Stretch That Conditioner

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Although I luckily don't have to deal with the hassles of long natural hair, I know a lot of my friends do. I witnessed my best friend go through nearly half a bottle of conditioner in one wash on our trip to Vegas. I stumbled across this article from Curly and Young explaining how you can get more bang for your buck by stretching your conditioners. All my long hair natural ladies -- take note.

via Chelsea of Curly and Young writes;

Now I don't know about y'all but I try my hardest to stretch my products, especially when they are expensive or ordered from online. So what do you do when you love your conditioner but its in an 8oz bottle and your hair requires a lot of it? Well here's how to get more bang for your buck with your conditioners;

Add Oils To It
Adding oils to a conditioner will not only increase its volume but create more slip. The oils will coat the hair strand allowing your detangling session to be less work.
Also the addition of oils will act as a light oil rinse as the oils will coat the hair strand so upon rinsing you will be left with softer hair.
Lastly you can take the time to use your oily conditioner as a DC. Simply leave it in for a little while longer with a shower cap and allow the heat from the shower to do the work.

Pre-Poo
If you are using your conditioner as a detangler then pre poo and detangle your hair prior to cleansing. This means that you will have less tangles and therefore need less conditioner when you hop in the shower. And I don't need to tell you that if you use less you save more

Add Water
You could thin out your conditioner prior to using. However, BEWARE. Do not mix all of your conditioner with water at once. Mix small batches and use immediately!! The reasoning behind this is that beauty products have a careful balance of preservatives in them to prevent them from going bad. By diluting the product you, add bacteria to it from your water if it is not distilled and affect the balance of preservatives. Then, couple this with the warm conditions of your bathroom and you have created a lovely breeding ground for bacteria in your conditioner bottle.

I would suggest keeping a small bottle on hand to mix a small amount of your conditioner and water to use in the shower. Also throw away excess conditioner mix as it will begin to smell as the bacteria grows or refrigerate it if you plan to use it within a day or two.

Note: This tip goes for all of your home mixes. If they contain ingredients that aren't things like butters and oils please use preservatives (grapefruit seed extract, vitamin E, etc.) or keep them refrigerated.

Hope this helped to keep your tresses beautiful whilst keeping cash in your pockets!


Do you have any other ways to stretch your conditioners?