Can co-washing help with my transition from relaxed to natural hair?

Hi, i'm almost eighteen and i've had relaxed hair since i was five and a half. immediately after i got my first relaxer, my hair took off growing. it was very long until about age ten or eleven when i got a "bad relaxer" and it left my hair fragile. i, being a young girl, loved to play with my hair, fragile or not, and consequently, it suffered a lot of breakage. i (my mother) switched relaxers, and i started wearing braids (corn rolls) to hide the damage. when the fad of braids wore off, i wanted to wear my hair out again. so my mother started letting me wear a few tracks in the back, but the problem was, i'd stopped getting relaxers, so my real hair did not blend with the yaki hair. so i convinced my mother to let me wear my real hair out. she gave me a relaxer, and cut off my broken ends. DRASTIC. so i wore my short straight hair and she taught me how to take care of it. once i got the hang of it, it took off growing again. the change was incredible. it went from above my ears to below my shoulders from 7th grade to 10th grade. then it started changing again. and now, no matter how much i care for it, my hair will not grow without damage (it's right below my ears now), causing me to have to get it "trimmed" (cut) every time i get a relaxer, which is usually every six weeks. my mom says it's due to the way i like to play with my hair, like when i'm bored, or nervous, i'll take a strand and twirl it between my fingers. whatever the case, i know that relaxers can't be helping the situation any. therefore, i want to stop getting relaxers, and go natural. only one problem: I DO NOT WANT TO CUT MY HAIR! i've been without a relaxer for about six and a half weeks and i'm due for one right about now, but i recently heard of co washing and i was wondering whether or not it would make a difference in the ease of transition from relaxed to natural. thanks for listening! please help!