Why It Can Be Hard Finding Good Shampoo for Black Women’s Hair

Along with a healthy diet, well-made hair care products can help you to keep your hair healthy and beautiful. They can provide your hair with the ingredients it needs in order to look its best and do what you want on any given day. You just need to find the right products that will work well for your hair type.

Natural hair folks already know that their textured hair requires different care than other hair types. You will walk up and down the aisles of the hair care section looking for products that will complete every step in your routine and treat your tresses the way they deserve.

When creating your routine, you want to start off with the basics and work out from there. If you do not have a good shampoo and conditioner, you are not likely to have a good hair day for a while.

We've noticed that shampoo in particular has become an issue for many in the natural hair community. It seems like many are having a hard time trying to find the perfect shampoo that will kickstart their wash days nicely. While there are certainly many shampoo bottles on the market these days, there are only so many that would actually work for Black hair.

Shampooing has become such a frustrating step for some people, that we often see people choosing to cowash more than they used to, just to avoid dealing with a shampoo they do not really like. Unfortunately, you can't just co-wash every week and expect your hair to thrive that way. You need to get back to regular shampooing at some point, but it will have to be a shampoo for Black women’s hair that really works.

We are going to break down what we want and don't want from shampoo made for kinky or curly hair. By the end of this, you should feel like you really understand why you may have been having such a hard time finding a shampoo for Black women’s hair that works for you. You were never the problem and neither was your hair. You just needed the right products to show you what your wash day could be like.

Common Issues With Shampoo
Let's make things clear. All shampoos are not made to be the same. They are formulated to serve different types of hair, each with their own needs.

The one consistent thing they are supposed to do, however, is cleanse the hair. Although one type of shampoo may not have worked for you, there could still be others that do work. A part of learning what works for you is learning what doesn't.

If you know what to avoid, you can quickly cut down your options and get to what you really want to see. This could also help you to better understand why you may have had trouble in the past with the shampoos you've purchased.

Drying
One of the most common problems that shampoos create for those with textured hair is over-stripping and drying. If the shampoo you are using is too strong, it can strip your hair of its natural oils and leave it feeling super dry.

As any curly hair queen should know, dehydration is the enemy of the curl pattern and moisture is your best friend. This becomes even more important when working on damaged or color treated hair that needs that extra love. Shampoo for natural hair should never make you feel like your hair has been left to hay after a wash.

Ineffective Formulas
The other common concern with shampoo for Black women’s hair is that it does not effectively wash the scalp and hair correctly.

This is essentially the opposite of the previous concern. Instead of cleansing the hair too much, it does too little and does not thoroughly remove all of the sweat, product buildup, and other impurities from the scalp and strands. You want your hair to be fully cleansed by the time you are done with your wash, otherwise you would have wasted your time and energy washing hair that is still unclean. You shouldn’t move on to conditioner with your hair feeling like it still has product on it.

Traits to Look For
Now that we know what to avoid in shampoo for Black women’s hair, we should go over things that we love to see. Your time and patience are precious, so we need to make the most out of every step in your wash day routine.

For this step, you want to get your hair fully cleansed without taking it to the point of stripping the hair down. Shampoo for natural hair should gently cleanse the scalp and hair, lifting away any impurities in order to give your hair a fresh start.

Hair is the most absorbent when it is clean and damp, so you want fully cleansed hair before moving on to a deep conditioning treatment or conditioner. Sulfate-free shampoos are often recommended for curly hair because sulfates have a tendency to be overly-stripping.

The shampoos here at Llhomd, for example, are all sulfate-free, but still effective at cleansing so that you do not have to dry out your hair for the sake of cleansing.

We also use nourishing and moisturizing ingredients in our shampoos to help hydrate the hair as you wash. Textured hair demands moisture in order to stay healthy, elastic, and defined, so we use lots of rich, natural ingredients to keep your hair hydrated even as you wash it.

Our shampoos include ultra-nourishing ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil, prickly pear extract, aloe vera, monoi oil, and pomegranate extract. All of these ingredients and more, come together beautifully to hydrate and nourish your curls, kinks, and coils.

In your search for the perfect shampoo for Black women’s hair, you will have to know exactly what you should look out for, good or bad. Staying aware of the products and ingredients you are using can help you to make better shopping decisions for your hair care products. At Llhomd, we have a few types of shampoos, each perfectly formulated for Black hair. Give these options a try and see the difference it makes in the health of your curls.