– True or false, there is no such thing as the best shampoo and conditioner. What do you guys think? True or false? The answer is true, the best shampoo and conditioner does not exist. What, let’s get into it.
Okay, so this is such a debated topic in the hair industry and also in my men’s hair and bearded community, Mannered Manes on Facebook, which you guys should come join if you haven’t. It’s the best place to get inspiration and tips from men growing out their hair and their beard. I’ll leave a link in the description. And on that note, smash a like and subscribe button.
It is 100% free.
Only about 15% of you guys who watch my channel are actually subscribed. So, I would really appreciate a like and subscribe. But going back to the topic. So I’ll see someone post about a specific shampoo conditioner brand and say that, man, this is the best one. It makes my hair silky smooth and soft.
And then someone else comes in and they’re like, no, no, no, stay away from this brand. It dried my hair out, it gave me itchy scalp and it gave me a dandruff. And then I’ll get all these follow-up comments of people who are like, oh dude, I just bought this brand and they start second guessing their choices. And then all of a sudden nobody is certain about anything anymore. And they’re back to square one on what the best shampoo and conditioner is to buy.
That’s because the answer is there is no such thing as the best shampoo and conditioner for everyone because everyone has a different hair type. There is only the best shampoo and conditioner for you. So how do you find the best shampoo and conditioner for you? There are so many options out there. You have moisturizing, volumizing, strengthening, hydrating, thickening, et cetera, et cetera.
Well, in this video, I’m gonna give you a simple three-step process that I will break down. But first I want to draw your attention to something. Why is there so much contradicting advice when it comes to choosing our hair care products? We have information flying at us from all different directions. You got to go sulfate free.
You must go silicone free, avoid anything with fragrances, health, throw your shampoo away. It’s the devil only use conditioner. Only wash your hair with water. Anything manmade in your hair is ruining your hair. It makes me think of “Water Boy”, like “Mama said, the hair industry is the devil”.
Sorry, there are several reasons that you have all this advice and the first is of just marketing, right. What’s the best way to sell a product and that’s to make an enemy out of the norm in the industry. And then you’re the brand that goes against the grain. So the problem is you can only do this so many times before people start to get decision fatigue from the thousands of options all claiming that the other side is wrong.
The second reason is that everyone’s hair is different.
So all those methods might work for someone but it doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. So what you’re left with is in your face marketing from something that may or may not work for you because hair is not one size fits all. So the easiest way to solve this problem is actually with today’s paid sponsor, which is Formulate which is a company that doesn’t claim to be for or against anything. They actually make customized shampoo and conditioner for your specific hair type, right.
They understand shampoo and conditioner is not one size fits all.
So they have you take a hair type quiz and then they connect you directly with the chemist. So you can find a unique shampoo and conditioner that works specifically for your hair. And I think this is actually the future of the industry right here. This company has basically said, okay enough with the overgeneralization of products let’s solve for each individual. They also have an amazing app you can use to like tweak your ingredients and you can follow up with a chemist or the technician if something’s not working or if your formula needs to be changed.
And they’re very responsive, right. They’re really helpful when it comes to answering your questions and figuring out what the best formula for you is. They also offer sulfate-free, paraben-free, phthalate free and they have options if you want to go vegan or silicone free as well. So check out Formulate if shopping for shampoo and conditioner is a headache for you. I’ll leave a link in the description.
They’re a great company. I use them myself.
If you’re the type of person who just wants to go on Amazon or run to the corner store to pick up your products then I’m going to share with you this simple three-step process for how to figure out what the best shampoo and conditioner is for you. So here’s that three step process you can use right now. Step one, figure out what your hair type is.
You can do this by downloading my free hair type PDF to discover that or you can also watch my ultimate guide to men’s hair type video as well. I break down every single component of what goes into a hair type and also on the document at the end, you can fill in the blank spaces to enter your own hair type into those boxes. So once you have that information figured out step two is to take that information and start shopping for shampoo.
So many people think shampoo is for cleansing your hair. This is actually wrong.
Shampoo cleanses your scalp and it unclogs your pores from sebum dead skin, dirt buildup in your follicles. And then it picks up any remaining residue on your hair shaft as you rinse so all the way down. So in my hair type PDF, the number one section that will define what shampoo you should shop for is your scalp moisture levels which are balanced, dry, oily or combination on the chart. The exception is if you have curly hair and by curly hair I mean, you have a type three or type four hair type. Then you’re gonna want to buy a shampoo made for curly hair.
These are usually similar to dry scalp shampoos because curls need gentler cleansers and they need more moisture than straight hair. So shop for shampoos that are more hydrating and less clarifying. The best thing to do is to find a shampoo that explicitly markets itself for curls because it will contain ingredients that also help define those curls as well as tame frizz.
For my guys who don’t have curly hair, scalp moisture levels, this is what you wanna look at. So if you have a dry scalp, you’ll want to avoid buying shampoos that market themselves as cleansing, clarifying, detoxing.
These are meant to fight oily scalps. You’ll want to look for shampoos that say hydrating, moisturizing or smoothing. You’ll also want to look at the ingredients on the back and more specifically the detergent. So if you have dry scalp or flakes then you will want to stay away from sulfates and probably sulfonates as well. So things like sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate and probably sodium C14 to 16 sulfonate as well.
Those are really strong detergents that might be too harsh for a dry scalp. You’ll want a gentle surfactant, something like decyl glucoside, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium lauroyl methyl isethionate. All of these detergents are also found in Formulate as well but if all of this science jargon sounds like gibberish too, like don’t worry.
I already did like all the science for you. And I’ll leave links in the description for specific products.
So you don’t have to go look on the back and look at all the ingredients. I’ll leave links in the description. So you just say dry scalp, click, click, click, boom. If you have oily or combination scalp which I define as your hair or your roots are really greasy within 24 to 48 hours after shampooing, then you’re gonna wanna look for products that say cleansing, detoxing or clarifying. In this case, depending on the severity of the grease, a sulfate shampoo once a week might actually be a good option to add to your regimen.
You will wanna be careful not to over cleanse though because that actually could lead to your scalp over producing oil as well. So having a sulfate free cleansing shampoo in between your deep cleansing washes will be really helpful.
Again, I’ll leave links in the description for the products that you will want. I don’t want to get too complicated in this video on things like how to wash your hair correctly, how often a shampoo or not shampoo because I have covered all that in another video. Go check out my other video on how to wash your hair correctly.
Linked in the description. If you guys have a balanced scalp, which I define as your scalp staying balanced in terms of oil production up to three to five days after one shampoo, then you can start using some other factors to pick your shampoo. For example, if you have thin density and you want to add volume, you can start looking for a volumizing shampoo. If you have really fine hair like me, and it needs strength, you can shop for shampoo with protein in it, shop for a strengthening shampoo. So having a balanced scalp moisture level really allows you to shop for kind of whatever your desired result is.
And the good news is if you can get away with using almost all the detergents. So for example, I have a balanced scalp and I use beard brand, which uses a gentle detergent.
I also use Formulate which I wanted them to have a gentle detergent as well. And then every five to seven days I might go a little bit stronger with my Zenagen shampoo and conditioner, which uses ammonium lauryl sulfate in it. So that is something that I use into my regimen that I’ve found by trial and error.
But I find when I use gentler shampoos I can go about five days until I need a shampoo again. And then when I use a stronger shampoo I can almost go week before needing a shampoo again. So moving on to step number three and that is how to choose a conditioner.
The purpose of conditioner is to replace the moisture that you lost from shampooing, right. So it helps balance out your pH, your hair’s pH.
It helps tame your frizz. It helps smooth out your cuticle and it helps increase shine of your hair so that this is not your scalp. So the general rule is to choose shampoo for your scalp and choose a conditioner based on your hair’s condition. So if your hair is brittle or dry or damaged then you’ll want something more moisturizing. If your hair is greasy, you’ll want something much lighter or water-based.
If you have a combination scalp which is oily roots and dry ends, then you’ll want to choose a shampoo that’s best for cleansing your scalp and it conditioner best suited for moisturizing your dry ends. And if your hair is balanced, then finding something in the middle of the road there will be your best option. Again, Formulate is great because they can customize all of this stuff for you and you don’t really have to think about it.
And then going back to my guys with curly hair. You’ll want to shop for conditioners made specifically for curls to help moisturize without losing that curl definition and weighing those curls down.
So if you have oily or limp hair, then you’ll want to avoid labels like hydrating or moisturizing and look for something like balancing or lightweight or strengthening. If you have dry hair, you’ll want to avoid kind of the strengthening conditioners and look for something that is more smoothing, hydrating and moisturizing to add moisture back into your dry hair. You can also look for frizz control. If your hair is really damaged from like heat or chemical treatments, then you can even look for stronger conditioners with words like repair or protect. So for example Olaplex is a really good option for treating damaged hair.
A lot of the professional stylists use it and it’s really good but again, I’ll leave a link in description for all these products for your hair type.
So you can go and directly shop for those products. If you’re the type of person who just wants it done for you and you don’t want to waste time shopping, then you can check out Formulate or any of the links that I’ll leave in the description but they will be your one-stop shop for your hair type and putting together the right products for you. So click the link in the description and sign up and I’ll see you guys in the next video, peace. (coughs) Hair’s looking all right.
I guess, just woke up like. Also in my men’s hair and beauty. So once you have that figured out Hair in my mouth like always..
Read More: How To Properly Condition Your Hair | Conditioner Mistakes that are RUINING your Hair
