We present a nonlinear hydrodynamical description of a conformal plasma within the framework of divergence-type theories (DTTs), which are not based on a gradient expansion. We compare the equations of the DTT and the second-order theory (based on conformal invariants), for the case of Bjorken ow. The approach to ideal hydrodynamics is faster in the DTT, indicating that our results can be useful in the study of early-time dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.