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Here are some of the questions I get asked the most, and what my answers have been. This way you can get your answers immediately, without having to wait on me. And you never know, you might find answers to a few questions you didn't even know you had yet.

*This is still a work in progress. I'm continuing to add many more questions, and we are still ironing out a few quirks. But we wanted to make this available as soon as possible.

There are several ways to choose the question(s) you'd like answered:




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Question:
Is it really okay to leave in a conditioner meant to be rinsed out?
Answer:
I've researched my recommended leave-in combing conditioners to make sure they don't have any ingredients that really are bad for our hair. Many companies make a big deal about certain ingredients being bad, but they have no real scientific proof--just urban myths they spread, and people believe it because they've heard it so often (and in fact, for silicones, there is lots of peer reviewed scientific research showing them to be totally safe and good for our hair). It's just that in order for some companies to be able to charge high prices for their products, they push that certain ingredients are bad, when in fact they do a great job. These companies are convincing, but they are misleading.

It's true that none of the conditioners I recommend say they are leave in. The funny thing is that the ingredients in conditioners are often the same ingredients that are in leave-in styling products. It's just sometimes the leave-ins are in a different order, or in different concentrations, or greasier. Or they add extra sticky ones to the leave-in products. It's just that they charge you more for a smaller bottle of leave in product that's basically the same as the conditioner. Either that or they are super watery, and are little more than scented water (usually marketed for straighter hair).

It's all about marketing. Manufactures can sell more bottles if they repackage the same basic ingredients over and over and tell you they are for different things, like deep conditioning, conditioning, conditioners for dry hair, colored hair, damaged hair, permed hair and as a leave in. Often, these all have nearly identical ingredients, just in different bottles and for different prices.

I do want to say that it's not a good idea to glop anything thickly onto your scalp and not rinse it off. This may clog pores, and may even lead to damaging the follicle.This is especially true of very think hair dressings and lotions, but I'd also err on the side of caution with conditioners, too. I usually apply the conditioner starting about two inches from my scalp or so. If a little gets on your scalp, that's no big deal because you will be washing it off the next week (so it's always important to cleanse your hair about once a week to cut down on any potential build up). So what I'm basically saying is that the right conditioner will keep your hair moisturized and protected when you leave it in your hair. But nothing should ever be thickly applied to your scalp and left there.
 

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