Moisturizing or Nourishing Shampoo: Which Should You Choose for Your Curls?

• The common confusion between hydration and nutrition: link to the associated article

Shampoo plays an essential role in scalp care and health. Every scalp is different, and hair needs the right products. Improper shampoo use can lead to unwanted effects such as itching, dandruff, dryness, and even excess sebum.

When chosen correctly, shampoo helps preserve and improve hair health. This restores the scalp's natural balance, strengthening the hair fiber. It contributes to the beauty, shine, and vitality of hair every day.

Confusing these two concepts can lead to inappropriate care.

• Why it's crucial for textured hair

Textured hair (curly, frizzy, kinky) is often drier and more fragile than straight hair. The spiral shape makes it harder for natural sebum to circulate, making this hair more vulnerable to breakage, split ends, and loss of length.

• Objective: understand and adapt your routine

It's essential to know your hair type, including whether it's wavy (type 2), curly (type 3), or frizzy/kinky (type 4). Each hair type has its own specific needs, but they share some common characteristics, such as a spiral shape, a tendency to dryness, and a certain fragility.

The bottom line: The tighter your curls, the harder it is for your hair to retain moisture. Therefore, it's crucial to develop a routine tailored to your hair's specific needs, including cleansing, moisturizing, nourishing, and protecting.

For example :

• Dry or irritated scalp → choose soothing oils like jojoba or tea tree.
  
  

• Frequent breakage → incorporate protein treatments once or twice a month.
  
  

• Loose curls → use styling gels or creams suited to your texture.

Often, you struggle to know which shampoo to choose. You ask yourself: Does my hair need nourishment or hydration?

Hydration involves revitalizing hair by providing it with water to prevent dryness, frizz, and loss of suppleness. Dehydrated, dull, or coarse hair especially needs it.

Nutrition, on the other hand, aims to provide lipids (fats) to deeply nourish the hair fiber. It is essential for dry, brittle, or damaged hair.

Curly and frizzy hair often lacks both moisture and nutrition, which is completely normal. Its naturally coiled and tightly coiled shape prevents the sebum produced by the scalp from being distributed evenly along the entire length of the hair. As a result, the lengths are often much drier.

Additionally, textured hair is generally more porous: it absorbs water quickly, but loses it just as quickly, making it difficult to maintain hydration.

Their hair fiber is fragile, and when it is poorly hydrated or poorly nourished, the hair becomes brittle, dull and rough.

This is why curls need:

• water (hydration) to stay supple and elastic,
  
  

• lipids (nutrition) to retain this water and strengthen the hair fiber.
  
  

These two elements are inseparable: without hydration, nutrition is ineffective; without nutrition, hydration does not last.

There are some telltale signs that hair is lacking moisture or nutrition. Hair becomes dry, feels rough and lacks suppleness. It can also appear dull, lacking natural shine, as if the hair fiber is "dusty." Another common indicator is breakage: the ends become brittle and break easily, giving the impression that the hair is no longer growing or is getting shorter. Frequent knotting and difficult detangling can also be a warning sign: hair clings to each other, forming clumps, which further accentuates its fragility. All of these signs indicate an urgent need to rebalance your hair care routine by focusing on moisture, nutrition, or both.

It is necessary to use a moisturizing shampoo after the summer, when the hair has been exposed to the sun, sea salt or chlorine from the pool. And this dries out the hair fiber. Using a moisturizing shampoo then helps restore the water supply, while gently cleansing without further attacking the scalp. It is also an excellent option after periods of high heat, repeated blow-drying or if your hair shows signs of dryness such as breakage, frizz or loss of flexibility.

After coloring, straightening, or repeated exposure to heat, the hair fiber becomes fragile and defatted. The hair then becomes split, brittle, and coarse. Nourishing shampoo helps restore the lipid barrier and strengthen the hair structure by providing it with the essential lipids it needs. It also helps restore softness, suppleness, and shine, while preventing breakage.