Leave-in conditioners are unlike traditional conditioners. This is due to the fact that, as the name would suggest, they get left in your hair rather than being washed out with water.
This allows the benefits of the conditioner to last for longer than just using a traditional conditioner would.
Leave-in products offer the hair additional moisture, leaving it shinier and softer. Plus, it can protect the hair from damage by coating the hair with a protective layer.
This leaves a thin slick layer on each hair strand and can also make it easier to detangle.
Leave-in conditioners can also protect the hair from being damaged or broken by brushing through knots too vigorously. Almost every hair type will benefit from a leave-in hair conditioner.
However, the effects are most noticeable on hair that is dry, damaged, or frizzy.
Here are a few reasons how leave-in conditioner can help different hair types:
Hair Type
Dry hair
People with dry hair can benefit most from leave-in conditioners because they are excellent at putting moisture back into the hair.
Dry hair can lead to damage and excess frizziness, so add a leave-in conditioner to your routine.
Damaged hair
Hair can become damaged from a number of things, from heat to chemicals. Leave-in conditioners can protect the hair strands from any more damage occurring through styling or chemical treatments.
Frizzy hair
The number one cause of frizzy hair is dryness. So, it stands to reason that a leave-in conditioner would add the necessary moisture back into the hair and reduce how much frizz you have to deal with.
Curly hair
Curly hair tends to have a more coarse texture which can also benefit from additional moisture that comes with leave-in conditioners.
This is due to the fact that the natural oils from the scalp take longer to travel down the hair strands.
Leave-in conditioners can speed up this process and leave the curls looking healthier.
Bleached or colored hair
Bleach strips your hair of all its moisture and makes the strands incredibly porous. This leaves it desperate for moisture and feeling very dry and brittle.
Colored hair is not as extreme as this, but it can still be damaged thanks to the color treatments. A Leave-in conditioner can help improve the appearance of bleached or colored hair.
Fine hair
Traditional conditioners tend to weigh down fine hair and leave it looking flat and dirty, even after you’ve just washed it.
Leave-in conditioners can be more lightweight so that you get the benefits of a conditioner without it weighing your hair down.
Applying the leave-in conditioner only at the ends of fine hair is best to reap the benefits without getting the drawbacks.
Can you use a leave-in conditioner every day?
While you can use a leave-in conditioner every day, it doesn’t mean that you should. Just as your hair needs a few day’s breaks between washes to keep it healthy, it also needs a break from the leave-in conditioner.
It might seem like using a leave-in conditioner every day would be good for your hair – after all, if your hair needs a lot of moisture, you should give it what it wants, right?
However, this can create a build-up of product on your hair and do more harm than good.
Many people might use a leave-in conditioner every day because the benefits of the product have worn off.
If you apply a leave-in conditioner and see that it leaves your dry, frizzy hair feeling lovely and smooth on day one, but by day two it’s reverted back to its original form, you’re going to want to use another helping of the product.
However, when the hair is not given a chance to breathe it can become dull and lifeless very quickly.
Leave-in conditioner not only creates a build-up on the strands, making them greasy and heavy, but it can also build upon the scalp too.
This prevents your natural oils from being able to pass down the hair strands, depriving the hair of these benefits.
It can also make your hair dirty quicker, and leave your scalp feeling itchy and irritated.
In worst cases, a build-up of product on the scalp can even lead to infections.
Build-up on the scalp can also lead to hair not being able to grow and breaking off. Unless you want to stunt your hair growth indefinitely, you should not use too much leave-in conditioner.
So, don’t use a leave-in conditioner on your hair every day. Instead, try applying it once a week. If you’re finding that your hair is looking dry halfway through the week, you can try using it twice a week instead.
You will be able to figure out how many times you can use a leave-in conditioner a week that is best for your hair.
Just be sure to work up to this number, trying not to use it more than once every two days.
What is the difference between hair serum and leave-in conditioner?
Unlike leave-in conditioner, hair serum is a styling product that leaves your hair strands coated in a thin layer of silicone. This protects the hair from heat damage by styling.
Styling your hair with heat can dry it out, damage the strands and cause them to split or break, and make it more frizzy.
Using a hair serum gives the hair an additional layer of protection instead of leaving it unprotected and touching a boiling hot surface. The heat will then burn the serum rather than your hair, while still allowing it to be styled.
While a leave-in conditioner does help damaged and dry hair look healthier, it’s not as effective as protecting the hair from styling damage. It will offer some protection, but nowhere near as much as a hair serum will.
Hair serum can be used to prevent damage from occurring to the hair, while a leave-in conditioner is best used to repair the hair after the damage has occurred. For best results, some people use both a serum and a leave-in conditioner to get the best of both worlds.
