A lot depends on the texture of your hair-- I don't have curly hair, so anything I say here may not apply to people who do.
I haven't used conditioner in years. There are two reasons people need conditioner, and both are avoidable. So.
1) Damage: Lots of things cause it: chemical treatments, blowdrying with hot air, ripping brushes through your hair, using pinchy hair ornaments that catch, wearing your long hair down and then rubbing it against office chairs and car seat-backs, walking around in wind and letting it get tangled... so if you've already got a lot of damage, you're either stuck with conditioner for now, until the damaged part grows out, or you can cut it all off and try to take better care of it while it grows out. That means no dyeing, no curling or straightening irons, no perms, throw out your hair dryer, get a seamless comb and be more gentle while detangling, don't comb it while it's wet and weak, brushes are only for smoothing and styling, not for detangling! wear your hair up if it's long, stop using the dang alligator clips, and in general, just try to protect it from mechanical damage-- keep it out of car doors and stuff. Avoiding damage is the #1 thing you can do to make your hair look nicer and detangle more easily. Conditioner is a stopgap measure for damaged hair.
2) pH: all soaps and shampoos are alkaline. If you look at hair through a microscope, it's got a bunch of scale-like things going down each strand. Alkalinity makes them floof out. If they stay floofed, hairs catch on each other, like velcro. So after you do anything alkaline to your hair-- soap, shampoo, pool water, or even your city's overchlorinated tapwater-- it's good to use a diluted acid rinse on it. This makes the scaly bits lie flat again, so the strands are smooth. I use a 1 to 4ish solution of vinegar to water, in a squeezy ketchup bottle in the shower. If the smell of vinegar turns you off, you can also get vitamin C powder to add to the water in the squeezy bottle-- it'll do the same thing without the salad dressing smell.
Re: Are you using too much soap?
I haven't used conditioner in years. There are two reasons people need conditioner, and both are avoidable. So.
1) Damage: Lots of things cause it: chemical treatments, blowdrying with hot air, ripping brushes through your hair, using pinchy hair ornaments that catch, wearing your long hair down and then rubbing it against office chairs and car seat-backs, walking around in wind and letting it get tangled... so if you've already got a lot of damage, you're either stuck with conditioner for now, until the damaged part grows out, or you can cut it all off and try to take better care of it while it grows out. That means no dyeing, no curling or straightening irons, no perms, throw out your hair dryer, get a seamless comb and be more gentle while detangling, don't comb it while it's wet and weak, brushes are only for smoothing and styling, not for detangling! wear your hair up if it's long, stop using the dang alligator clips, and in general, just try to protect it from mechanical damage-- keep it out of car doors and stuff. Avoiding damage is the #1 thing you can do to make your hair look nicer and detangle more easily. Conditioner is a stopgap measure for damaged hair.
2) pH: all soaps and shampoos are alkaline. If you look at hair through a microscope, it's got a bunch of scale-like things going down each strand. Alkalinity makes them floof out. If they stay floofed, hairs catch on each other, like velcro. So after you do anything alkaline to your hair-- soap, shampoo, pool water, or even your city's overchlorinated tapwater-- it's good to use a diluted acid rinse on it. This makes the scaly bits lie flat again, so the strands are smooth. I use a 1 to 4ish solution of vinegar to water, in a squeezy ketchup bottle in the shower. If the smell of vinegar turns you off, you can also get vitamin C powder to add to the water in the squeezy bottle-- it'll do the same thing without the salad dressing smell.