Rainbow is curious…I don’t understand, when you apply your shampoo, your hair gets really rough and when you put on conditioner your hair gets really soft. What happened? and also i want to know, is conditioner ACTUALLY being absorbed by your hair?
The Left Brain explains:
The difference is simple. Shampoos contain cleansing surfactants like SLS, SLES or other detergents. These materials surround oil, lift it off and get rinsed away with the water. Shampoos do not necessarily dry your hair. What they do is remove all the oil (unless you’re using a 2-in-1). This makes the hair feel more dry.
Conditioners also contain surfactants, but these are conditioning surfactants. These surfactants have a positive charge on them which makes them “stick” to the damaged, negatively charged proteins on hair. So, when they are rinsed away, things like cetyl alcohol and other ingredients in the conditioner are rinsed away. Conditioners also contain silicones that will stick on hair and are not rinsed away. Conditioners mostly remain on the surface of hair but they do penetrate (absorb) to a small degree.
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Please tell us then, do deep conditioners penetrate more than rinse off (if not, how are they different)?
And if so, is this because of the leave-on time or because of the actual ingredients?
And will a rinse off conditioner left on longer (as some instruct to do before rinsing out) act the same/more comperable to a deep conditioner?
Between the three, rinse-offs, ‘deeps’, and leave-ins, what are the differences/do we (generally taking all hair types into consideration) need all 3? Is this question too loaded?
PS Im super new and love the site!
“Deep conditioners” are actually more of a marketing term. They are typically just thickened versions of regular conditioners. Take a look at the ingredients!
But if a deep conditioner contains Coconut oil then there might be some added benefit. The truth is, the way conditioners work once it’s been on your hair for a minute, it will not penetrate significantly deeper.
What’s the difference? That could be a question for another time but basically, leave-ins are like regular conditioners but without the heavy ingredients that make conditioner creamy. There is little difference between deep conditioners and regular ones except for the thickness and the marketing story.
Why do people believe that if conditioner ingredients penetrate deeper their hair will be better? Why would you want to walk around with oils or surfactants in the core of your hairs? You don’t. You want to “close” (tighten the chemical bonds at) the hair cuticle, and coat it so the hairs don’t dry out or get damaged as much.