Shea Moisture has heavy oils and shea butter very high in the ingredients list. These can have a drying affect on low porosity hair types. The cuticle lies flat, so all the shea butter does is seal the moisture OUT of the hair, not good. Look for humectants that draw moisture inside of the hair. Kinky curly is full of humectants and is a good line to try or gvp cb. Clarify or low poo the shea butter or oils out with Kinky Curly Come Clean or another clarifier.
If you have fine or wavy hair, Shea Moisture might be too heavy for your hair, weighing it down. Hair will look greasy, dull, or weighed-down or will be over-conditioned. Again clarify or low poo to get back on track and start using something lighter and less moisturizing.
Shea Moisture can also cause a waxy-coated feeling or tangles on many hair types. Regardless, depending on your hair type and environment Shea Moisture may still build up on your hair and scalp so just be aware. It is ok to use if it works for you, but just know it could possibly do this. I have had to decrease using their products as often because they are building up on my scalp since I am becoming lower porosity on my healthy unbleached roots. I was getting an itchy scalp and white flakes on my roots. High porosity and curlier types generally fair better with Shea Moisture. It seals the moisture in on porous hair types. The hair is more porous so it doesn't build up as easily.
I found this out the hard way! I wish I was part of this group a year or more ago as well as following your blog. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteI berly found the hard way too
DeleteIf you look closely at SM ingredients, you'll find a lot of waxes in their products. All the ingredients they claim are good (the ones they put extra emphasis on the front) are actually towards the end of the list so they're not actually doing anything. SM just isn't worth it.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I'm noticing, they put (in my leave-in I got from them) a lot of castor seed oil quantities, more than shea butter, and much less protein (usually find proteins near the bottom of their lists) but.. if there's too much protein then hair will get "too strong' and snap off.
DeleteMy first time using it, and I don't like it for styling, but since I noticed my hair falls out less after using it for a week, I'm going to try to figure out how to use it properly for my fine hair type. I'll probably have to stop using it daily and just have use it as a treatment eventhough what I have is a leave-in conditioner.
I think about it is most required for making more on this get engaged raw virgin hair
ReplyDeleteSo as i have low porosity to normal hair i can't use raw shea butter? Even if i mixe it with some dyi cream and almond oil and aloe vera natural gel?
ReplyDeleteIt's heavy and will seal moisture into your hair, so make sure you use it as a treatment a few days before you expect to wash your hair thoroughly. Know it - Own it :>
DeleteI bought SM recently for my damaged hair and all it did was dry it out even more!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that Shea Moisture has helped my hair tremendously. However in saying that I only use the shampoo, masque and leave in conditioner in my hair and not the gels or anything like that. I tend to use coconut oil in my hair. Again I cannot stress enough how my hair has grown healthily.
ReplyDeleteme too! all this fuss about it is making me feel bad for using it, but i truly have noticed a positive difference since using their shampoo and conditioner, especially the black castor oil.
DeleteI had to stop using SM my hair is low porosity. I was loosing my hair and itchy scalp. I stopped using all my hair products and use natural products. Itching has improved withing three days of not using the products.
ReplyDeleteHello! Would you be able to recommend any natural products you switched to?
DeleteI’ve been using cantu Shea butter both shampoo and conditioner the first time using it was fine now the second time my hair feels so dry can anyone help and give me advice on how to stop my hair feelin like this
ReplyDelete"Shampoo's & conditioners" are great, but every once in awhile, we need to do a deep wash to get what the reg team is too gentle for. "Clarify shampoo" will remove all that build up they left behind but also really strip/dry out hair (don't use often), then use a "hair mask" right after, will be the best time for it because it's very open at this stage, so it will soak up a lot of the nutrients you're putting in from the mask. Hair is dead and gradually looses everything over time, so we oughta supplement them back in.
DeleteI looked up Kinky Curly products just now... they are definitely not for fine textured hair lol I do like the "humectants" in them, but their other ingredients are just far too heavy for fine hair, and much more suitable for medium-thick that don't have much issues getting their hair to volume up.
ReplyDeleteNeed help! I have low porosity 2C hair chin length and am struggling to find a good shampoo and conditioner. Even styling it seems to be a hassle. I used Shea moisture men thinking it would work and it left my hair greasy. Btw if it helps in any way, I’m also a dude :)
ReplyDeleteI used it for the first time yesterday. I honestly thought I had switched the shampoo for the conditioner on accident because it looked divided and greasy when dry. Today I washed again and confirmed I was using them properly. My hair is doing the same. I loved the shampoo and I do NOT like the conditioner. Sadly bought these at Costco in giant bottles so a big waste
ReplyDeleteYou can return them. Even without the receipt. I did the same and I’m about to return them
DeleteAnd for your dull, boring, and weak hair, we have only one solution and that is applying shea butter. But mostly the question that arises is that how long to leave shea butter in hair?
ReplyDeleteNew in Cart!
semi permanent hair dye
ReplyDeleteOmg I been using Shea moisture for 2 years and it messed up my hair I was forcing my hair to like this product no wonder I always had frizz dry flyaways static hair and I couldn’t I understand because I have natural wavy thin hair but I don’t use chemicals or heat I just learn this the hard way my poor hair ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
ReplyDeleteAre you sure you are using it right? What products are the problem? I absolutely love their hair mask.
ReplyDeleteI used the shea butter curl smoothie and it did give me defined curls but my hair feels weighed down and tangled 😞 I just bought it, I can’t let it go waste 😔 is there any way I can mix it with some other stuff so I don’t have to throw it out?
ReplyDeleteReturn it to Walmart and
DeleteI was doing g- baby's hair this am a large clump came out. That's never happened before. She is biracial has hair to her back and all I use is your products. Is it the alcohol in all of your products?
ReplyDeleteI to had to stop using SM products, sadly for bad reasons mentioned here, severe hair loss, me not that much but my toddler yes :'(((( her hair with beautiful coils was ruined, we had to cut it half, mine did not suffered so much as I only used it for when my daughter stop it due to major hair loss. this is serious issue, and we thought it would have been due to emotional stress during dermotologist appointment, months ago. I believe it has been both factors: SM conditioner and emotional stress :'( it's been a year on this journey of hair falling off and trying to recover her coils back, another hair cut soon to remove some more severe damaged ends. If noticed this right now you should contact SM directly.
ReplyDeleteI am literally going through this right now! My hair has been falling out like crazy! We did blood test because I thought I had alopecia. My dermatologist gave me PH balance shampoo and Johnson and Johnson detangler and my hair isn't as frizzy as it was with SM. I have been depressed for 2 months and bought a wig, thinking it was my body. I somehow found this blog and receive it's SM! Never again.
Deletei've been using it for a month now but my hair is always waxy and dry after airdrying i'm thinking about switching to cantu to see if it works what do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteMy hair becomes dry and fizzy and static by the second day after washing. Ugh so much for this to happen and I bought 2 bottles of shampoo and conditioner from Amazon. Grr!
ReplyDelete