How to Find Your Best Conditioner for Healthy Hair

We know you’re always looking for new ways to get better hair. From changing your styling habits to taking hair growth supplements for thicker hair, you do anything to grow healthier, stronger hair. But is there such a thing as a hair growth conditioner? Conditioner is important to keep your hair looking moisturized, shiny and healthy, but can conditioner actually make your hair grow faster? Yes, and no. Let us explain…

“Hair Growth Conditioner”: How Conditioner Really Helps Hair

Hair grows at its full potential when everything is working together. That means that your body is getting all the important vitamins and nutrients that hair uses to grow, you’re staying hydrated, and your scalp and hair are in the optimal condition for hair growth. Optimal scalp condition means a clean scalp and moisturized hair. Your shampoo helps keep your scalp and hair clean, and conditioner adds moisturizing and nourishing ingredients to the outside of strands.

While conditioner doesn’t affect the rate at which your hair follicles grow new hair, it can help you grow your hair longer. Here’s why: dry, brittle hair cannot grow very well at all. Without proper conditioning, hair is dry and fragile and prone to breakage. If you’ve ever struggled to grow your hair past a certain length because the ends break off, you know exactly what we’re talking about.

In addition to moisturizing your hair to improve its flexibility, conditioner also helps to seal the cuticle to prevent damage and to promote healthy growth without breakage.

Conditioner Ingredients to Look For

What conditioner makes your hair look thicker and healthier? It depends, but you can get a much better idea of what to expect just by looking at the product label.

For starters, make sure your conditioner is water-based whenever possible. Other conditioner ingredients to look for include certain vitamins and minerals like biotin, panthenol (vitamin B5) and zinc. Infusing these nutrients into your hair (along with nutrients from your diet such as vitamin C, niacin and iron) will help make your hair stronger and thicker.

Additionally, the best conditioner for hair growth is formulated with fatty alcohols such as cetearyl. Anyone who has ever had a hangover may be surprised to hear that any form of alcohol can actually hydrate. Unlike the alcohol in your glass of wine, fatty alcohols are heavy hydrocarbons, which help to seal in moisture. Rather than quickly evaporating, these heavier compounds stick around and provide a layer that helps to maximize moisture retention.

Viviscal Strengthening Conditioner lightly moisturizes hair with hydrating cetearyl alcohol, smooths with hydrolyzed keratin, and nourishes with the vitamins and minerals biotin, zinc and panthenol. Plus, Viviscal Gorgeous Growth Densifying Conditioner is formulated with Ana:Tel™, a proprietary complex that promotes the appearance of thick and healthy-looking hair.

Tips for How to Use Conditioner

To make sure your conditioner is doing everything it can to keep your hair looking thick and healthy, keep these tips in mind…

Use Conditioner Every Time Your Hair Gets Wet

It should become second nature to condition your hair when you take a shower or a bath. This is not the case with shampoo, which can strip your hair of its natural oils with overwashing.

Even just a quick conditioning rinse to coat your hair strands before washing and styling your hair can make a difference. Environmental factors like sunshine, humidity, air pollution, and heat damage can dry out your hair quickly. If you want your hair to grow and look healthy, don’t skimp on the conditioner.

Let it Sit

Sometimes your hair is really dry and needs a bit of extra care. If you’re not in a rush, leave your conditioner on your hair for a few extra minutes, up to 30 minutes max. Then wash it out as usual. Your hair will look extra-moisturized and shiny.

Does Conditioner Cause Hair Loss?

When you shampoo and condition your hair, it may look like you’re losing clumps of it in your drain and in your hands. But do conditioners really cause hair fallout or is this just a normal amount of daily hair loss?

It’s a myth that regular conditioners alone cause hair to fall out. In fact, although it can seem that shampoo and conditioner causes hair fall, regularly cleansing and conditioning hair can help promote healthier hair. Regularly cleansing and gently exfoliating the scalp helps promote the ideal environment for healthy hair growth, and following with a gentle conditioner provides much-needed moisture for healthier-looking and protected hair.

So if you’re asking, “does daily conditioning cause hair loss?”, most likely the answer is no… BUT (yup, you knew there’d be a but!), there’s one caveat: if you think you’re losing more than 100 hairs a day on average, and losing them consistently throughout the day, not only in the shower, it may be time to take a closer look. Periods of excessive stress, hormonal changes post-pregnancy or during menopause, and extreme diet changes or nutritional deficiencies can all cause hair loss in women. If you think your hair loss has gone from normal to uh-oh, think back to any recent changes to your lifestyle or your diet. Think about adding a clinically proven hair growth^† supplement like Viviscal Hair Growth Supplements to your routine, which can help you grow thicker, fuller hair in as little as three months. And talk to your doctor or dermatologist about possible causes and treatment options. Hair loss in women is way more common than you think, and there ARE solutions to stop it. So start by taking the first step and simply asking for advice.

^†Existing hair growth