The 4 Types of Moisturizing Ingredients Your Hair Craves

Water is the only moisture, but it's not the only thing that can moisturise your hair:  Moisturizers can, too.

Distinct from water but totally connected, moisturizers are the ingredients that help your hair get or hold on to moisture.

There are 4 types that you need to have in your hair regimen:

The definition of moisture

We break it down for you in this article on moisture vs hydration, but as a quick recap: moisture = water. Moisturizers are something different: think of a moisturiser as an umbrella term for anything that adds water to your hair or skin or helps retain it once it's already there.
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Can you moisturise your hair with just water?

Maybe in an ideal climate where the humidity level was just right all the time - and your hair was in 100% perfect condition.
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That's not the case for most of us, but luckily, that's why moisturizing ingredients exist. They're here to help us with our hair hydration goals: moisture restoration and moisture retention.

You can moisturize your hair with water, but without moisturizers it won't last. Image by Cottonbro.

Moisture restoration is just like it sounds: bringing in additional moisture to take our hair's water content back up to its ideal level. Moisture retention is all about holding onto that moisture - a tricky thing for hair on either extreme of the porosity scale.

The ingredients that help us do this function in very specific ways, but each falls into at least one of these categories:

• Humectants
• Emollients
• Occlusives
• Rejuvenators

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What are humectants?

Humectants are hygroscopic ingredients - they have a tendency to absorb moisture from the air. They do this by forming hydrogen bonds with molecules of water,  actively drawing it into your hair and skin.

Humectants use this power to increase your hair's water-binding capacity and control the rate of moisture evaporation from your hair. This is especially necessary for super low porosity, moisture resistant hair, which struggles to absorb the water it desperately needs to raise its low moisture levels.

Guar gum extract is a humectant. Image by Tom Ruikens.

​Some humectants simply hold onto moisture, like glycerin. Others like guar gum and xanthan gum are known as film-forming humectants because they don't just hold onto moisture; they actually form a film that helps physically block moisture loss.

This type of humectants operate somewhere between conventional humectants and occlusives (more about them below).

Some common humectants are: glycerin, hyaluronic acid, sorbitol, lactic acid and propylene glycol, flax seed gel, dehydroxyxanthan gum, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, hydrolyzed proteins (also classed as rejuvenators), ceramides (also classed as rejuvenators).

Products that are rich in humectants: La Aplanadora Leave In, atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner (see Part 2 of this article for a full breakdown of their moisturizing ingredients).
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What are emollients?

Emollients soften your skin and hair, replacing lost lipids and providing lubrication and protection. On your strands, they fill in the voids which make the surface irregular and rough, leaving it even and smooth.

Ingredients from very different sources with very different chemical structures and physical properties can all be emollients: seed and nut oils, fruit butters, fatty alcohols, esters, fatty acids, hydrocarbons, and synthetic polymers, including silicones and polyquaterniums.

Some common emollients: olea europaea (olive oil), butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), cetyl alcohol, cetyl esters, lauric acid, cera alba (beeswax), petrolatum, polyquaternium-7, behentrimonium methosulfate, dimethicone.

Products that are rich in emollients: MayOliva Treatment, Multivitamin Treatment, Capilo La Aplanadora Leave In.

What are occlusives?

Occlusives moisturise by trapping the moisture that you already have in your hair.

Several emollients also do double duty as occlusives, including fatty alcohols, oils, butters, silicones and lanolin. So what separates occlusives from other emollients which aren't occlusive?

Occlusives have to be hydrophobic and capable of forming a physical, moisture repellent barrier over your hair that blocks or slows down water loss.

Oils, waxes and silicones can do this job well, but other emollients like cationic emulsifiers such as cetrimonium bromide aren't too good at this so can't be classified as occlusives.

In the past, occlusives had a reputation for being heavy and greasy - and that's true for traditional occlusives like mineral oil, and most plant butters and oils. However modern-day occlusives, such as silicones and silicone alternatives, tend to be lighter and set with a 'dry touch' rather than the expected oily residue.

Some common occlusives: mineral oil, petrolatum, beeswax, shea butter, olive oil, almond oil, dimethicone, cetyl alcohol.
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Products that are rich in occlusives: Silicon Mix Treatment, atrActiva Shine Drops Shield.

What are rejuvenators?

Rejuvenators - also called skin rejuvenators or enhancers of the skin barrier - tackle moisturisation in a more complex way. Originally deployed in skincare, formulators quickly put these ingredients to work in hair products, too.

Proteins and ceramides are by far the most popular rejuvenators and work by replacing the naturally-occurring proteins and ceramides which give the skin's natural barrier its integrity. Proteins are well-known: keratin, collagen and elastin, are all important parts of the structure of our skin, and the most widely used in cosmetics.

Ceramides are another type of structural component, stacked in the upper layer of the skin. They have a waxy feel, and form a membrane with other intercellular lipids, creating a waterproof barrier that shields the underlying skin and internal organs.

​Like skin, hair is made of protein and has a lipid outer layer which helps protect against moisture loss. It's also vulnerable to several environmental factors that break down its natural barrier. Rejuvenators replenish this protective outer layer, minimising moisture loss by filling in missing gaps or creating a film over the surface of your hair. They can also work by actively drawing moisture into the hair.

As a result, the role of a rejuvenator can incorporate that of a humectant, emollient, occlusive or all three of the main types of moisturiser. The difference is that rejuvenators do these roles by rebuilding the hair's natural structure and tend to act in a more localised way.

Some common rejuvenators: hydrolysed keratin, collagen, silk and elastin, as well as peptides, amino acids and natural, synthetic and pseudo- ceramides.

Some products that are rich in rejuvenators: atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner (ceramides), Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask (collagen, elastin and ceramides), La Aplanadora Treatment (keratin).

The downsides of each type of moisturizing ingredient

Each moisturiser has its own super power: humectants bring the moisture in, emollients conjure up the softness that good moisture levels create, occlusives stop moisture from leaving and rejuvenators try to recreate the natural components that originally do all these jobs.

But each of these methods of moisturising has its shortfalls, too.

When humectant levels in a product are too high, your hair can feel sticky and even super low porosity hair can take forever to dry. For some hair, humectants can overmoisturise to the point of damage by pulling in more moisture than the hair needs from the air.

Sometimes, the reverse happens: If the air around your hair is too dry, humectants will switch sides and transfer moisture from your hair into the atmosphere, which can leave your hair dehydrated and weak.​

Sometimes emollients can overcondition your hair. Image by Bá Soares.

Emollients aren't perfect, either. Some emollients can 'overcondition' the hair; cationic surfactants for example, can create so much softness that certain hair types feel too light, wispy and 'barely there'. Other emollients, particularly those that are also occlusive, can weigh hair down, make it greasy and be hard to remove.

Occlusives' moisture-blocking abilities can limit uptake of necessary moisture, too. And while it's standard advice in the natural hair community to use certain occlusives - namely oils - as sealants, they often fall short. This is why:
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Occlusives are mainly hydrophobic, they can form repellent barriers around moisture, but they can't bind to it. That means they can't hold moisture in place. And while their hydrophobic barriers slow down moisture loss, they're not entirely waterproof: studies show that oils films are good at blocking water droplets, but not water vapour.

These two facts are a big part of the reason why using oil to 'seal in' moisture on low porosity hair doesn't work: the oil can block moisture loss at first when the hair is very wet, but it can't block the smaller droplets as the water evaporates out.

Oil cannot block vapor moisture loss from your hair. Image by Karolina Grabowska.

​And then there are the rejuvenators. Formulations that are high in rejuvenators (particularly proteins) can make hair brittle and create buildup, especially when overused. Theoretically, ceramides could make hair feel waxy too, though they are rarely used in high enough quantities to create that effect.
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How moisturizing ingredients work together

Since none of the moisturisers are the perfect all-in-one solution, things work much better when they combine forces. Formulators can blend two, three and even all four types of moisturiser to play up their strengths, creating a synergistic effect that also limits the drawbacks of each ingredient.

For instance, humectants do their most effective moisturisation work when combined with occlusive agents: the humectant attracts and holds moisture while the hydrophobic occlusive creates a physical block against water loss. Humectants can help ceramides penetrate and  bind, too.

Emollients can be used alongside rejuvenators, offsetting the stiffness proteins sometimes give as they strengthen the hair's natural barrier against moisture loss.

And the ratio of each ingredient in the formula matters, too: you can expect a product that's high in humectants and low in occlusives to have a more humectant moisturizing effect, for example.
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Which type of moisturizer is best for my hair?

 Most people will need a mix of all four types of moisturizers, but with a stronger emphasis on one or more types, according to their hair's needs.

For example, if your hair absorbs moisture easily, but struggles to hold onto it,  i.e., high porosity hair, you need to emphasise rejuvenators to repair the hair's natural barrier and occlusives to physically block the loss of moisture.

​If your high porosity hair is 'protein sensitive', you should go with a ceramide-based conditioner: atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner. For more intensive repair, try Capilo La Aplanadora Treatment, based on hydrolysed keratin.

Following either one up with Silicon Mix Treatment, a strongly occlusive moisturizing conditioner, will help you lock in the moisture with a hydrophobic seal.

​On lower porosity hair, the struggle is usually to absorb moisture,  so you'll need a stronger humectant effect to help pull that moisture in. Hair with limited moisture absorption capacity also tends to be stiffer, needing emollients to soften it. For this hair type, leave ins in particular should be both humectant and emollient likeLa Aplanadora Leave In.

In fact, if you have super low porosity hair, then you really need to consider the moisturizing efficacy of every conditioner or leave in that you use. That takes into account both the ability of the product to increase your hair's moisture content and seal it in: in other words, to provide moisture restoration plus moisture retention.

To keep moisture in your hair, use all 4 types of moisturizer. Image by Cottonbro.

​​So build your routine out of products that are strong in at least two types of moisturising ingredient each, to make sure you get all four types of moisturizing ingredients in your routine.

Double conditioning, where you layer two different conditioners to insulate your hair, works: Try Halka Baba de Caracol Conditioner and Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask for a combination that is high in all four forms of moisturization. Remember to use the Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask on top as its occlusive content is higher.

​Conditioners that synergise in this way often come in the same line:  atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner, is humectant and rejuvenator rich, while Multivitamin Treatment provides a mix of humectancy, emolliency and occlusion. 

But you can mix up compatible products from different lines to achieve high moisturizing efficacy too: ​Keratin Rich Conditioner (humectant and rejuvenator) under MayOliva Treatment (emollient and occlusive), for instance.​

​So how exactly can you tell if a product is humectant or occlusive-rich? Especially since manufacturers use a mix of ingredients from multiple categories in most products.

​We'll show you exactly how to do this, armed with just the ingredients list in Part 2 of this article. 

​And if you're struggling to get your hair to even accept moisture, start here with this free moisture training programme. 
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