What's the deal with conditioners?

Chen

So I bought a conditioner by accident and I was wondering what uses it has besides adding moisture? The thing is I have messy, short hair so I don't really want to smooth the hair and give it weight. It keeps it healthy I guess. I don't see a point in using conditioners otherwise, but if you have any tips for fabulous hair then by all means be my guest and share them.

Thegreatcow

Conditioners are pretty much what you said, they add extra moisture, vitamins/nutrients/oils/additives to the mixture to improve the overall feel and complexion of hair. Usually a conditioner is needed for longer/damaged hair to improve it's texture and restore its natural shine and luster.

If you're like me with short oily hair, then you won't have to use it that much if at all. I typically use it right before I go get a haircut, I find it's easier for my barber to handle my hair if it's had a wash through with some conditioner, otherwise, I pretty much steer clear of the stuff.

Jasconius

It's typically for dry hair.

If you have oily/normal hair you might not see much difference.

Pheezer

Conditioners do exactly what has been said: They smooth the hair by adding moisture (oils in most cases) and add weight (oils, in most cases).

My tips for great hair?

Go to your nearest Lush retailer. I know some department store chain in the USA has them in-store, but I can't remember which. In Manitoba, up in Canadia, there's a standalone retailer in Polo Park shopping mall.

They have two types of shampoo, stuff that comes in a pot with a screw on lid and is mostly liquid-paste like in consistency, and bars. The bars are dirt cheap and are awesome: You rub 'em on your hands a few times under the water to get some suds, toss it back in its dish and rub your hands together. Lather miraculously multiplies. You apply this to your hair, and scrub it in vigorously.

The paste like stuff is more expensive, and you scoop a small amount out, distribute between your hands, massage into your hair.

Of the bars, the blue one I find gives me stronger, thicker hair that stands up better on its own and has a nice lustre. The red one smells really nice, though, and does similar work but lends less volume to my hair.

The BIG shampoo has sea salt in it, lathers like madness, and I use it on days when I really want awesome, big hair. It makes your hair poof up like nothing else, and gives it wicked nice shine. It is expensive, but when you use small amounts of it as you're supposed to, so long as your hair isn't particularly long it works out to cost about as much as regular shampoo does while being way better than the shit they sell at salons.


The conditioners they offer I feel to be purely optional. I like the Veganese, because it's very lightweight, but gives a little extra shine when I'm using a bar instead of BIG, and the tiny bit of added weight makes it way easier to style my hair when it's at medium length or longer. Note that in this use case I'm just brushing my hair to the side, and not applying gels or what have you to put it up.

I would not recommend bothering with conditioners if you're going to try spiking your hair. It's counterproductive and you can't see the extra shine through the product anyhow.

If you want a really nice gel, Goth Juice from Lush smells really good and doesn't turn into white flakes when it dries, though it's not strong like a dippity-do style gel.


Yes I know I sound like a spokesperson here but like a year ago I got dragged into Lush and saw that they had a bar of soap named, I shit you not, Demon In The Dark. It was black. It smelled like cloves and mint. I tried it. I was converted. I use Demon in the Dark body soap, Coalface facial soap (ALSO BLACK, PPL, HOW METAL IS THAT) and the blue shampoo bar or BIG as the day demands, and sometimes Veganese conditioner. I can tell you that even though the up front cost seems ludicrous, the products last way longer than you'd expect and I've definitely saved money over the last year while looking and smelling better than ever before.

Sack up. It's only gay if you're insecure.

DeathPrawn

Lush is incredible.

I'd definitely go into the store for yourself and check out everything they've got. The last time I browsed, they had around ten different kinds of bar shampoo and maybe a half-dozen goopy ones. They probably won't do it for the bars (since they come as neat little pucks), but if you ask nicely they'll probably be happy to make you free little sample containers of some of their liquid shampoos (they've done it for me before; their staff are always world's friendliest salespeople).

While we're raving about Lush products: their Karma scent is amazing and they have it for pretty much everything (soap/shampoo/bath bombs/cologne/who knows what all - it's probably the 'red one' that Pheezer talks about), and their deodorant bar is the most effective deodorant I've ever used. And all their stuff is all-natural and vegetarian or vegan (mostly vegan) and generally hippie-friendly!

Chen

I'm not insecure. I'm just not a morning person.

Showering. Conditioning. Blowing the hair to give it volume. Styling the hair with care. Spraying the hair to hold it in place. Those are all things I do not do in the morning when I have to be punctual.

But I will keep your words in mind, especially the brands. I have terrible hair product awareness.

Zombiemambo

Is there anything that doesn't give your hair extra body, but keeps it from being dry? My hair is puffy enough, but I need to wash it to prevent it from getting oily/not gross. I usually use a bar of soap but I doubt that keeps my hair in good condition.

Belruel

oh gross zombie mambo, that is probably most of your problem. don't use soap on your hair, and don't use most bar soaps at all if you can help it. get a loofa and a cheap bottle of non-girly smelling body wash. i use a dove one that just smells like clean and i love it.

now, when i am at my boyfriend's house, he uses a dove bar soap and i hate it. it dries my skin out and i just feel gross.

if nothing else, buy a bottle of suave shampoo (notice this is not what i recommend for best hair but it is cheap and does the job okay). never use bar soap on your hair!

Pheezer

Chen wrote: »

I'm not insecure. I'm just not a morning person.

Showering. Conditioning. Blowing the hair to give it volume. Styling the hair with care. Spraying the hair to hold it in place. Those are all things I do not do in the morning when I have to be punctual.

But I will keep your words in mind, especially the brands. I have terrible hair product awareness.

Lots of dudes will be all LUSH IS FAGGY EWW FAG but it's a crock. Nothing is more metal than black soap.

Also I hate to style my hair in the morning before work. Those days I use the bar, and a bit of conditioner, towel down, shape it roughly in front of the mirror, thrown on clothes and head out.

I use the BIG shampoo on weekends or days that I want to be extra presentable (go on stage). The Lush stuff is pretty convenient for getting your hair into the right shape to just head out and forget about it. It's unspeakably better than head and shoulders.


Also re: oily hair or poofy dry hair, they have products specialized to those ends at Lush. Based on my experience, I am convinced that their products designed to deal with those scenarios are awesome. Convinced. I cannot personally vouch however, as that is not my hair. I have light, normal oiliness hair.

Spacemilk

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Is there anything that doesn't give your hair extra body, but keeps it from being dry? My hair is puffy enough, but I need to wash it to prevent it from getting oily/not gross. I usually use a bar of soap but I doubt that keeps my hair in good condition.

Urgh, as someone already said, bar soap is the issue there - it's definitely not meant for hair and is probably stripping a lot of essential oils out of your hair, hence the poofiness (caused by stressed, dry hair that's not protected by essential oils) followed by oily grossness (your body will try to overcompensate and replace all of those oils immediately which results in overkill and grossness).

Essential oils: good for your hair, good shampoos will either not strip these or they will replace them so your body doesn't do it
Non-essential oils: gross oils from sweating or everyday life or stuff like that
Soap will strip away both which is BAD. Good shampoo will only strip away one of them. Conditioner will replace essential oils as well as add other stuff that will make your hair silky smooth.

Conditioner does NOT have to weigh your hair down. There are lots of conditioners out there that are volumizing. Also the amount of time you leave the conditioner on makes a difference - leave it on for 10-15 seconds, then wash it out with cold water - this will give you lush, shiny smooth locks that aren't weighed down. Your hair will look amazing!

I highly recommend Head and Shoulders for guys. This stuff is actually really good nowadays. Prevents dandruff, adds shiny, doesn't smell like a perfume bottle, and can be bought in shampoo&conditioner 2-in-1s which are probably good for guys (wouldn't be so good for girls though).

Usagi

Oh man, lots of great advice here, but I can't believe we talked about Lush and didn't cover the best thing they've ever made: Jungle conditioner.

It's solid, like their shampoos - and like their shampoos you just sort of rub it all over your hair and then rinse and poof, awesome, shiny, good-smelling hair that requires very little styling.

Pheezer

That's not how you use their shampoos though. You rub them between your hands just a few times under the water, put it down and rub your hands together and massive lather appears magically. You then apply that to your hair. This is how a shampoo bar keeps your hair awesome for nearly six months.

The jungle stuff is different in that you apply it directly, but I don't really care too much for it. It's okay but I have pretty light hair and it really does nothing if I use even a medium strength conditioner, so I stick to veganese and even then not if I'm going to put it up in any way.

Zombiemambo

Spacemilk wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Is there anything that doesn't give your hair extra body, but keeps it from being dry? My hair is puffy enough, but I need to wash it to prevent it from getting oily/not gross. I usually use a bar of soap but I doubt that keeps my hair in good condition.

Urgh, as someone already said, bar soap is the issue there - it's definitely not meant for hair and is probably stripping a lot of essential oils out of your hair, hence the poofiness (caused by stressed, dry hair that's not protected by essential oils) followed by oily grossness (your body will try to overcompensate and replace all of those oils immediately which results in overkill and grossness).

Essential oils: good for your hair, good shampoos will either not strip these or they will replace them so your body doesn't do it
Non-essential oils: gross oils from sweating or everyday life or stuff like that
Soap will strip away both which is BAD. Good shampoo will only strip away one of them. Conditioner will replace essential oils as well as add other stuff that will make your hair silky smooth.

Conditioner does NOT have to weigh your hair down. There are lots of conditioners out there that are volumizing. Also the amount of time you leave the conditioner on makes a difference - leave it on for 10-15 seconds, then wash it out with cold water - this will give you lush, shiny smooth locks that aren't weighed down. Your hair will look amazing!

I highly recommend Head and Shoulders for guys. This stuff is actually really good nowadays. Prevents dandruff, adds shiny, doesn't smell like a perfume bottle, and can be bought in shampoo&conditioner 2-in-1s which are probably good for guys (wouldn't be so good for girls though).

Shoot, no, my hair looks fine right now. I'm using the soap because it gets too poofy otherwise. It looks pretty good right now. I just wondered if there was a better option.

radroadkill

I always jump on the Lush bandwagon, but hey- I'm a huge fan and was a manager there.

Conditioner is something awesome to have but the fact is most "common" brands are loaded with silicones which cause some of that extra build up and weight and prevent the moisture from getting into the hair. Lush brand conditioners forgo the silicones; I know other brands do as well but I honestly can't name any off the top of my head.

If you're trying to keep the weight off I'd also recommend Big/Seanik (the solid version of Big). Both are loaded with sea salt to help rid the hair of oils and lift the hair follicle. They are also chok full of seaweed which is going to smooth and moisturizer the hair.

Best paired with the Veganese which is the lightest conditioner... also made with lots and lots of seaweed. Again, smooth, silkiness, without adding loads of crap that will build up and actually moisturizing the hair without the weight.


These are two great things to look for in any conditioner:

-no silicones
-seaweed


Other great things would be olive oil, coconut oil, yogurt, melon, soy milk, benzoin for a heavier moisture.

Edit: Bar soap will dry the hair out and make it super unhealthy. If you keep it short you might not notice it but it's definitely doing damage to the hair.

piL

I have hair that can get oily, but I wash it every day. My general routine is to wash my hair, apply conditioner, use a body soap to wash the rest of my body, then rinse off, including my hair, changing the water to cold water. Cold rinsing hair is the second best thing I've done for my hair. Number three is conditioner. Number one is only patting it down once with a towel, brushing it, and toweling it down again (as opposed to rubbing it dry with a towel). With proper planning, it takes only about six seconds to brush each time, meaning that I'm going less than half a minute out of my way.

I have fantastic hair.

Edit: I feel like I should mention, however, that this comes with the consistency of your hair. I'm not sure how 'oily' your hair is when you say oily. I don't like my hair if I don't shower for three days. I know a guy who, if he doesn't shower every day looks like his hair is wet. If its the second, this probably, in no way, applies to you. Since I take showers in the morning, I found a way to take better care of my hair without adding extra effort, other than not bursting through the door immediately after showering on cold days. What I mean is, YMMV.

Avicus

Conditioner is fantastic. IMO you should never wash your hair and not use it. Shampoo removes all the natural oils and stuff and dries out the hair. Using conditioner moisturizes it and prevents things like split ends. Trust me, not using conditioner will create a shitload of split ends.

When I got my hair bleached and it was severely damaged (as getting it bleached does) I was told to condition it every night and only use shampoo every 3rd night. Within two weeks I was back to normal silky smooth hair.