ATTITUDE's Super Leaves conditioner with olive leaf extract, 240 ml, for dry hair. Vegan, silicone-free and EWG VERIFIED.
What a conditioner is actually doing. Shampoo carries a negative charge and so does damaged hair — which is why hair feels rough and tangles after washing: the strands repel each other and their raised cuticle scales catch. Conditioner works by depositing positively charged molecules that are attracted to those damaged, negatively charged sites, laying the cuticle flat and lubricating the surface. That is why conditioner belongs on the lengths and ends, which are old and damaged, and not on the scalp, which is neither.
Silicone-free, honestly assessed. Silicones are extremely good at this job. They coat the hair in a film that is slippery, shiny and instantly gratifying, and they are the reason most conventional conditioners feel the way they do. The problem is accumulation: the film builds, hair goes limp, and removing it takes a strong detergent — usually a sulfate shampoo, which strips everything else too. A silicone-free conditioner relies on fatty alcohols and conditioning agents that do less work per application but leave nothing behind. Expect a one-to-three-week transition when you switch, during which hair feels rougher than you are used to. Most people find it settles into something better.
Olive leaf, not olive oil. The extract here is from the leaf rather than the fruit, and its principal compound is oleuropein — the bitter polyphenol that makes raw olives inedible and that is among the most studied plant antioxidants. It is a good ingredient. It is also, in a rinse-off product with a two-minute contact time, a supporting player: the conditioning agents do the work.
Free from: silicones, parabens, PEGs, synthetic fragrance. Vegan.
Available at Só Verde, an organic concept store in Foz, Porto.