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We’re all looking for soft, silky, shiny, beautifully manageable hair. The question is, how can we manage that with all the abuse we give it? Finding the best hair conditioner is a must for every beautiful head of hair.
Whether you blow dry or air dry, use hot tools or not, your hair needs a little love, and, depending on its texture, we’ll help you find the right conditioning formula to make your hair the mane attraction!
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1. Redken All Soft Mega Conditioner
Pros:- Aloe and Sacha Inchi oil increase elasticity and reduce breakage
- The choice of many salon professionals and home users
- Huge bottle for the price
Cons:- May be too heavy for some
- Not as great for curly versus straight hair
- Super thick and somewhat hard to get out of the bottle
When it comes to choosing the right hair conditioner, why not pick a brand that is as popular with salon professionals as it is with the general public, like this Redken all soft mega conditioner? This conditioner is made to deeply moisturize coarse and extremely dry hair, with a pH-balanced formula that contains both aloe, known for its healing and moisturizing properties as well as Redken’s proprietary nourish complex.
Sacha Inchi oil helps to nourish and promote elasticity in your hair, minimizing breakage and split ends which means you can kiss those frizzies goodbye. Redken has a full line of all soft mega products, which when used in a regimen, can promote your hair health over the long term. It includes Redken all soft mega moisturizing shampoo and a leave-in conditioner for those days when you don’t have time for a deep conditioning treatment.
Find more Redken All Soft Mega Conditioner information and reviews here.
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2. It’s a 10 Miracle Deep Conditioner Plus Keratin
Pros:- Deeply conditions and moisturizes dry, frizzy hair
- Detangles and smooths, to help prevent split ends
- Protects against sun damage
Cons:- Pretty expensive for a small quantity
- Works better if you have lots of time to leave it in
- Not as deeply conditioning as some
- Can be difficult to rinse out completely
If you’re looking for a powerful hair multi-tasker, It’s a 10 Miracle Deep Conditioner promises to do ten things instantly, to give you more beautiful and manageable hair. Enriched with Keratin protein, it deeply moisturizes. This conditioner’s superior hair penetration helps to smooth and detangle, which is super important to prevent breakage and frizzy split ends. It also restores elasticity and strength, so your hair will be full of bounce and body.
If your hair is processed, this deep conditioner helps to protect your expensive color, keeping it from looking dull and faded. It also helps protect your hair from sun damage, and adds brilliant shine and shimmer. To add an extra level of conditioning, use this conditioner more like a mask. Leave it in your hair longer, and consider using a shower cap, along with some heat, to more deeply infuse more moisture into your mane.
The best moisturizing conditioner for dry hair, it is especially popular for people with bad frizz problems, who love the way it brings their locks back to life. For those days when you’re looking for a quick solution to the frizzies and fly-aways, spritz in the highly rated Amazon #1 Best Seller, It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-In plus Keratin. I personally like to use product combinations that are created to work together for a better end result. If you do too, try the It’s a 10 Miracle Shampoo as a precursor to conditioning.
Find more It’s a 10 Miracle Deep Conditioner Plus Keratin information and reviews here.
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3. L’ANZA Healing Smooth Glossifying Conditioner
Pros:- Leaves hair super shiny but not weighed down
- Awesome at detangling
- Just a little goes a long way
- Hair feels clean, not sticky
Cons:- Pretty darned spendy
- Too thick textured for some
- Updated formula not as popular as the original with many users
- Scent may be off-putting
You don’t always have time for a deep conditioner, so you need a daily conditioner that can rescue your hair from tangles and knots. L’ANZA’s light, creamy formula doesn’t weigh down hair, but it’s a heavyweight when it comes to improving manageability and increasing shine.
Fortified with keratin protein, this conditioner heals and strengthens your hair from the roots to the tips, while deep penetrating moisturizers restore softness to leave you with enviously beautiful hair. Organic coix seed smooths curly hair leaving it manageable and shiny.
Give your great hair a jumpstart with L’ANZA KB2 Protein Plus Shampoo, that helps to reduce breakage and restore elasticity to stressed tresses. If you have oily hair or use lots of product, L’ANZA KB2 Clarifying Shampoo leaves hair super clean and ready to soak in your conditioner.
Find more L’ANZA KB2 Leave In Conditioner information and reviews here.
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4. INFUSIUM 23 Orginal Formula Pro-Vitamin Leave-In Hair Treatment
Pros:- Curl enhancing
- Light formula doesn’t weigh down your hair
- Doesn’t dry sticky or crunchy
- Great for all hair textures and types
Cons:- You need a spray bottle to dispense it evenly
- Not conditioning enough for some
- Watery consistency
- Scent is too heavy for some
As a girl with lots of curl, I am always on the lookout for a leave-in conditioner that will soften and smooth my frizzies, without weighing down my waves. Infusium 23 PRO Original Leave-In Treatment has been one of my go-to choices for more than a decade now. As my hair transitioned from brunette to arctic blonde, it got drier and more coarse.
This formula infuses hair with a Pro-Vitamin B5 formula that deeply penetrates and repair the cuticle layers of your hair. It detangles and strengthens, while helping to protect your hair against breakage. It also gives you a whole lot more shine and luster.
I recommend getting a spray bottle to evenly coat your hair with this product, as the squeeze top doesn’t really do the best job of distribution. If you have long, or very thick hair, even a pretty heavy amount of this product won’t leave your hair crunchy or stringy.
For a little deeper conditioning, Repair & Renew Leave-in Cream is enriched with pro-vitamins, proteins and amino acids to give your hair beautiful body, especially if you wash with Repair & Renew Shampoo.
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5. R+Co Television Perfect Hair Conditioner
Pros:- Lightweight moisturizer
- Paraben and sulfate free
- Makes hair bouncy and shiny
- Detangles with just a small amount
Cons:- Frangrance is too strong for some
- A bit of a budget buster
- Not moisturizing enough for everyone
Even if you’re not a television personality, you can look like you should be, with envy worthy hair that’s beautifully conditioned. This conditioner from R+Co strengthens, softens and smooths while delivering tons of body and shine. It’s made with juniper berry extract, known for its detoxifying powers. It also delivers weightless moisture to your hair, so instead of feeling weighed down, your hair will be full of bounce and body.
It also uses Babassu seed oil, an emollient that deeply moisturizes hair, but is also rich in antioxidant vitamin E, to protect your hair from free radical damage. It also has natural antibacterial properties that make it especially helpful for those with itchy and irritable scalp issues. This vegan formula is gluten free, cruelty free, and made without parabens and sulfates.
This conditioner pairs beautifully with R+Co Television Perfect Hair Shampoo, but R+Co makes a huge line of conditioners and styling products that will make your hair camera worthy. Find exactly the formula that’s right for you here.
Find more R+Co Television Perfect Hair Conditioner information and reviews here.
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6. SheaMoisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Masque
Pros:- Works really well for dry, curly hair
- A little goes a long way
- Deeply moisturizes
Cons:- Can be difficult to rinse out
- Thick formula is more difficult to work through your hair
- Works better with time and heat
- Not as effective at detangling as some conditioners
If you have dry hair that is constantly breaking, this Manuka Honey & Maura Oil Intensive Hydration Masque from SheaMoisture has been specially formulated to be the best natural conditioner for hair. By infusing your hair with intense moisture and shine-enhancing nutrients, it helps protect your hair from environmental influences that can damage and dry. Using naturally healing recipes, with a modern twist, this mask can do a yeoman’s job of taming dry frizzy hair and healing damage.
To make this hair mask even more effective, add steam to the mix, or cover with a shower cap and heat it up to more deeply infuse moisture into the hair shafts. If your hair is damaged, you can make every day a good hair day with the Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen, Grow & Restore Treatment Masque from SheaMoisture. Users rave about this conditioner because it can and will get your hair back to looking healthy and strong in no time.
No wonder it’s often out of stock on Amazon. For even better bangs for your buck, the Manuka Honey & Maura Oil Intensive Hydration Masque comes in a two-pack at great savings. Organic shea and mango butters are blended with raspberry ketones, goji, acai, and guava extracts in the SheaMoisture 10-in-1 Renewal System Hair Masque. It helps to nourish, revive body, color protect, shine, hydrate, strengthen, increase manageability and soften your hair with its age-defying, anti-stress, superfruit formula.
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7. Arvazallia Hydrating Argan Oil Hair Mask & Deep Conditioner
Pros:- Deeply conditions
- Leaves hair soft and full of shine
- Promotes hair growth
Cons:- Results are best if you have lots of time to leave in before rinsing your hair
- Takes quite a bit of product to cover your hair
- Pricey compared to some
- A bit more difficult to wash out than some
There’s a reason this professional salon treatment is so popular with users. It helps to transform dry, frizzy lifeless hair into soft, silky locks that are easy to manage. This deep conditioner helps to restore damaged and processed hair, repairing each strand and transforming the texture, while at the same time promoting more natural hair growth with the help of Argan oil, well known as a natural growth enhancer.
If you’re looking to revive your lifeless mane, this thick formula deeply conditions, detangles, hydrates and renews shine, enhancing manageability and reviving a healthy natural look. Because it improves hair’s natural elasticity, you’ll fight less fly-aways and split ends, which is always a huge bonus. This deep conditioner is especially effective for permed and naturally curly hair, creating beautiful, defined curls with bounce and shine.
And if you’re wanting to cut down on the number of styling products needed to keep your hair looking its best, this mask and conditioner acts as a heat protectant, decreasing further damage from blow drying and hot styling tool use. For daily use, the Advanced Hair Repair Shampoo and Conditioner Set is a great way to keep your hair super healthy from the get go. If you’re sporting a head of curls that lean toward the fuzzy, Ultra Curl Defining Cream could be the key to perfect ringlets.
Find more Arvazallia Hydrating Argan Oil Hair Mask & Deep Conditioner information and reviews here.
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8. Beauty Without Cruelty Rosemary Mint Conditioner
Pros:- Smells fantastic
- 100 percent vegetarian formula
- Leaves hair silky, soft and shiny
- Easily rinses clean
Cons:- Pretty darned spendy
- Scent is too strong for some
- Heavy texture may feel waxy
- More difficult to rinse out than some
It’s not hard to see why this natural conditioner is rated so highly by its raving fans. The smell alone gets me on board. But the fact that this company has been cruelty-free for more than 50 years, also means their products align with my social conscience.
Formulated with organic essential oils to promote a healthy scalp and condition your hair, this conditioner also delivers an aromatherapy experience in the shower. The special, plant-based formula, is specifically designed to restore healthy shine and manageability to your hair.
Natural plant proteins, moisturizers, vitamins and therapeutic essential oils revitalize, strengthen, and protect your hair, while eliminating static, fly-aways and frizzies. It easily rinses clean, leaving you with perfectly pH balanced locks. You can count on this formula being 100 percent vegetarian. Beauty Without Cruelty makes a wide range of highly rated shampoos, conditioners and other natural hair care and body care products.
Find more Beauty Without Cruelty Rosemary Mint Conditioner information and reviews here.
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9. TIGI Bed Head Ego Boost Leave-In Conditioner
Pros:- Non-greasy formula
- Leaves hair smelling terrific
- Very affordable
- Good for thin or fine hair
Cons:- Scent is too strong for some
- Can leave hair feeling hard if used too heavily
- Doesn’t leave hair as silky as some
- Some packaging problems reported
If you want soft shiny hair, a quick spritz of TIGI Bed Head Ego Boost will boost hydration and leave your hair silky, smooth and detangled. This playful spray is great for a run and go refresher after a day at the beach, or a simple rinse out and blow dry. It helps protect your hair from the impact of heat, sun and whatever fun you’ve cooked up, but it’s light enough to leave you without stickiness or residue. We’d vote for this as the best conditioner for thin hair, because it’s such a lightweight formula.
It’s great for amping up your curls and it helps to curb breakage and split ends. It smells fresh without that chemical aroma, and has a light, fruity scent. The twist lock bottle also means it’s travel friendly without worry of leakage onto your clothes and other items.
TIGI Bed Head After the Party Smoothing Cream is another quick conditioning treatment that tames fly-aways and leaves hair silky smooth. It’s a quick pick me up after a long night when washing and deep conditioning isn’t an option. For daily washing and conditioning, try TIGI Bed Head Resurrection Shampoo & Conditioner duo. It’s a #1 Amazon New Release. For smoother hair and pumped up volume, Bed Head Superstar Blow Dry Lotion is a great way to amp up your blowout.
Find more TIGI Bed Head Ego Boost Leave-In Conditioner information and reviews here.
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10. Silk18 Natural Hair Conditioner
Pros:- 100 percent natural ingredients
- Makes hair soft and shiny
- Gives your hair tons of body
- Great for curly and color treated hair
Cons:- Maple scent is too strong for some
- Too heavy for some users
- Thick formula is difficult to get out of the bottle
- Kind of expensive compared to some
If you’re looking for silky, flowy, bodified hair, Silk18 natural conditioner does the job. It contains a blend that is formulated with eighteen naturally-derived silk amino acids, to tame frizzies and deeply moisturize dry hair. This conditioner naturally reduces static and gives you soft, shiny and easy-to-manage hair. Because it’s sulfate free, this natural conditioner is great for curly, and color treated hair, but it works equally well on all hair types.
It improves moisture retention, with jojoba and argan oils to strengthen, protect and increase shine. Botanical keratin helps to replenish low keratin levels – a common cause of frizzy hair. With an awesome list of natural botanicals and other ingredients, this conditioner contains no artificial fragrances, colors, sulfates, or harmful ingredients. Scented with 100 percent natural vanilla, your hair will smell as good as it looks. What’s not to love about having hair that smells almost like fresh baked pancakes?
This conditioner performs well with any of your favorite shampoos, but if you love natural hair products, Maple Holistics Argan Oil Shampoo is a great choice for soft shiny hair without using a detergent based shampoo. If you’ve already got super dry or damaged hair, Hydrate Moisturizing Shampoo features a natural formula, with carrot oil, parsley seed, silk peptides and almond oil, to promote new growth and eliminate breakage.
Find more Silk18 Natural Hair Conditioner information and reviews here.
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11. Desert Essence Organic Coconut Conditioner
Pros:- Awesome natural ingredients
- Heavenly scented
- Leaves hair soft and silky
- Great for curly hair
Cons:- Very thick
- Can leave hair feeling oily if overused
- Doesn’t detangle as effectively as others
- Fragrance is off-putting to some
Just the thought of putting luscious coconut oil into your hair makes you want to do it, right? Then you think of the scent and the way it will soak into your hair. Desert Essence Coconut Coconut Oil Conditioner gently heals damaged hair with a host of delicious organic ingredients. Organic jojoba oil adds to the moisturizing effect, making your hair and scalp look and feel healthier.
Organic olive oil and organic sunflower oil leave hair soft and silky without weighing it down, while organic shea butter helps it retain moisture. This natural conditioner is 100 percent vegan, wheat and gluten free. It contains no parabens, sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, phthalates, artificial colors, silicones, EDTA, glycol or petroluem based ingredients, and is cruelty free.
Coconut conditioner also comes packaged with the Desert Essence Coconut Shampoo in a bundle that saves you a bundle. The Green Apple and Ginger shampoo and conditioner pack is also highly rated for helping cleanse your hair of environmental pollutants.
Find more Desert Essence Organic Coconut Conditioner information and reviews here.
How Can I Find the Right Hair Conditioner for My Hair?
If you've got extremely dry, coarse, or frizzy hair, deeply hydrating formulas are best. The same is true for super curly hair. If you have time to use them, hair masks are amazing, and they're even better if you add heat or steam to the moisturizing mix.
Just slather up your mane, twist it into a clip, and let the shower steam take over, or use a shower cap and hairdryer to deliver the best benefits. For days when you're more pinched for time, quick moisturizing conditioners will keep your hair soft and supple. When you rinse out any of these products, using cool water will help to seal the hair cuticle and hold in the moisture.
Often, it's more a matter of experimentation to find what works best on your specific hair type.
What Are Leave-In Conditioners Good For?
If you have fine, thin, or wispy hair, heavy conditioners are likely to fall flat — or at least make your hair limp and lackluster. To avoid helmet hair, leave-in conditioners are an awesome option.
Leave-in conditioners are most often lighter formulas that help with detangling while adding shine and bounce, but not weight. Leave-ins are also great for days when you want to refresh your hair, without washing it. And I love them for helping to create those sweet beachy waves after a day of sun and swimming.
Leave-ins are also great as quick moisturizers prior to blow drying as they help eliminate static and increase shine without feeling heavy.
What Conditioner Is Best When My Hair Texture Changes?
Since your hair texture is likely to change over time, you'll never find a single conditioner that's right for you forever. Hair changes as we age, and encounter health circumstances. (I can personally attest to the fact that grey hair gets dryer and a lot more wiry.)
Pregnancy and medical treatments can definitely switch things up and impact the way your hair behaves, feels, and looks. In those circumstances, consider organic and natural shampoos and conditioners. These natural hair products can give you the confidence that you're not introducing chemically based ingredients to your skin, hair, and potentially, your unborn baby.
There are literally thousands of conditioners for different hair types, textures, and even colors. There are conditioners for oily hair, and even some that promise to help increase your hair growth. So how do we pick the best?
We've only included the most highly rated products in this post, so if you're looking to leave static and frizzies behind, tame the fly-aways, and strike a blow to split ends, the best hair conditioner can be your powerful partner in crime.