Turns out this common beauty product can double as shaving cream

Straight from the department of “why hadn’t I thought of that!” comes this hot tip to simplify your shower: Your conditioner can actually double as a shave cream.

I first learned about this from Lindsay Knaak-Stuart, CEO of the skin-care company Meant, who set out to simplify skincare routines by finding easy ways that products can multi-task.

“I had heard of people using conditioner in a pinch when they ran out of shaving cream,” she explains. “If you consider both are hair, then it seemed really logical to me.” So she added antibacterial ingredients such as aloe juice and babassu oil in Meant The Do-All Conditioner to help tackle post-shave redness and inflammation. (And she says her husband hasn't gotten an ingrown hair since switching!)

But all this talk got us thinking: Would any old conditioner double as a shave cream? Yes, says cosmetic chemist Ginger King, who told us that she also uses conditioner to shave. “Conditioners are cationic which can coat the hair and give a smoother shave and leave legs soft,” she explains. In case you're fuzzy on your 10th grade chemistry: Conditioner is positively charged, making it attracted to hair (which is negatively charged), and thus able to coat the strands—whether it’s on your head or your legs.

The verdict? When I tried it this morning before work, I’ll admit, it made shaving a cinch. The razor glided over my legs and make the getting the tough parts (ankles and knees) substantially easier than using a bar soap. If it would have been a blind test, I would never have known this was conditioner with a side hustle.