Do you also wonder if conditioner is truly important? And the answer is yes! Conditioner is absolutely essential to get silky, shiny, and healthy tresses. A study conducted by the Indian Journal of Dermatology explains that hair conditioners help to improve hair manageability while adding natural shine and luster to your hair.
A variety of factors such as weather changes, environmental pollution, heating tools, strong chemicals, etc weigh your hair down. This makes you struggle with rough, dull, and damaged hair.
We understand that looking after your hair can certainly be maddening. Put your worries aside as we have formulated the perfect guide for you.
What is a hair conditioner?
Hair conditioner is a hair care product that helps to hydrate and nourish your hair to make them look healthier, softer, and silkier. Hair conditioners are formulated using hydrating and moisturising ingredients that penetrate your hair shaft and inner layers of hair to restore moisture.
As per hair care experts, the use of conditioners after shampoo is highly essential to prevent dry, frizzy, and damaged hair. Conditioner helps to replenish the moisture and oil contents that are lost due to shampooing.
Types of conditioners
Before you jump into buying a bottle of conditioner for your hair, you should know about the type of conditioner you need to suit your hair type and routine. Let’s begin.
1. Deep Conditioner
As the name implies, deep conditioners offer hydration to the deeper layers of your hair. Such types of conditioners are considered ideal to repair chemically treated, colored, and heated damaged hair. It has been figured out that Babassu-based conditioners provide satisfactory results for achieving soft, shiny, and healthy hair.
2. Cleansing Conditioner
It is also known as CO Washing or conditioner-only washing or no-poo method. Cleansing conditioners are considered an integral part of curly hair care.
In co-washing, curly hair people use conditioner to wash their tresses instead of shampoo. As per hair care experts, murumuru butter is quite good to nourish curly hair types.
3. Leave-In Conditioner
These conditioners are formulated using gentle and natural hydrating ingredients that form a protective coating around your strand meanwhile improving hair texture.
The major benefit of leave-in conditioners is they protect your hair from all the external damage like sun rays, pollution, and changing weather.
4. Dry Conditioner
A dry conditioner usually contains oil and aerosol. They help to hydrate and add shine without wetting your hair.
5 Benefits Of Hair Conditioners
1. Protects the cuticles
Amongst the various benefits of conditioners, protecting the cuticles is the foremost importance of conditioners. A cuticle is the outermost layer of hair, which has scale-like cells, overlapping each other. These cells act as a defence mechanism and protect the inner layer of layers (cortex and the medulla) from damage.
When the cuticle is healthy, your hair looks smooth and shiny. Major factors like lack of hydration, harsh environmental conditions, chemical treatments, etc. are known to damage the cuticle and open it up. These open cuticles make your hair look frizzy and brittle. Most importantly, conditioning ingredients form a protective covering around your hair which helps to forty the cuticle.
2. Imparts instant shine to hair
If dry, rough, and damaged hair is your problem then all you need is a good hair conditioner. Conditioners provide intense hydration and essential nutrients to improve the texture and appearance of your hair.
A study published in the International Journal of Trichology has also explained that conditioners help to minimize frizz on your hair and detangle your hair easily. In addition, conditioners help to neutralize the negative charge which is responsible for causing friction in hair cuticles. After conditioning, your hair becomes smooth and shiny; it becomes very easy to style them.
3. Prevents hair breakage
When your hair is tangled, they become more vulnerable to frizziness, split ends and breakage. Conditioning helps in protecting your hair from such damages. On using conditioners regularly, you get tangle-free silky hair.
4. Repairs chemically and heat damaged hair
Overuse of heat styling tools and chemical treatments causes severe damage to the cuticle layers of your hair. This ultimately makes your hair extremely dehydrated, weak, and thin.
Fortunately, hair conditioners do a wonderful job in bringing chemically and heat-damaged hair back to life. Consistent use of conditioners helps to soothe your parched and dry hair.
5. Keeps the hair moisturised
Surfactants present in your shampoo strip off the essential oils from hair and scalp. Conditioner helps in infusing the lost moisture back into your hair strands. This also helps to reduce hair fall by strengthening your hair strands.
Dermatologists explain that hair conditioning ingredients like Babassu oil are quite beneficial to attain healthy, voluminous, and shiny hair. This plant-based oil is a rich source of fatty acid and antioxidants that help to repair rough hair and split ends. Whereas, murumuru butter is considered a good conditioning agent for curly hair types.
FAQ’s
Can you use a hair conditioner daily?
Hair conditioners are hair care formulations that help to improve hair texture, shine, and strength. As per dermatologists, the use of hair conditioning treatments totally depends upon the type and needs of your hair. For extremely damaged and rough hair, it is considered important to use a conditioner after every head wash.
Now that you are well aware of the importance of conditioner, we hope it will help you achieve your hair goals. Skipping conditioner from your hair care regimen can severely damage your hair condition, making it appear extremely dry and frizzy.
Aside from that, it is only wise to recognize that dehydrated hair is more prone to hair woes which is why you should always keep your tresses hydrated and nourished. So, inculcate a good conditioner in your hair care routine today to achieve silky, smooth hair, and thank us later.
P.S.
Many research studies have revealed that frequent use of silicone-based conditioners is found to cause scalp buildup and hair damage. Silicone is a widely used ingredient in conditioners, which gives temporary shine to the hair by forming a covering around hair strands. It is wise to check the ingredients present in your conditioners and other hair care products before investing in them. It will not only save you from some inconvenience but also help you recognize which ingredients and hair care products work best for your hair.