How To Choose a Hair Conditioner

With hundreds of different types of hair conditioner on the market, it can be hard to know how to choose the best one.  Everyone's hair is different, so what worked like a miracle salve for one person might make another person feel that her hair actually looks worse.  The following steps can help you find the conditioner that is the best for your hair type.

1. Open your mind to brands you might not have thought to try before.  For example, some Caucasian women with very dry, easily-damaged hair have found great success with conditioners designed for the hair of African American women.  If you are under the impression that inexpensive store-brand conditioners are of inferior quality, why not give them a try?  You may be pleasantly surprised, as many women find that they truly cannot tell the difference between the bargain-brand conditioners and the more expensive brands.  If you have only tried the inexpensive conditioners, you might want to give a salon-quality conditioner a try if it is within your budget.
2. Read the ingredients of conditioners you have tried but disliked.  There may be a problem ingredient they all have in common.  For example, while some women love what protein extracts do to their hair, others find that protein makes their hair sticky, heavy, or frizzy.  Another set of common problem ingredients includes silicones; some women find silicones to be wonderful smoothing agents, while others find them to build up, make hair dull, and weigh it down.
3. Experiment.  Give different brands or types a try.  Even if you have oily hair, you might find a conditioner for "dry and damaged hair" to be the most moisturizing without having a problem of it making your scalp to oily.  Before trying a new brand and giving up, give it time to work; you may dislike it at first and then realize that it does good things for your hair.
4. If you find a conditioner you love but it seems to stop working after a while, try a clarifying treatment.  It may be leaving substances on your hair that moisturize at first but build up until they weigh hair down; clarifying hair will remove this, enabling the conditioner to "work" again.  Mixing 2 tablespoons of white vinegar with a cup of water and rinsing your hair with it will remove this buildup.

Experimentation is the key to selecting the right conditioner out of the wide variety on the market.