I would recommend JenniferRoseNYC’s advice. She’s very blunt, but when you think about it from a scientific perspective, her reasoning makes sense:
https://instagram.com/hairbyjenniferrosenyc?igshid=92tmxlman0su
Her methods seem similar to those blackgirlscurls ladies who have that $50 (?) Wash Your Damn Hair ebook. Her lives are super long but if you catch her live, you can ask questions and she tries to answer them. She’s big on washing regularly which means at least once a week if not twice or more with a shampoo and conditioner for your specific hair type. She seems to like Redken products a lot. She also says you cannot bank conditioner because the hair can only absorb so much at a time, therefore leave in conditioners aren’t necessary. She doesn’t recommend using oils or creams because they coat the strands and creams don’t dry. If you aren’t shampooing regularly you will get severe build up which will lead to dryness. She recommends just gel for wash and go’s and to refresh and wrapping foam for twistouts. The last big thing is getting regular trims like every 2-3 months depending on whether you have fine or coarse strands. She’s not big into hair typing either. She says 3b, 4b, etc doesn’t really make a difference.
Granted, I still have like 15 bottles of leave in conditioner to use up before I can truly experiment with a long term trial not using leave in, but I noticed after a fresh wash and a trim (at home), my hair felt so moisturized naked and I’m sure I could have skipped my leave in and it would have been fine. I prefer to use an actual deep con as a conditioner while I’m in the shower so I think that may be part of why but she says a good regular con should provide you with the same moisture and that once your hair starts feeling dry again, it’s time to rewash.
As soon as I use up these darned leave in conditioners, I look forward to trying wash and go’s with just gels and maybe just a bit of serum for a bun. I have never been into using many different products at once so my wash and goes are ideally just two products like a leave in and a gel applied to sopping wet hair. I refresh the next day by cowashing but Jennifer says you can do it by just adding gel to your wash and go. I think she actually advises against rewetting your wash and go because it’ll cause frizz.
I started out using the Anthony dickey method for wash and goes, too. I wouldn’t recommend doing it daily, though. Once your hair gets longer, depending on how much product you use, your hair may take too long to dry and I don’t think it’s good for your hair to be wet literally 24/7. You can always diffuse but I don’t know what effect that has on hair long term since I always air dry.