I am one of those people who still washes her hair every single day. The debate over how often we should wash our hair is one where all arguments make sense to me, but I'm not budging on my daily cleanse. I happily wash each AM or I am left with a pile of limp, greasy, and unflattering brown strands. I literally look like I haven't washed my hair in years on the very rare days that I skip shampoo. It feels oily, heavy, and cake-y, and thus? Me no likey. Even when exposed to the anti-shampoos, like WEN's Pomegranate Cleansing Conditioner, that don't lather and that are free of detergents and things that strip your hair of oils, I remained a skeptic.
I kept going about my wash and condition routine, starting with whatever shampoo smelled best, followed by a plentiful scoop of Pantene's rich conditioner. IMO, my hair is my best feature, and this routine has served me well. Then, I happened upon a robust red bottle of the WEN Conditioner, stored in my vanity, untouched. I had received a sample, planned to use it, and somehow forgot about it — likely because it would require me to break routine.
Then hair goddess Brooke Shields announced her ambassadorship of the brand. That nudged me to give the WEN cleanser a shot. Why not, right? I could always got back to my regular routine if I hated it.
Since it's free of sulfates and other harsh chemicals, WEN Cleansing Conditioner does not lather, so that took a minute to get used to in itself. And since I have long hair, it required about 25-30 small pumps of product to saturate and coat my strands. Not a big deal. At all.
It felt like I was washing my hair with conditioner, which made me worry that it'd be too silky and listless afterwards. Still, I massaged the cream through my hair like normal shampoo, using the tips of my fingers to stimulate my scalp. I also used a wide-tooth conditioner comb to distribute the rest of the product down the shaft of my hair and went about my routine of washing, scrubbing, and rinsing my body, and then my hair.
I easily shaved five minutes off my AM shower regimen since I didn't have to lather and rinse the shampoo and then follow with conditioner. The anti-shampoo, as I like to call it, was the conditioner. I was concerned that my hair would not feel clean, but it did. It felt washed and conditioned.
I blew my hair dry like usual and it was as fresh, shiny, and bouncy like always. I am actually looking forward to trying more WEN products. I will likely go back to my usual wash-and-condition routine, but I want to let WEN do the trick for the next 30 days or so and see how my strands stack up after I empty the bottle. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I might actually be getting over my shampoo addiction.
Images: WEN (1); Giphy (1); Piotr Marcinski/Fotolia
