Co-washing With Flex Conditioner - I've Converted!

Do you remember Revlon Flex, the ads with Cindy Crawford and how the tubular bottles used to be sold at the front of chemists? They were cheap as chips and suddenly they disappeared. 

When I wanted to use Flex again years later, I find out the brand had been discontinued. Why oh why Revlon? I loved Flex and now the original tube bottles are selling on Ebay for USD 25 each!

But luckily there are other kinds of Flex sold on Ebay and Amazon for a more reasonable price. This bottle comes from Spain and it's current stock (expiry is 2015) so it's not discontinued worldwide. I will certainly look for it and stockpile the next time I'm in Spain. I bought of these 650ml bottles for GBP 12 including shipping. The conditioner is exactly how I remembered it.

I'm a fan of Flex since high school. I love it's clean balsam scent. It's intoxicating and the conditioner really makes hair soft! 

As an alternative to shampooing with my usual shikakai powder, I decided to try co-washing since I go to the gym almost everyday and can't stand post workout hair. Not washing isn't an option and my hair is too fine to go without for a day.

So I wet my hair, massaged the amount I would normally use to condition the lengths of my hair, into my scalp. I added a bit of water to help spread it around and the conditioner foamed a little. I massaged the roots of my hair for a minute and it actually feels like my hair is getting cleaned.

I left it on for a few minutes and progressively added more water to loosen the conditioner up and eventually it rinsed out clean. 

After my hair dried, the results were good. My hair is soft, smooth and remarkably frizzless. It smells good and I lost less hair through washing. The downside is that my hair only looked clean for half a day and then it fell flat. It was greasy the next day so co washing with Flex is only good if you're planning to wash again the next day. 

The consecutive co wash was not better. Only the top layer of my hair looked clean and it was clumpy and greasy underneath. If the conditioner was cleaning, it was still leaving build up behind so I need to alternate. Co wash and then shampoo the next time. 

I'm still a follower of the co washing movement. I realised Flex contains a non water soluble silicone which was probably contributing towards the build up. I'm now on a hunt for the perfect co washing conditioner.