I’m going to rattle through a bottle using it at that rate…. But hey ho, if that’s what it says… that’s what I used! Application was a doddle, but I did find the waiting time to be a little long, 1-3 minutes for the ‘washing’ action and then 5 minutes to leave it for the ‘conditioning’ effect (I assume). I don’t know about anybody else, but even if I’m doing a shave + wash I’m rarely in the shower for that long so I found it a bit tedius.. But that’s probably because I’m constantly pressed for time. The last time I washed my hair I used 8 pumps to ‘wash’ my hair with and a following 5 on the ends and lengths and left it for the 5 minutes. This did feel a bit nicer after drying but it was negligable.
On rinsing my hair felt so soft and slinky and strong when I was combing it. None of those horrible stretchy snaggy moments either. I wanted to give the system its full opportunity to wow me so I followed up washing with a small amount of the styling crème. It has a beautiful sweet minty smell (it should do as it’s made with sweet mint) but it’s a delicious smell that lingers in the hair without being overpowering. My hair dried to a soft bouncy finish without feeling weighed down or that odd feeling when you run your fingers through it when you have too much product in it.
My blow dry lasted well in to the 3rd day without my fringe needing re-styled either. I noticed after my 2nd wash with it, my post blow dry hair felt even softer than at first. I tied my hair up later in the day and when I removed the bobble, I didn’t even have that tell tale ridge you get along the back of your head after a ponytail, still bouncy and sleek.
I did notice that after an air dry, my hair felt no better than usual. The ends felt coarse and rough and back to that over processed feeling. That’s just my personal thoughts, so it might be one that’s great for blow drys.
I will keep on using the system and keep you all updated on how I get along as I think it is too soon to give an overall verdict.