Moisturizing Hair at Home: Let’s Look at Hair Product Ingredients

Contents

Before moisturizing your hair at home, you should choose a shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask. In this article, we will talk about what makes your hair dry and frizzy and what ingredients in hair care products have a hydrating effect. Read on to find it out and learn a good and easy recipe for a homemade moisturizing hair mask.

Causes of Dry Hair

The hair has a complex structure:

medulla;
cortex;
cuticle.

According to the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, ten layers of cuticle are necessary to protect a hair well. However, due to improper care, they can start peeling off here and there, which makes hairs thin and prone to breakage.

So, what factors can damage the hair cuticle apart from a wrong choice of cosmetic products?

Physical impact, for example, rubbing the hair with a towel after washing it.
Excess heating that makes water evaporate from the hair.
Chemicals after failed dyeing experiments or other unsuccessful procedures.

Moisturizing Shampoo: Essential Ingredients

The main task of a shampoo is to clean the hair, which it does with the help of its main active components — surfactants.

Surfactants, or surface-active agents, are chemical compounds that strip scalp and hair of sweat, sebum, and hair styling agents and let them be rinsed out with water. Surfactants differ in intensity. It’s important to choose a shampoo that contains appropriate surfactants for your hair type to avoid removing too much sebum that keeps your hair soft, shiny, and easy to comb.

Sodium lauryl sulfate

This shampoo component suits oily hair as it has better cleaning properties than other surfactants.

Important! After washing, your hair becomes coarser and difficult to detangle, so do not skip hair conditioner.

Sodium laureth sulfate

This is a gentler surfactant. It is used in shampoos for normal and dry hair as it not only cleans well, but also keeps the hair soft.

Cocamidopropyl betaine

This component is one of the gentlest surface-active agents. It does not irritate eyes, so it’s even added to children’s shampoos. Use products with this surfactant for thin or dyed hair to make them more supple.

pH level

Another aspect of a shampoo that influences your hair is the pH level. In shampoos, it ranges from 1 and 17, with 7 being neutral, like water. If the pH level is over 7 — the shampoo is alkaline, if it’s less — it’s acidic.

Damaged and dry hair should be treated with acidic shampoos with pH at 5.5-7 or alkaline-free ones with pH at 4.5-5.5. They also help to deal with dandruff.

As for normal or oily hair, choose neutral or alkaline shampoos with pH at 6-8.

Acidum glycolicum

This component helps to keep scales of the hair cuticle stuck to the hair shaft. Glycolic acid should be present in your shampoo if your hair has been colored or permed, to avoid making the already damaged hair even more vulnerable.

Moisturizing Conditioner: Essential Ingredients

A moisturizing hair conditioner has two tasks: restoration and protection. Some of its ingredients build in the structure of the hair, provide nourishment, capture and trap water. Others smooth out cuticle scales, protecting the hair from damage.

Keratin

Human hair by 80% consists of the α-keratin protein that makes it strong and elastic. If your hair is damaged as a result of coloring or improper care, you can get keratin deficiency. To improve the situation, use a keratin-containing conditioner. Keratin collects between scales, seeps inside a hair, and builds in your natural protein, making the hair more solid and resistant to physical impact, heat, and cold. Keratin also forms a smooth film on hairs.

Hydrolyzed silk peptides, silk amino acids

These ingredients are extracted from fibroin — a protein present in silk. They have a hydrating effect, capturing and trapping water.

Coconut oil

Of all oils, coconut oil is the closest to proteins found in human hair. This is why it is able to penetrate the hair shaft and keep it strong despite any physical and thermal impact.

Argania spinosa kernel oil

The benefits of argan oil are not an invention of marketologists. Apart from a cosmetic effect, it is also used to treat seborrhoeic dermatitis, eczema, and psoriasis. Argan oil can substitute sebum, making the hair naturally soft, moisturized, and bouncy. Linoleic acid that is present in argan oil stimulates the growth of new cells, while oleic acid has a strengthening effect. This kind of oil also contains vitamin E that is essential for healthy hair.

Macadamia oil

Macadamia nut oil has a similar effect as argan oil. It contains oleic acid that softens, hydrates, and helps restore cells. Vitamin E has the ability to bind water, trapping moisture inside. Macadamia oil also contains squalene that participates in cellular regeneration.

Dimethicone

Dimethicone belongs to silicones that serve to smooth and straighten the hair, making it shiny. They create a thin film that reduces static and makes the hair silky to the touch and easier to brush. Silicones also help to trap water, restore scales, and protect from rapid temperature changes.

Moisturizing Hair Mask: Essential Ingredients

Moisturizing hair masks are used after shampooing and before conditioning the hair to let the conditioner seal all useful components. A mask is applied to the entire hair length in line with the instruction to give the product time to get absorbed.

Specialists recommend using a moisturizing hair mask once a week, or else the hair won’t have enough time to process all hydrating and nourishing agents and will become heavier, losing volume at the roots and becoming harder to style.

Important! Do not apply a mask to the roots as it can make them greasy.

Hyaluronic acid, polyquaternium-10

Hyaluronic acid traps moisture inside the hair and makes it more elastic. It works well together with polyquaternium-10, a conditioning agent that makes the hair supple and helps hyaluronic acid to stay on the hair longer.

Biotin

Biotin belongs to the vitamin B family. It facilitates the production of fatty acids that keep skin nourished and elastic, strengthen nails and hair follicles. Biotin helps the hair to grow faster and makes it healthier.

Aloe vera

Aloe vera hydrates the hair, makes it more elastic and easier to brush. It contains vitamins, minerals, and collagen that builds cells.

Moisturizing Hair Spray: Essential Ingredients

Hair sprays are used for hydration and thermal protection. It is applied to wet hair before blow drying or to dry hair before styling with a curling iron.

Panthenol

Panthenol is usually used for healing wounds and burns. Panthenol restores and smooths hairs by creating a thin film. It works similarly to hyaluronic acid: binds water molecules, penetrates the hair structure, transports and traps water.

Carob tree extract

This is a plant extract that contains active protein-based elements. It makes the hair smoother and stronger.

Cystoseira compressa seaweed extract

This extract smooths scales and restores the cortex that contains proteins.

Moisturizing Oils

Oils are used to remedy lipid deficiency and fill the space between scales of the hair cuticle. You can use orchid, macadamia, shea, argan, and jojoba oils.

There are several different ways of using oil for hair. You can apply it 20-30 minutes before washing the hair, add to a mask to improve its performance, or apply to clean wet hair to make it elastic and shiny.

Important! If you do not wash your hair every day, do not use oils more than 1-2 times a week.

Best Vitamins for Hair

Vitamin A

Vitamin A influences the process of cell division, growth, and restoration, facilitates protein and lipid exchange. Vitamin A deficiency can cause hair loss.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E stimulates cell turnover and strengthens hair, preventing brittleness and facilitating growth.

Important! Before starting to take vitamins, consult with your doctor and make sure that you are not allergic to them.

Easy Homemade Moisturizing Hair Mask

Let’s learn how to make a moisturizing hair mask at home from beer and olive oil. Beer contains phytoestrogen that makes your hair shiny and brewing yeast that creates a slightly acidic environment for better attachment of scales to hair shafts. Olive oil acts as a conditioner.

Homemade beer hair mask

Mix one glass of beer with one teaspoon of olive oil. Apply to clean wet hair, let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then rinse it out.

We have discussed how to choose hair moisturizing products and even learned to make one at home. However, if you carefully study labels and follow a meticulous hair care routine, but don’t see any result — consult with a specialist. Perhaps, the root of the problem is not in your hair, but elsewhere in your organism.

How to Moisturize Your Hair at Home