Has this ever happened to you: you go to the store and add a bottle of shampoo to your cart and don’t discover until you get home that what you bought only looked like your shampoo but actually turns out to be hair conditioner. And you just happen to be one of those people who never uses hair conditioner. That describes me and that describes what happened one day after returning from the store. First, I asked why on earth a company would make a bottle of hair conditioner that looks identical to its bottle of shampoo with the only different being the words “conditioner” and “shampoo” and then almost immediately, I answered myself : because Big Business is the most deceptive concept mankind has ever known. Secondly, I began to wonder just what other effective uses conditioner might have. So I asked around, surfed the web and read some books and then put everything I learned to practice. And the following are the alternative and unusual uses for hair conditioner that proved to actually be effective.
Keeping it Groovy, Man
Any sort of construction that involves moving an object back and forth through a groove is probably an ideal location for putting to effective use a container of hair conditioner you accidentally bought thinking it was shampoo. My own personal experience involved a wall window that can be raised or lowered within a groove. This particular window regularly would get stick halfway up until I put to concrete use the theory that hair conditioner makes a terrific lubricant for sticky grooves. In theory, of course, any such groove situation from drawer to a sliding door would benefit from hair conditioner lubrication.
Shaving Lotion
I’m a big believer in saving as much time as possible through multitasking which means I often shave while showering. Shaving cream too easily turns into a mucky mess in the humid conditions inside the shower and soap only succeeds in drying the skin. Hair conditioner probably has some scientifically explained formula in its ingredients that allows it to avoid these common shaving problems, but I don’t know what that is. What I do know for sure is that hair conditioner is more effective for me when used as shaving lotion than it has ever been when I tried it for hair conditioning.
Zipper Fixer Upper
Have ever trouble getting a zipper to work? This particular bit of wisdom on an alternative use for hair conditioner came to me secondhand from my kid who said that a fellow student claimed to use hair conditioner to keep the zipper on a favorite backpack that has been in service from elementary school to high school. So I tried I on a pair of pants that had been relegated to storage because of what seemed to be a permanently stuck zipper. Guess what? The pants are no longer in storage.
Shine Up Your Dog’s Coat
Probably works for any animal, but I can only attest to the effectiveness of hair conditioner to restore luster to animal fur when the animal is question is a dog. Just pour the hair conditioner into your hands and rub it through the animal’s coat and then use your pet brush to work it throughout the entire covering of fur.
Dry Skin Moisturizer
We don’t really have to deal with dry skin as a matter of daily living where I live. A region of the country that could well be nicknamed Hell’s Favorite Vacation Spot. Humid? You have no idea. Even so, occasionally the result of medication or dehydration takes effect and cause skin to dry out a little bit. Hair conditioner is at least as cheap as a low-grade moisturizing cream and far more effective and versatile. So ditch the moisturizer and load on bulk qualities of cheap hair conditioner if you regularly have problems involving dry skin.
Polish Silver
Anything containing silver (and probably similar metals) can be polished using hair conditioner. A little dab will do to lessen or even potentially remove the tarnish accumulating on silver jewelry, silver candlesticks and, of course, silverware