We put our hair through a lot from blow-drying to dyes to pollution so treat your hair to a spa day with the best deep conditioner. All hair types need a drink now and then to stay supple and strong. I’ve broken down these top hair masks into pros and cons so you can easily find the right one for you and reveal how gorgeous and healthy your hair can look. Upgrade the rest of your hair care with the best organic shampoo.
Treat your hair to a trusted, higher-end mask with this Loma Hair Care Deep Conditioning Treatment which works well with all hair types and excels at leaving hair soft, supple, and strong. The all-natural formula has lots of organic ingredients and a nice balance of oils and botanical extracts.
For deep hydrations, the treatment includes organic aloe vera (the first ingredient–not water), organic shea butter, organic olive oil, and avocado oil. The mask returns needed protein to your strands with hydrolyzed quinoa and nourishes with botanicals like baobab fruit extract, lavender oil, fennel seed extract, along with vitamins E and B-5.
The mask has a delightful citrus scent imparted real orange, tangerine, and grapefruit peel oils. It’s cruelty-free and free from soy, gluten, sulfates, and parabens.
The Crede ER Treatment offers a nice balance of hydration and protein. It was developed in Japan, where it is still a bestseller, as a deep conditioning treatment following Japanese hair straightening. This straightening process, also called thermal reconditioning, is considered permanent and breaks down the protein bonds in hair strands.
The Crede ER Treatment fills in those gaps, building the hair surface back up and restoring its strength. It has a base of avocado oil and is chock full of proteins including keratin, collagen, natto (soy), and casein (a protein found in milk).
Since it’s a protein-heavy treatment you don’t want to use this one too often, but as a monthly or bi-weekly strengthener, the results are impressive with soft, strong, and more manageable hair.
Living Proof is a unique mask that leaves your hair feeling soft and shiny but also weightless with zero residue. The benefits of this moisturizing treatment last for days longer than other masks because of Living Proof’s signature ingredient: Octafluoropentyl methacrylate.
What is that? Other than a solution that’s patented for hair products, I don’t rightly know, but I can tell you what it does. Octafluoropentyl methacrylate won’t directly affect your hair, but it will coat the cuticle and change the way water enters and exits your hair, preventing loss of moisture and keeping your hair soft and silky.
This coating can last through a couple of shampoos so your hair stays healthier longer and you won’t need to use this every day.
Living Proof is extremely thick and creamy and it’s great for all hair types. Its addition of jojoba and meadowfoam seed oil is beautifully hydrating for natural type four curls. This is not a protein treatment and is sulfate-free.
What’s special about this luxury Regenerating Mask by Christophe Robin is the prickly pear seed oil and they’re not kidding when they say it’s rare. The seeds of this cactus are very difficult to harvest. Each seed is smaller than a grain of rice and only contains between 5-10% oil.
It takes an enormous amount of seeds to make even the smallest bit of this oil and is considered one of the most expensive oils in the world. So why bother when you see argan oil everywhere you turn? Prickly pear seed oil contains loads of vitamins, anti-inflammatories, amino acids, omega fatty acids giving it a luxurious, rich texture.
This mask is suitable for all hair types. You get just over eight ounces and it tames frizz, smooths split ends, and deeply moisturizes. This is not a protein treatment but will revitalize dull hair. For those of us with color-treated hair this contains inula extract, a plant in the daisy family, which protects and brightens pigments, giving dyed hair a boost of color.
The mask also contains oakmoss and is free of parabens, sulfates, silicone, SLS, phthalates, and artificial dyes.
SheaMoisture is one of the most well-known brands in moisturizing hair for a reason and their Jamaican Black Castor Oil Treatment Masque is just one more piece of proof that they deserve all the hype. It’s formulated to support naturally coiled hair as well as hair that is dry and brittle from chemical treatments like perms, chemical straightening, or heat.
Black castor oil has been used for generations to help strengthen hair so it’s a perfect fit for a hair mask. SheaMoisture combines it with organic, free-trade shea butter, avocado oil, mango seed butter, macadamia oil, coconut oil, aloe vera, and olive oil for a deeply hydrating treatment. Peppermint oil stimulates the scalp and has been shown to promote healthier follicles which leads to healthier hair growth which is why you’ll often find peppermint oil in hair growth shampoos.
The addition of apple cider vinegar is clever because it’s a natural hair conditioner that helps to remove build-up, so there’s less of a chance that your hair will feel weighed down after rinsing out the mask.
Pros:
Black castor oil and ACV
Free of silicone, sulfates, parabens, phthalates, and petroleum
If you have damaged hair either from chemical straightening, color treatments, bleaching, or heat damage, check out Vitamin’s Keratin Hair Mask. Using a combination of deep moisturizing oils and hair building blocks like biotin, keratin, and collagen, this mask can help repair damaged hair. It can smooth over split ends, strengthen brittle hair, tame frizz, and add heat protection to prevent damage in the future.
This mask uses a blend of argan oil, castor oil, coconut oil, linseed oil, jojoba oil, and sweet almond oil to quench dry damaged hair and return a healthy level of moisture without weighing hair down. To stimulate the scalp into growing fuller, healthier hair, Vitamin includes rosemary oil, tea tree oil, and sea buckthorn oil which have been shown in studies to fight hair thinning. If that’s a concern, consider adding a hair growth shampoo to your routine.
This hair masque controls frizz and returns moisture lost from styling, coloring, and heat. It hydrates with a blend of illipe nut butter, murumuru butter, mango seed butter, shea butter, capuacu butter, and sweet almond oil. That’s some dense moisture there and your hair will thank you.
Oribe has a signature botanical blend of watermelon, edelweiss flower, and lychee extracts to protect the keratin already in your hair and protect it from oxidation. This mask also includes baobab fruit extract which is packed with vitamins and antioxidants.
It’s a 10 Magical Hair Mask is a moisturizing treatment that helps to repair stressed, tangled hair. It hydrates with sweet almond oil and apricot seed oil. Oat and linseed extracts add nutrients and vitamins to your scalp and hair cuticles.
This mask greatly increases the elasticity and strength of your hair while leaving it silky soft. It’s a great match for dry, damaged hair.
This is as thick as body butter and even if your hair tends to be greasy, this is still a wonderful pick me up for your hair, just focus on your ends keep it off your roots. This is one mask that tends to need to sit on your hair a little longer than some of the others and you probably want to leave this in for at least 10 minutes. Another option if you have dry hair is to use a smaller amount of it as a leave-in conditioner.
As far as hair types, this one is great for finer, dry hair that seems to need regular treatments closer together and less for those with type three or four hair.
SheaMoisture Superfruit Complex 10-In-1 is a thick, buttery treatment that is highly moisturizing. It contains rice protein and biotin to strengthen hair and increase volume, but where this one shines is in its moisturizers. The SheaMoisture SuperFruit Complex has organic coconut oil, shea butter, mango butter, avocado oil, and marula oil. This one is perfect if your hair is really thirsty and is a good fit for natural hair in the type four range.
As far as the super fruit claim, this mask delivers extract of goji berries, acai, raspberry, guava, and sweet potato (not a fruit, but that’s fine). These are full of antioxidants and help heal hair and protect it from future damage.
For the happy, frizz-free hair, apply it to damp hair, cover it, and leave it on for around 30 minutes. You get a hefty 12-ounce jar and for the price, you’re looking at around one dollar per ounce which is absurdly good value for such a great mix of oils and extracts.
Aunt Jackie’s Curls & Coils Coco Repair is a smart and well-loved pick for people with curly or coiled hair from 2C to 4C curl patterns. This treatment is intensely hydrating, making it best for dry, fragile hair types and less for thinner hair that has a tendency to look oily.
Coco Repair packs in the moisture with coconut oil, shea butter, mango seed butter, avocado oil, olive oil, flaxseed oil. Silicones help to prevent tangling and help your strands retain moisture. For hair that has been damaged or is prone to breaking, Coco Repair adds hydrolyzed keratin and hydrolyzed vegetable protein.
I love that the product is affordable as this price is for a big 15-ounce jar when most products you see are eight-ounce jars.
The Arvazallia Hydrating Argan Oil Hair Mask focuses on moisturizing and making your hair smooth and shiny and not so much on building up protein. Argan oil is the moisturizing base and it’s great for all hair types but especially for taming frizz.
This is a treatment that relies more heavily on ingredients I can’t pronounce. That doesn’t mean it isn’t effective at binding moisture to your hair and giving it that heavenly silky feeling because it is–but for some people, labels that read like a chemist’s shopping list are a deal-breaker. That said, it is paraben and sulfate-free.
One of its main ingredients is Cetearyl alcohol. When we think of alcohol, we think of something very drying, but Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol that will not dry out your hair. It’s what makes the conditioner creamy and slick.
This is a good choice if your dry hair is leading to lots of knots and tangles because the slipperiness will help you separate your strands with less tugging. If tangled hair is a recurring problem read my guide to the best detangling brushes.
The Honey Miracle Hair Mask by Thank God It’s Natural is an American-made conditioner focused on deep hydration and detangling. Give your curls a deep drink with raw honey, aloe vera, jojoba oil, and olive oil. It uses water-soluble silicones to help separate hair strands and prevent knotting. These silicones can make very fine hair or hair that tends to be on the oily side feel a little heavy so thin hair folks should stick to silicone-free masks.
You get a nice big 12-ounce jar for a decent price. It’s free of parabens, lanolin, sulfates, petroleum products, and artificial colors.
Alikay Naturals Honey & Sage Hair Mask is an all-natural that is 90% organic and made in America. You’ll feel good looking at all the plant-based ingredients and a lack of harmful chemicals. It moisturizes with aloe vera, extra virgin olive oil, coconut-derived cetyl-alcohol (the hydrating kind of alcohol), and babassu oil which is a cousin to coconut oil.
Sage leaf oil, nettle extract, rice bran oil, rosemary oil, and eucalyptus oil nourish your scalp and honey helps your hair hang onto moisture after you’ve washed the mask off. Silk amino acids and wheat germ oil provide essential building blocks for stronger hair.
This is intended to be a deep treatment and worn for 20 minutes with heat or 30 minutes without heat.
For hair that needs a deep, rejuvenating drink, there’s Camille Rose’s Algae Renew Conditioner. It’s loaded to the brim with quality moisturizers like mango seed butter, shea butter, jojoba oil, hemp seed oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, and aloe vera. This is a great choice for people with very thirsty curls.
To support your locks with more than moisture and prevent breakage, this hair mask supplies a long list of nourishing botanicals including honey, blue-green algae, green tea, rose hips, evening primrose oil, biotin, peppermint, and vitamins E and B-5.
The blue-green algae, the second ingredient in this hair mask, is high in protein as well as being an antioxidant and having anti-inflammatory properties. This can help to calm the scalp and strengthen hair.
Amika has a cult following so it’s worth checking out their Soulfood Nourishing Mask to see what all the people who are in love with their signature fragrance and how soft their products leave your hair are talking about. Their trademark ingredient is sea buckthorn berry oil which contains antioxidants, omega fatty acids, and vitamins A and C. For more hydration, they add jojoba oil and fatty alcohols.
Fans of Biolage’s hair care products will be thrilled to see they have a whole line of Biolage Hair Masks for different hair types.
The FiberStrong Deep Treatment is formulated for fragile and over-processed hair. It’s packed with moisturizers and bamboo extracts to return strength to stressed hair.
Biolage HydraSource Deep Treatment is made for dry hair with hydrating aloe vera and black castor oil as well as a nourishing boost from blue-green algae.
Their SmoothProof Deep Treatment for frizzy hair uses black castor oil and camellia flower extract to tame your frizzy mane.
Their ColorLast Deep Treatment is for color-treated hair and the specific type of damage hair dye can cause. It uses castor oil, apricot seed powder, and orchid extract to restore luster and shine to chemically treated hair.
Formulated for black hair, My Black Is Beautiful’s Intense Recover Treatment will hydrate thirsty locks and smooth over damage and frizz. You’ll notice a difference after the first use. It uses coconut oil, coconut milk, honey, and non-drying fatty alcohols to hydrate dry hair. It also uses mink oil-derived silicone to fill in cuticle gaps and seal hair strands against future moisture loss. Just keep in mind that if your hair tends to get weighed down easily, you might want to avoid silicone products.
Macadamia Professional Nourishing Repair Masque quenches dry hair with macadamia nut oil and vitamin-packed argan oil. This is a good fit for people with dry and frizzy hair as it contains an effective anti-static agent. Plus it has a dreamy citrus vanilla scent.
While your hair will certainly walk away from this deep conditioner moisturized and soft, the focus on the Artnaturals Argan Oil & Aloe Mask is repairing and restoring damaged hair. It’s great for all hair types, but especially for heat-damaged and color-treated hair.
Have you done bad things to your hair during quarantine and now it’s throwing a tantrum? This mask was designed for you. It contains argan oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, and macadamia nut oil as its moisturizers and quinoa protein for strength.
Where this hair mask shines, is in its use of botanical extracts like sea buckthorn, peppermint, tea tree, rosemary, frankincense, lavender, and marigold to revitalize the natural shine and life of your hair and improve scalp health. Plus it’s free of parabens, sulfates, and GMOs.
Yes, this is yogurt for your hair. Hairgurt makes sense when you think about it–yogurt is full of proteins, fats, and often fruit.
So why buy this instead of throwing your breakfast on your head? Does your yogurt contain mango butter, sweet almond oil, hazelnut oil, macadamia oil, hazelnut oil, raspberry seed oil, and pomegranate seed oil? Because if it does, please stop eating it–you’re going to get sick.
Your hair, however, will love it. Throw in prebiotics and quinoa protein and you’ve got a hair mask ready to rescue the frizziest hair.
This is a four-ounce tube of Strawberry Banana hair mask that is formulated to help reduce frizz. Hairgurt is paraben free, sulfate free, and not tested on animals.
If you want something totally natural to feel good about putting on your body, this is COCO&CO.’s Coconut Oil. It’s cosmetic-grade coconut oil and nothing else. This can be used as a hair treatment, body lotion, lip balm, shaving cream, and more.
As a hair treatment, coconut oil is easier to work with when it is softened. Below 76 degrees Fahrenheit coconut oil is a solid. If it’s chilly in your house, it’s really solid and you’ll want to warm the oil up in the microwave until it’s a workable consistency.
The coconut oil in your grocery store is made from dried coconuts, processed with chemicals to reduce the smell, and bleached to remove color. COCO&CO.’s coconut oil is extracted by centrifuge from fresh coconuts just a few days off the tree.
No chemical processing means a purer finished oil safe for all applications. As a hair mask, this will add softness, shine, and moisture to all hair types, but coconut oil is particularly great for curls. That said, it can be too hydrating for some hair. Those with fine or oily hair may find that this is too heavy for them. This a hydrating treatment only and isn’t for strengthening as there isn’t any protein.
It’s available in tubs from 4.5 ounces to 32 ounces. Since it’s 100% raw coconut, it’s free of parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and gluten.
If you have damaged, over-processed hair, give the Silk Vénom Keratin Treatment Masque a shot. With a high content of keratin, vitamins, and moisturizers, it can help revive damaged hair and give renewed strength, elasticity, and shine.
The mask hydrates with aloe vera and meadowfoam seed oil along with moisturizing fatty alcohols. (Not all alcohols are drying.) It also contains burdock root extract and rosemary extract to nourish your hair and scalp. Rosemary extract has been found in studies to promote hair growth but if that’s the effect you’re looking for, your best bet is to get a hair growth shampoo.
This Calily Life Argan Mask is great for dry, frizzy hair and hair that has been damaged from over-processing or styling with heat. It moisturizes and softens hair to a silky shine.
Argan oil, sweet almond oil, and glycerin hydrate while algae extracts and Dead Sea minerals to help your hair hold onto that moisture longer. It also contains silicones which create a seal over your strands to protect them from heat and pollution damage.
Silicones are also perfect for detangling if that’s an issue you have but if you’re prone to oily hair, I would keep this one off your roots and silicone can feel greasy.
The one thing I’ll say is that it claims to increase hair growth but I don’t see mention of any ingredients that have been independently proven in studies to promote hair growth. Plus a hair mask is meant more for your hair mids and ends rather than your roots. If you’re looking to fight thinning hair, consider a hair growth shampoo instead.
Pros:
Green algae and Dead Sea minerals
Great for taming frizzy or tangled hair
Organic
Cons:
Works best on dry or damaged hair
Not a protein treatment
Contains silicone
A deep conditioner can unlock the stunning hair that's hidden underneath your dry, heat-damaged mane. These hair masks give locks the pampering they deserve.