How To Buy Hair Products : Deep Conditioners

Hello ladies,

When its comes to a hair journey, your deep conditioners should be the products you get through/finish most quickly. Our hair loves and needs regular deep conditioning to thrive. Conditioners can be a little confusing to buy because there are soooooo many types and most claim to be repair damage, stop breakage, moisturise, strengthen, repair split ends etc.

So how do you avoid becoming too confused when trying to decide which deep conditioners to buy ?
As I mentioned in the How to Buy Shampoo post, to make product buying easier it is best that you know what you need and get familiar with product ingredients

 

What Do You Need: Conditioners

You need two types of conditioners on a hair journey:
1) – A protein deep conditioner – strengths our hair
2) – A moisturising deep conditioner – softens our hair and makes it elastic

I have written a very detailed post about the functions of protein and moisture conditioners and how to use them. If you are not familiar with protein and moisture balancing, I encourage you to read it. You can find that post here.

 

 

How To Buy Deep Conditioners

A Protein Deep Conditioner

  • Products are usually grouped together by brands, eg, all of Organic Roots Stimulator products usually be grouped together, from their shampoos through to their styling products.
  • Start by looking at the conditioners of the brands you are familiar with.
  • Look at the ingredients at the back of the bottle or jar and see if the following ingredients are listed. Preferably one or more of these ingredients should be amongst the first 5 items found on the ingredient list.
    Keratin
    Collagen
    Pathenol
    Soy protein
    Silk protein
    Oat protein
    Wheat protein
    Amino Acids

Please note that some of these proteins may start with the word hydrolyzed, eg hydrolyzed wheat protein or hydrolyzed soy protein.

A Moisturising Deep Conditioner

  • Start by looking at the conditioners of the brands you are familiar with.
  • Look at the ingredients at the back of the bottle or jar and see if the following moisturizing ingredients are listed. Preferably one or more of these ingredients should be amongst the first 5 items found on the ingredient list.
    Aqua
    Cetearyl alchohol
    Cetyl alchohol
    Stearyl alchohol
    Urea
    Glycerine
  • Please note that there are many more types of moisturising ingredients that may be found in moisturising deep conditioners. Those listed above are some of the most popular ones which are commonly used by product manufacturers.

 

 

My Personal Favourite Deep Conditioners

Protein: Vitale Olive Oil Hair Mayonnaise

vitale

This contains a lot of great ingredients and most of the proteins it contains are hydrolyzed. Hydrolyzed proteins are better at being absorbed by our hair than non-hydrolyzed protein.
This conditioner also has more slip than other brands I have tried and my hair just seems to react well when I use it. The only con for me is that it can leave a lot of residue in our hair as it is quite thick so thorough rinsing is essential when using it.

 

Moisture: Motions and Herbal Essences

I can’t pick one, I love my Motions Moisture Plus and I love my Herbal Essences Hello Hydration. Both of these have a thick consistency which my texlaxed hair loves and both really boost my hairs elasticity.

The Motions Moisture Plus contains mineral oil, a synthetic oil which isn’t the best for hair ( natural oils like olive or coconut would be better). For a long time I kept fighting the fact that my hair seemed to do well with this product. I kept trying to find a better alternative but I always came back to my motions. I decided to listen to my hair…and we are both happy.

motions_conditioner_13oz

The Herbal Essences Conditioner contains a lot of silicones and can sometimes make my hair feel a little weighed down but it the elasticity it gives my hair is worth it.

Herbal essences

Tips for Buying Hair Products in Nigeria

Have a Side Chic

This is probably the only scenario in which I will encourage having side chic
If you have been on a hair journey for a while, you will have found products you use and re-purchase regularly because they work well with your hair ( ie your staple products….your main chic).

In Nigeria, sometimes particular products can become scarce or difficult to find. It is best that you have a back up product which works well enough with your hair so that you can use it as a substitute until your staple is back in stock. For example my staple protein deep conditioner is Vitale olive oil hair ,mayonnaise but if I cant get my hands on it I am happy to use Aphogee 2 Minute Reconstructor.

 

I hope this post will help buying your deep conditioners a little bit more straight forward. Again, if  you are new to deep conditioning I recommend that you read the post on deep conditioning which explains the functions of each type of conditioner and why we need both.

Ladies what are your favourite deep conditioners? Do you have a side chic conditioner?

x

Lade

 

 

 

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18 Comments

  1. Jhennique
    August 2, 2015 / 4:14 pm

    I loooove hello hydration. Its like magic in a bottle but I use it for rinse out and detangling only.
    My favorite moisture conditioner is the Jessicurl deep conditioning treatment. Protein is the aphogee curlific texture treatment or the millcreek biotin conditioner. With the aphogee tho I don’t need to follow up with a moisture treatment. Its like two in one.
    I judge the effectiveness of a conditioner by how long the effect lasts on my hair. Some work great immediately after use and by the next day my hair is dry and brittle again.

    • omolade
      Author
      August 10, 2015 / 11:14 pm

      Thanks for sharing Jhennique. Great tip for judging the effectiveness of your conditioner.

      My hair gets really dry and I usually NEED to moisturise and seal at the latest, two days after my wash day regardless of what deep conditioners I have used.

      happy hair journey
      x
      Lade

  2. August 2, 2015 / 7:18 pm

    I had never used a protein moisturizer before and last weekend I tried the vitale mayonnaise. It left my hair okay. But I was shocked at the residue left despite rinsing like three times! I didn’t want to go back in the shower again…luckily it wasn’t much. at some point I was thinking maybe it was cos I used heat. It’s good knowing I didn’t do anything wrongly per se and someone else experienced this.

    • omolade
      Author
      August 10, 2015 / 11:08 pm

      Oh yes you have to spend a lot of time rinsing out the Vitale…and loads of people have said the same thing to me about it.
      so its definitely not just you 🙂

      x
      Lade

  3. pem
    August 3, 2015 / 6:23 pm

    Thanks so much Lade for this beautiful post, your blog have rescue my damage hair. I discovered your blog on April this year since then I have read all articles more than ones. Keep the good work.

    • omolade
      Author
      August 10, 2015 / 11:05 pm

      Thank you so so much Pem. I will try>
      Lol on reading my articles more than once. I do that too when I am researching and learning. I guess things just stick more that way.
      Happy hair journey
      x
      Lade

  4. Mimi
    August 5, 2015 / 11:36 pm

    Hi Lade, ur blog has helped me so far nd av learnt a lot. Presently I use ORS replenishing conditioner as my protein conditioner while I use Cantu shea butter leave in as my moisture conditioner. Please I hope am right with the products. Thanks am really looking forward to your reply.

    • omolade
      Author
      August 10, 2015 / 11:03 pm

      Hello Mimi

      Thank you so much for your comment.
      The ors replenishing conditioner is one of the fe conditioners that is moisture and protein balanced. It is great if it works well on your hair.
      The cantu shea butter leave in contains small elements of protein.
      Again if your hair has been responding well to these products then you can carry on using them.
      IF however your hair begins to feel very dry and brittle you may need to use some moisture only products.
      I hope that helps
      xxxx
      Lade

    • Kuukua
      September 21, 2015 / 1:15 pm

      hi mimi, the cantu argan oil leave-in is a moisturising leave while the cantu shea butter leave-in is a protein one. i inferred from their ingredients lists.

  5. zaezi
    August 9, 2015 / 5:21 pm

    Lade ! Maryam! I finally relaxed after 3 mnths 2wks nd it went soooooo well! (i wish i cud post pictures). I had neva used a proper deep conditioner before .I was only using eggs.(Ignorance). But after i read d newest chapter in my hair bible (dis post) , i rushed to a shop nd miraculously d only one sitting on d shelf was ur fav . Vital .I grabd it went home did my relaxing nd deep conditioned. Ah! No wonder vital is ur favorite .. my hair loved it.Its smooth slippery nd excellent. When divided into braids of ten , a single braid is now 23cm.( dnt knw how long in inches) .I know ull b proud of ur student #winks#

    • omolade
      Author
      August 10, 2015 / 10:54 pm

      Hello Zaezi
      Yes I am super super proud of you. I am soooo glad it went well and well done on your stretch.
      I am also pleased the vitale worked well for you. I hope you have a moisturising conditioner.
      Please please send a picture to rehairducation@gmail.com
      xxxx
      x
      Lade

  6. August 14, 2015 / 2:04 pm

    Dear Lade, you are just wonderful, I subscribed just to read your post, I can say is worth it on my search let me apologise for not sending my comment for about two months since I started reading your lovly post, in fact your post is like an absorbable novel I have been reading it over and over and over again I even have a jotter with which I write down some of your personal Product I want to purchase which I strongly believe will work well for me please I want to purchase wig by type 4, I don’t know how to go about it cus henceforth, no more braiding and any hair style that will rec havoc on my hair. So sorry for the long post if I express my self, I think this post may not contain it.

    • omolade
      Author
      August 31, 2015 / 5:53 pm

      awwwwwwwwwwwww
      thank you…so much…..
      I am happy Hairducation has been helpful to you….. I hope all you have learnt helps you on your new hair journey
      x
      Lade

  7. wunmi
    August 14, 2015 / 2:58 pm

    Hi,nice articles on your blog. Any help for those of us,naturals?

    • omolade
      Author
      August 31, 2015 / 5:27 pm

      Hello Wunmi
      thank you
      a lot of my posts are relevant for natural ladies but you know what…maybe I should do some post focusing just on natural hair care……and maybe transitioning…..
      Stay tuned and thanks for the suggestion
      xx
      Lade

  8. Busayo Korede
    August 26, 2015 / 11:10 am

    Hello Lade. Thanks for the post. But can you put me through on how to apply it….do I wash with shampoo first before applying or I apply directly on my hair then shampoo? Thanks

    • omolade
      Author
      August 31, 2015 / 5:25 pm

      hello Busayo
      My pleasure
      I shampoo, rinse, deep condition, rinse and then apply my leave in conditioner on damp hair.
      Please read the how to care for black hair section of this blog. I think you may find it helpful
      x
      Lade

  9. Kuukua
    March 13, 2016 / 4:30 pm

    Hi Lade. have you ever tried the ors hair mayonnaise? if you have, can you compare it with the vitale hair mayonnaise? which one in your opinion is better? thanks