Choosing the Right Conditioner for Long Hair

When you’ve spent years growing your hair long, you can consider it something of an investment, right? Think about it; it’s an investment in time, certainly and it’s also an investment in money since with long hair you certainly use more conditioner than others with short mops do. Therefore, take some pride in this “investment” and treat your hair well. Using cheap products that leave build-up or break your hair is like a voluntary “depreciation” of your beauty asset, so choose your hair goo with a certain amount of discretion. While I used to think that finer hair products (like those you can only get at salons) were just the same as the drugstore brands but with neater packaging, I’ve found that this isn’t true. Salon-quality brands are just that, high enough quality that salons allow themselves to be associated with the product. As a general rule, if you have long hair, remember what I’ll call “investment theory”. I can tell you that not all hair products are created equal and I can also tell you that natural products are the best. Both Aveda, The Body Shop, and other companies that stirve to create organic beauty products use natural plant-derived material, which leads to less build-up and less stress on your tresses. Go ahead and take a look your conditioner from the drugstore. Half of the ingredients are printed there are eight inches long and contain obscure terms that sound more like science fiction terms than beauty product lingo. What are these ingredients you can’t pronounce? Alcohol and synthetic-based substances. While some preservation is necessary in a conditioner (especially if it’s full of ground-up plant material), a good conditioner should be comprised of at least one-quarter natural (non-synthetic based) ingredients. Another note on this point: don’t be fooled by conditioners with pictures of plants and flowers on the front; if anything they are just plant and blossom essences, but more likely, they’re just straight-out perfumes. Remember that you want to your long hair free from anything that’s going to eat it up and over time, perfumes will certainly do it (ever spilled a little perfume on wood? It goes right into the wood and wears it away). So, here’s an informal case-study : Between my friend Anna and I, we are the perfect duo for a little non-scientific experiments in products for long hair. Her hair is very long, straight, and is extremely thin and light while my long hair is the exact opposite. While I don’t have curls necessarily, my hair is wavy and quite thick—almost to the point of unmanageability. Like others with long hair, we are both seeking to keep our manes as pretty as we can for as little money and effort as possible. So here are the findings of this impromptu “study”: Anna’s hair doesn’t do well with conditioners like those you get at the drugstore with the cryptic designation “For Thin to Normal Hair.” These tend to be too weighty for her thin hair and after brushing, it looked stringy and dull. Conversely, when she bought drugstore conditioners that said they were “For Fine Limp Hair” they were too light and gave her the “flyaways”. Point being, the longer your hair is, the more difficult it is to find a conditioner that is balanced (not so light that it doesn’t condition fully and so heavy that your hair weighs as much as you do). There are thousands of conditioners on the market, all claiming to be good for a particular hair-type, but be savvy and test them out for yourself instead of believing the labels. After we had a discussion about drugstore brands versus higher-quality (and more expesnsive products), Anna decided that she would no longer get the drugstore brand conditioner and instead, went to Aveda and found her perfect moisture combination: Rosemary Mint Conditioner. The problem for was, it was $25.00 for a bottle and she got her old brand for $3.00 for the same size. While she hasn’t been thrilled about forking over $25.00 every couple of months, she is pleased enough with the result to keep doing it. After spending years with products that made her hair hang limply on her back, the cost is worth it. So with Anna unable to keep her hands out of her locks after her new-found “miracle conditioner” I decided it was time I chucked my drugstore brands and tested my theory—did salon products offer me better quality (and to heck with the price)? Well, yes—it just took me a lot longer to find the right blend for my hair. I started out by trying Anna’s Aveda conditioner, but since our hair is so different, it just made mine frizz up. It was perfect for her, but I was in conditioner-limbo until I did some more extensive searching. For Anna’s light and fly-away hair, choosing a conditioner that was perfectly blended to weigh it down enough to be smooth without making it stringy came easily—it was the first product she tried. On the other hand, I tried just about every Aveda conditioner (which is easy if you buy in small or trial amounts) and none of them worked to my satisfaction. It wasn’t until one afternoon that I chanced to stop into the Body Shop that I came across the perfect combination of ingredients for my hair. The only reason I picked up the Banana Conditioner was because it looked, through the clear bottle, like it had actual banana chunks in it. While “chunks” might not be the right word exactly, there is some actual banana in it, as they say it’s some kind of a natural moisturizer. Anyway, it smelled great and worked like magic. After a few uses my heavy mass of hair was lightened dramatically as well as being richly conditioned. The Banana Conditioner cost me about en bucks, which isn’t bad, especially since I don’t have to use much. While it isn’t a salon product, it is better quality than what the drugstore had to offer, so remember to look around at skin and beauty shops for alternatives as well. The next item on my agenda was to find a deep-conditioning treatment that didn’t make my hair any heavier than it already was, but made it stronger and less prone to split-ends. Unfortunately, Anna has to be left out of this test since deep conditioning products, if used more than once every six months or so make her hair flat and lifeless (a general rule for those with thin hair—use deep conditioning products, especially hot oil, very infrequently). I had tried hot oil treatments but they never did anything but make the skin on the back of my neck break out a little. I also picked up a Paul Mitchell deep conditioner and it worked well, but I knew there had to be something just a little better out there. I found a website called Long Hair Lovers and they had a moderately priced hair “masque” and it is by far the best I’ve been able to find yet. The actual name is “Essential Moisture Masque” and I use it once a week. Since then, my hair looks much healthier since any split-ends I have seem to be smoothed to the point of non-existence. I also like it because it doesn’t weigh my hair down and doesn’t contain a lot of the junk that is in even the most expensive deep conditioners. They say on their website that it’s supposed to stimulate hair growth, but I haven’t noticed any of that. This stuff is $34.00, which is usually a little more than I would be willing to pay for a conditioning treatment, but I was feeling particularly stressed the day I bought it after brushing and seeing a bunch of loose ends sticking out towards the tips of my hair. While price is more than I'm used to paying, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and I have finally accepted that in order to get more out of a conditioner, I'll have to spend more.In sum, once you find the right conditioner for your long hair, all the world’s problems will be solved. Believe that? Okay, while I may exaggerate there, I will tell you, when looking for a conditioner for your long mane, remember that price should be a secondary concern. If you don’t want to deal with split-ends and the overhanging threat that you’ll have to get a cut instead of a trim to cure your hair problems, then you should choose your conditioner on the basis of quality before all else. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money on small samples of new products, if you look hard enough, you’ll find the perfect conditioner that takes care of your “investment” without breaking your bank.