Good Rinsing Conditioners:

These are conditioners that you can use instead of shampooing your hair twice. These are also perfect for "No-poo" or "Co-Wash" routines (meaning using conditioner to clean your hair instead of using a shampoo). What I usually do is wash just my scalp with shampoo, keeping my hair hanging straight down. After rinsing out the shampoo, I smooth in one of these lighter conditioners through my hair, and then rinse it out. This helps remove any extra shampoo or dirt, but doesn't dry out my hair. The conditioners here are too wimpy to leave in your hair and comb through. These will mostly just evaporate if you left them in, leaving your curls defenseless, but they're great for rinsing.

Alba Botanica Rainforest Cupuaçu Deep Hydration Conditioner

I first got this conditioner to use as a combing conditioner. However, and to my surprise, it wasn't slippery enough for combing. But it does have great moisturizing ingredients, and it makes a fine rinsing conditioner, as well as a great refreshing conditioner.

Alaffia Coconut & Shea Daily Hydrating Conditioner (For All Hair Types)

This conditioner would be perfect as a rinsing conditioner, has great moisturizing ingredients and a nice lemon verbena scent. It also looks like it uses sustainable ingredients, and is donating 10% of it's profits to projects in West Africa. This product is also silicone free (for those of you who don't like silicones). This is also great as a combing conditioner. It's a bit light, but combs really nicely.

ApHogee Balancing Moisturizer

This conditioner sounded like it would be pretty moisturizing, and it had glycerin near the top of its ingredients, so I was hoping this would be a great combing conditioner. However, after using it, when I rinsed it out of my hair it felt almost as if I had shampooed it. Which makes this a great rinsing conditioner, or even a no-poo/ cleansing conditioner (so you would use in place of a shampoo if you are doing that). However, it wasn't moisturizing enough to recommend it as a combing/ leave in conditioner.

Alberto VO5 conditioners only. The shampoos are drying (they contain soduim lauryl sulfate. Sodium laureth sulfate, however, is fine).

Try any one of the VO5 conditioners in any of these categories (as long as they say they are moisturizing). I choose by scent: Tea Therapy, Silky Experience, Moisture Milks, or Herbal Escapes.

Carol's Daughter Tui Hair Smoothie (Intense Conditioning Treatment)

I thought I'd already put this product here, but it looks like I hadn't for some reason. I love the smell and the image of this product, and had high hopes this would be in the recommended combing conditioner section. However, it didn't work as well as I'd wanted, but it would make a good rinsing conditioner. To read more about why it didn't become a combing conditioner, you can check out my Tui Blog Post about it.

Herbal Essence Conditioners Almost all of them

These are other conditioners that used to be favorite combing conditioners of mine. I'd noticed the newer bottles with the mottled-swirly pattern had Sodium Hydroxide in them, but I was hoping that would stay with the newer products. Then one day an alert follower of the site asked me if the ingredients had changed on my recommended combing conditioners. And when I looked, indeed they had. First on one bottle, then the next favorite. There may still be a bottle or two that doesn't have it in there. If you find it buy it up as a combing conditioner. However, I'm thinking in time they will all have Sodium Hydroxide. When it's mixed with water, it becomes neutralized, so it's fine to rinse out. But I don't feel comfortable recommending you leave it on your hair as a leave-in combing conditioner any longer.

Nature's Gate Organics Fruit Blend Fortifying Conditioner (Grapefruit & Wild Ginger)

This conditioner has become my favorite rinsing conditioner. It has a nice butter-cream texture to it and a soft sweet scent.

I was nervous about this one because of the "grapefruit" in it, but it did fine. This conditioner can be used as either a rinser or a combing conditioner because it's pretty light. I don't use it to both rinse and then comb with at the same time. I like to alternate what I use as a rinser and a combing conditioner. It's probably just a quirk of mine, but I feel that by using different rinsing and combing products at a time I get sort of a "fresh start" when I put in the combing conditioner after rinsing out the rinsing conditioner.

Sigh. I loved this conditioner as my combing-and-leave-in-conditioner. It was my favorite, and after trying out any new conditioner, I always looked forward to returning to my beloved Relaxed & Natural. An alert follower of the site asked me if the ingredients had changed on it and now it had Sodium Chloride in it. At first I denied it⎯I didn't want it to be true. But when I went to get another bottle of it, there it was in the ingredients. So I can't use it as a combing conditioner any longer. However, it can be used as a fine rinsing conditioner since you will rinse the salt away (and it's only in there in a tiny amount, so if you rinse it out it should be totally fine. I just don't feel comfortable recommending leaving it in any longer.

Curls Curl Ecstacy Hair Tea Conditioner

and

Curls Coconut Sublime Moisturizing Conditioner

These would have made great leave-in combing conditioners except they aren't even close to being slippery enough. In the spirit of experimentation, I tried to comb them through my hair, just to see if perhaps one of the ingredients may be slippery enough and I just wasn't aware of it. Nope. I had to put on another conditioner just to comb my hair. As rinsers, these are both pretty thick, but a small handful goes a long way.

Trader Joe’s Essential Herbal Conditioner with Natural Fragrance: This is an okay rinsing conditioner. It’s great to slather in your hair and rinse out again.

Wen Fig Cleansing Conditioner

If you don't have sensitive skin, you could use this as a rinsing conditioner, or as a no-po conditioner. Because it has very strong essential oils (like menthol), please don't use this on any creature that can't let you know it's too strong. Ingredients-wise, it could also be a combing conditioner, but please read what I have under the Wen-as-a-combing-conditioner-cautions.

If you're curious about the ingredients in your products, check out the Ingredients Dictionary. Remember, the only place a product has to tell the truth is on the ingredients list.

If you're curious why a product didn't make it onto a recommended list, you can look for it in the Answer Bank. Just type in part of the name of the product into the search box to see if I've already checked it out.