Best Moisturizing Shampoos For Your Hair

Best Moisturizing Shampoos For Your Hair

When you're looking to enhance the moisture in your healthy hair regimen, your greatest source of moisture will always come from your moisturizing shampoo and deep conditioner. While water based moisturizers will offer you some much needed daily moisture, nothing can beat your moisturizing shampoo and deep conditioner for hydrating the hair. If your moisturizing shampoo and deep conditioner aren't up to snuff, then you will find that you are fighting a losing battle as far as maintaining a proper moisture balance is concerned.

Moisturizing shampoo is shampoo that tries to keep the pH of the hair at about its natural level, around 5.0 or so. When the pH of the hair gets too high, the hair becomes too alkaline, and the cuticles open, the hair becomes dry and brittle, and the shine disappears. Is the pH of the hair gets too low, on the other hand, it will become hard and rough. So a big part of moisturizing shampoo is aiming to keep the hair in that sweet spot between the cuticles opening too much, and the hair becoming too hard. A good conditioner will help heal any damage you may have caused with a rough shampoo, and help to replenish some of the oils that you’ve stripped away with your shampoo. On the other hand, conditioner can only go so far, so the less damage you can cause, preferably by using a good moisturizing shampoo, the healthier and more vibrant your hair will be in the long run.

First and foremost, you want to look at how many sulfates the shampoo includes. Sulfates help shampoo do its primary job, removing dirt and gunk from your hair, but they can also remove too many of the natural oils from your hair, making it overly dry. A good moisturizing shampoo has a single sulfate in it, but anything more than that and it is designed to strenuously cleanse hair, not to moisturize it. There are a wide range of sulfates used in shampoos, but some of the most common are sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate, and ammonium laureth sulfate.

Both ammonium lauryl sulfate and ammonium laureth sulfate are particularly harsh on hair, designed to clean especially dirty hair, not to moisturize. Similarly, if faced with a choice in your moisturizing shampoo, the laureth sulfates are gentler than the lauryl sulfates, and sulfates like tricedeth or sodium myreth are even gentler still. Moisturizing shampoo that contains sodium myreth, in particular, will tend to be much more focused on moisturizing your hair.

Of course, shampoo isn’t much good if it isn’t cleaning your hair. So it’s important that there be something the shampoo doing its job. Once you cut out sulfates, either most or all of them, you’re left with a few options for gentler cleansers that indicate you’re using a truly specially-formulated moisturizing shampoo. Lauryl polyglucose, isethionate, and cocamidopropyl betaine are some of the most common of this gentler class of cleaners, or surfactants.


One last thing to look out for are the relative amounts of ingredients in your moisturizing shampoo. Many manufacturers have become savvy to the fact that their consumers now know ingredient lists cover ingredients from most to least, by law. So what they will do is include all of the herbal and plant-based ingredients at the top of the list in a long grouping, ending it with “in water” or “in purified water”, which makes the quantity much larger because it is in water, when in fact there is likely very little of these ingredients present. Take care to look further down the list to look out for sulfates anyway, and don’t be fooled by the presence of jojoba or ylang ylang into thinking you are buying a gentle moisturizing shampoo.

Best Moisturizing Shampoo
The best moisturizing shampoo for your hair depends on the texture and thickness of your hair. A shampoo that is full of moisturizers may weigh fine hair down too much. Hair that is particularly dry or frizzy needs a moisturizing shampoo with a lot of conditioners to keep it soft and manageable. Always read the ingredient list on the back of the bottle to make sure the shampoo does not contain chemicals, such as sulfates, that will dry out your hair. In some cases, the best shampoo may be a salon version instead of a version from the drugstore.

Many shampoos contain sulfates, such as ammonium lauryl sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate. These ingredients help the shampoo thoroughly clean your hair and provide a great lather. One of the downsides of sulfates is that they strip your hair of its oils, drying it out. Ideally, a moisturizing shampoo shouldn't contain them.

Ingredients to look for on a bottle of shampoo include emollients and conditioning oils. Some moisturizing shampoos also contain silicone. While silicone will smooth hair and create shine, it's an ingredient to avoid if you have fine hair. It can build up on your hair and eventually weigh it down. Other ingredients to look for on a bottle of moisturizing shampoo include amino acids and hydrolyzed wheat proteins.

Consulting with your hairstylist may be an option if you are still unsure about the best shampoo for your hair type. She can make recommendations based on the thickness of your hair, its texture, and how much treatment your hair has undergone. Keep in mind, though, that some salons sell hair products. Your stylist may make a suggestion with the goal of you purchasing the shampoo from her. If you cannot get a good recommendation from your stylist, ask friends or family members which shampoos work best for them.

When looking for good moisturizing shampoo products, here are some general things to consider:
The best moisturizing shampoo can effectively clean hair while keeping it soft and shiny. Anyone with dry, damaged hair could benefit from a moisturizing shampoo. The key is to make sure the shampoo softens strands well without weighing them down. Moisturizing shampoos are designed to gently clean and rehydrate hair. Whether your hair is naturally coarse or just dry and brittle from the weather (especially the dry winter air), a good moisturizing cleanser can make all the difference.

Everyone's hair is different, and will respond differently to certain shampoos. The key is to find the one moisturizing shampoo that works best for your hair type. What works great for someone with thick, curly dry hair won't necessarily work that well for someone who has thin, fine, brittle/dry hair. Experiment, but keep in mind that some moisturizing shampoos are way more expensive than others (try sample sizes if at all possible). Want to make your straw-like dry hair shiny and silky once again? That's what a good moisturizing shampoo can do. Again, vote for the shampoos you like best, and if you're really into sulfate-free shampoos, check out this list of the best sulfate free shampoos around!


When a label says that a shampoo is a "moisturizing shampoo" or that the product "infuses the hair with moisture," this may not always be the case. Always check product claims against the ingredients. The ingredients will help you determine whether the shampoo formula you are dealing with is a moisturizing shampoo formula or not. You want a moisturizing shampoo that balances its cleansing ability with its ability to soften and moisturize the hair.

1.) Are there harsh sulfates in your moisturizing shampoo?
The main thing you want to look for in your moisturizing shampoo is the presence of sulfates. Sulfates are surfactants or detergents that are used in shampoos to help clean the hair. Examples of sulfates include: ammonium lauryl sulfate, ammonium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, and sodium laureth sulfate. The more sulfates a moisturizing shampoo contains, the more dirt and buildup it is able to remove from your hair. However, multiple sulfates in a moisturizing shampoo formula usually reduces its ability to effectively moisturize the hair. Here are some general rules of thumb for moisturizing shampoos:

If your moisturizing shampoo contains MULTIPLE sulfates-RUN! A shampoo like this is not intended to actually moisturize the hair. It is ONLY formulated to remove stubborn deposits and buildup from the hair. A shampoo with multiple sulfates will be better at clarifying your hair than moisturizing it. In a standard shampoo formula there's about 45-75% water, and 30-40% surfactant (detergent). These percentages do no leave much room for conditioning agents if you've got multiple surfactants packed in the formula. Multiple sulfates generally mean that you aren't looking at a moisturizing shampoo formula at all.

A great percentage of shampoos with Ammonium lauryl or Ammonium laureth sulfate, in particular, are not moisturizing shampoos. These detergents are very drying and stripping; they will NOT assist with maintaining your moisture balance at all. These sulfates are the harshest cleansers of them all, so a "moisturizing shampoo formula" that contains either of these detergents should be avoided.

2.) Is the sulfate in your moisturizing shampoo the Laureth or Lauryl version ?
If you must use a sulfate based moisturizing shampoo, remember that the "laureth" version of the sulfate detergent is always easier on the hair than "lauryl" version. If you are choosing between a moisturizing shampoo with sodium laureth sulfate and a moisturizing shampoo with sodium lauryl sulfate, go with the sodium LAURETH sulfate moisturizing shampoo. This one will be more moisturizing. Sodium myreth and tricedeth sulfates are some of the gentler sulfate derivatives, so a moisturizing shampoo with these in the formula will be fairly moisturizing depending on the rest of the ingredients in the formula.

3.) Does your moisturizing shampoo contain gentle surfactants?
Even though you are avoiding stripping sulfate cleansers in your moisturizing shampoo, a shampoo is useless if cannot clean and lift buildup at all. Healthy surfactants you want to look for in a moisturizing shampoo are: Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Lauryl Polyglucose, Sulfosuccinate, Isethionate, Hydroxysultaine. These are called secondary surfactants, so they are much easier on the hair. Primary surfactants are the harsher sulfates listed in the previous paragraphs.

4.) Salon vs. Drugstore Moisturizing Shampoos?When deciding between a sulfate-based salon moisturizing shampoo and a sulfate-base drugstore moisturizing shampoo variety, go with the salon moisturizing shampoo. The salon version will more than likely contain a mightier dose of emollients to counter the sulfate detergents in the formula. Many drugstore shampoos contain large amounts of water and cleansers, but they often skimp on emollients, fatty acids, and conditioning oils.

In some cases using this shampoo has been shown to help people suffering from eczema on the scalp. Gently massaging the liquid on to the head can help to reduce itchy, dry and inflamed skin. It is best to research the product before use and maybe even check with your doctor to make sure that it is OK to use with this type of skin condition.

When washing your hair you also need to ensure that all dead ends are cut off, otherwise the shampoo will not have much of an effect because it works at the roots. This means that dry ends will not be cured, they need to be removed and as you continuously use the treatment you will notice healthier hair as it grows. Bare in mind that this process will not happen over night, it takes time for your hair to benefit.

Often you will find that these types of hair products need to be left in your hair for a short amount of time, usually not exceeding fifteen minutes. By doing this the ingredients have a chance to really nourish your hair, therefore producing a better outcome.

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