Clarifying Curly Hair – What, When and How

Once we start following a curly hair routine, curlies become obsessed with moisture, hydration and gentle cleansers that we sometimes forget that we may have gone overboard.

Signs that your hair needs clarifying

• Are your curls feeling weighed down and lacking bounce?
• Are your regular products and routine not showing results anymore?
• Do you use a lot of oils, silicones or butters in your hair?
• Do your curls feel dull and lacking shine like they have some coating on them?
• Do you feel like your curls are dry and water doesn’t penetrate them easily?
• Do you only cowash and never shampoo?
• Are you low porosity?
• Do you have loose curls or waves?

If you said yes to any of these, then you most likely have buildup. Buildup is the gradual accumulation of certain ingredients on your hair that prevents water or products from entering hair.

Before and After Clarifying

Ingredients that can build up on hair:

• Silicones
• Oils
• Butters
• Mineral oil
• Petrolatum
• Waxes
• Chlorine
• Hard water Minerals– You need a chelating shampoo with ingredients like Disodium EDTA and Tetrasodium EDTA. But note that many shampoos have these ingredients towards the end of the list as preservatives. They are very low in concertation and will not remove minerals. Look for shampoos dedicated to hard water removal.
• The Surprise ingredients – Cationic surfactants and Cationic polymers like Behentrimonium chloride and Cetrimonium chloride (yes, the amazing frizz fighters in our lovable conditioners) & Polyquaterniums. Most of these are not water soluble, but still they are not avoided in a CG routine because they’re bonding to your hair thereby laying down your cuticles (aka frizz control). What happens in the case of buildup is that they bond beyond what is required, causing extreme mushy and over moisturized hair. The best ingredient to build cationic build up is C14-16 olefin sulfonate.

When should you clarify?

• It’s a good idea to keep a fixed routine – something like once or twice a month is an average number that works for most curlies so that you don’t have to wait for your hair to start acting strange before working on it.
• Clarify if you notice any of the above mentioned symptoms.
• Clarify before doing a protein treatment.

What about ACV, baking soda and clay washes to clarify?

ACV can remove hard water minerals to some extent but at the pH at which it does, it can be very damaging to hair. Both ACV and Baking Soda don’t remove oil, silicones, waxes or butters. Also baking soda is highly alkaline and can be more damaging than the sulphate shampoos that you are scared of. Just because it is natural, doesn’t mean it is good.

Clays like rhassoul or bentonite remove oils aggressively and so are good for degreasing and can also remove milder build up, but they don’t remove other kinds of build up like silicones or cationic build up.

Types of shampoos to use

1) Clarifying shampoo – Removes general build up like oil, waxes, silicones etc. Any sulphate shampoo, without the above mentioned build up causing ingredients can be used as a clarifying shampoo.

• Revlon flex shampoo
• Pantene lively clean shampoo

2) Clarifying shampoo with C14-16 olefin sulfonate – Removes cationic buildup got from your conditioners and styling products. Also removes silicones and oil so it is a good idea to use this.

• OGX Coconut Water Shampoo

3) Chelating shampoo – Removes hard water build up.

• Kenra Clarifying Shampoo
• Hard Water Shampoo by Ion

A note to swimmers – It’s best to prevent chlorine damage, because once chlorine touches hair, it immediately starts causing damage. So instead of looking for a swimmers shampoo, it’s best to drench your hair with conditioner before stepping into the pool. This way, your hair is protected from the chlorine.