If you’re looking for softer, more manageable hair, then you need a good conditioner.
Some shampoos – particularly moisturising shampoo – can help make your hair softer, and are always worth adding to your wash routine.
However, for the softest, healthiest looking hair, you need to reach for a bottle of conditioner.
The best conditioner will always moisturise your hair far better than any shampoo can. Here’s how it works.
Your hair’s natural defense
While shampoos are designed to clean your hair, conditioners are specially formulated to soften and detangle.
To understand how they go about it, we first have to talk about the structure of your hair – it isn’t as simple as you might think!
Each hair is made of several parts: the outer layer, which is what we’re interested in, is called the cuticle.
Hair cuticles are tiny overlapping scales that protect the vulnerable inner layers of your hair from damage.
Unfortunately, cuticles can themselves become damaged, causing the scales to become jagged and broken, or to lift up instead of laying flat.
This not only exposes the rest of your hair to damage, it makes your hair become rough and dull.
Enter conditioner.
How conditioner helps
While we’ve already mentioned that conditioners soften and detangle hair, the way they do so is interesting.
Rough and damaged hair is often the result of problems with your hair’s cuticle structure.
Conditioners help fix this by smoothing the scales of the cuticle back down. This has the added benefit of protecting the inner layers of your hair from further damage.
At the same time, conditioners provide a degree of lubrication to the hair fiber, allowing brushes and combs to glide through, while preventing tangling and knotting.
All this means that you can help your hair can become tangle-free, smooth and pliable, which in the end makes it feel soft.
The best hair conditioners can tackle other problems as well: Head & Shoulders conditioners are designed to work in concert with our shampoo range to provide smooth, soft and healthy hair, while moisturising the scalp and protecting it from dandruff.
In fact, if you’re fighting dandruff, it’s recommended that you stick to an anti-dandruff conditioner, since following a dandruff shampoo with a regular conditioner can reduce the effectiveness of the shampoo.
So, if your hair is feeling rough or dry, try adding conditioner to your routine to get your hair back to its smooth, glossy best.