What Is the Best Shampoo to Make Your Hair Soft and Silky?

Last Updated on December 29, 2022 by Gaga

Frequent chemical treatments and the use of chemical-based hair care products can disrupt the natural pH of the hair, causing your strands to feel rough, brittle, and overly porous. Moisture-deprived hair is prone to tangling, frizz, and breakage. To keep your hair feeling soft, you must avoid chemical-laden hair care products and instead choose those that help your hair retain moisture.

Using the right shampoo is crucial for enhancing the softness of your hair.

Hair shampoos that use harsh sulfate ingredients can strip your hair of its natural oils. Sulfate-based, commercial shampoos can also damage the outer layer of hair, leaving your hair dry, frizzy, and tangled.

Black, curly, or coarse hair is especially susceptible to dryness, as oils don’t travel as easily down the curly hair shaft. So, people with curly, coarse hair have an even better reason to stay away from sulfate-containing shampoos.

Brunette woman happy with hair softening shampoo

What Types of Shampoos Make Your Hair Softer?

Shampoos without sulfates: Sulfate-free shampoos offer gentle cleansing, protect your hair from overdrying, and provide better color protection

Alcohol-free shampoos: To protect hair from losing its natural oils, you should avoid shampoos with drying alcohols such as Isopropyl alcohol.

Moisturizing shampoos: Hair softening shampoos prevent hair from drying out by infusing your strands with moisture. In addition to moisturizers, those shampoos also contain natural oils to help seal water inside your hair to keep hair hydrated for a longer period.

PH-balanced formulas: Moisturizing shampoos with low pH levels help smooth the cuticle and maintain the softness of your hair. Select a shampoo with a pH of 4.5 – 5.5. that will maintain the natural pH in your hair, keep the cuticle sealed, and maintain your hair’s natural luster.

Silk protein-enriched shampoos: Hair shampoos that contain hydrolyzed silk in their formulas can add a silky feel to your hair. You can also purchase hydrolyzed silk protein in a beauty store and add it to your regular shampoo at a concentration level between 0,5 and 5%.

Top 4 Hair Softening Shampoos

1. Aveda Cherry Almond Softening Shampoo

Although this shampoo has sulfates in its formula, babassu and coconut-derived ingredients are also included to provide gentle cleansing and protect natural lipids and oils.

This Aveda shampoo is formulated to hydrate your hair and leave it feeling touchably soft and tangle-free. It can be used on any type of hair but it will be especially beneficial if you have curly and frizzy hair that feels dry and rough.

Aveda Cherry Almond Softening Shampoo doesn’t contain silicones, which helps give your hair a lift and weightless bounce instead of weighing it down as most moisturizing shampoos would do.

Naturally-derived cherry blossom extract and sweet almond oil restore softness, making your hair look healthier and easy to style. When used with Cherry Almond Softening Conditioner, it leaves your hair very moisturized and soft.

The Cherry Almond shampoo has a naturally derived sweet floral scent which lingers in your hair.

2. R+Co Television Perfect Hair Shampoo

TELEVISION Perfect Hair Shampoo promises to give your hair strength, softness, and shine. It leaves thick, dry, and curly hair feeling beautiful, silky soft, and manageable.

Television Perfect Hair Shampoo is formulated with natural ingredients that keep the scalp and hair nourished and moisturized.

Juniper Berry Extract adds weightless moisture to the hair and balances natural scalp oils. Its antiseptic and healing properties help to unclog and nourish hair follicles while absorbing impurities from the scalp and hair.

Babassu Seed Oil has anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties that keep the scalp dandruff-free. This lightweight oil increases hair elasticity to reduce breakage and adds glossy shine.

Glycerin and Panthenol are humectants that prevent hair from getting dehydrated.  

The formula is free of sulfates, parabens, and gluten. The product is not tested on animals. It is safe for color-treated hair.

Attractive African-American girl with healthy curly hair

3. Texture My Way Hydrate Intensive Moisture Softening Shampoo

This shampoo uses mild cleansing agents to remove impurities from your hair and leave it silky and soft.

The ingredient list includes Shea butter, olive oil, and coconut oil.

Shea butter has detangling and moisture-sealing properties. It tames frizzy hair, leaving it silky and manageable.

Olive oil helps keep moisture inside the hair and prevents dryness. This oil helps to soften the rough texture and reduces frizz, making your hair smooth and pliable.

Coconut oil helps reduce frizz and tame flyaways.

This shampoo is especially beneficial to natural hair. It can make transitioning from relaxed to natural hair much easier.

4. Design Essentials Natural Super Moisturizing & Detangling Sulfate-Free Shampoo

This shampoo is designed to strengthen weak, curly hair and add touchable softness to your curls. It is also suitable for relaxed or colored hair, as well as hair extensions.

This Design Essentials shampoo gently removes impurities and excess sebum, leaving your strands soft, well-moisturized, and free of tangles.

Almond and avocado oils from this shampoo help seal moisture while protecting your hair from environmental factors. These oils also clean clogged and blocked hair follicles and help promote hair growth.

Nourishing botanicals hydrate and soften hair, creating enough slip to make detangling effortless.

Wheat proteins repair damaged hair and boost strength, elasticity, and shine.

beautiful woman with silky luxurious hair

Shampoo Ingredients that Improve Hair Softness

To get soft and beautiful hair you need to read the shampoo label and look for ingredients that your hair needs:

Humectants such as Aloe Vera, Panthenol, glycerol, sorbitol, hyaluronic acid, and fatty alcohols act as moisturizing agents, providing your dry strands with water.

Emollients such as grapeseed, almond, jojoba, argan, avocado, and apricot kernel oils seal the moisture into the hair and help your hair to retain moisture for longer. Shea and mango butter also increase water retention, leaving your locks hydrated, smooth, and shiny.

Silk proteins have moisture-binding and conditioning properties and provide your hair with exceptional silkiness and shine.

Amino acids help lock in moisture and prevent frizzy hair.

Sodium citrate (or citric acid) helps adjust the acidity of hair shampoos to flatten the cuticle layer and maintain a smooth and shiny surface of the hair.

Tips for Getting Softer Hair

  1. Don’t shampoo your hair daily. Shampooing too frequently can remove the protective coating of natural oils and cause your hair to become dry and brittle.
  2. Don’t use hot water for washing your hair. Use lukewarm or cool water when rinsing your hair after using shampoo or conditioner. Cool water seals the cuticle which makes your hair look smooth and shiny.
  3. Use a regular conditioner that ensures easy detangling while keeping your locks moisturized and silky smooth.
  4. Regularly apply a deep conditioner that is made to fortify dry and frizzy hair and make it soft and manageable.
  5. Purchase a silk pillowcase to cut down on friction and prevent your pillow from stripping moisture from your skin and hair.
beautiful woman with long soft hair

About the author

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Gaga is a blogger and founder of the Softer Hair website. She often says that insomnia is to blame for her first blogging attempts. Being the night owl, she hated the morning alarm. She left her office job and returned to what she loved most - writing.

 

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