Best Shampoos for Curls: Clarifying, Shampoo, Low-Poo, & Co-Wash

I’m kicking off a new series on my channel/blog where I rate my top 10 favorite curly hair products by category. Some of my most asked questions are always surrounding which products you should buy. You can always reference the Shop page on my blog, but I know it can be challenging to figure out how to find the right products for your curl type.

In this video/post, I’m starting with my top 10 cleansers, ranging from clarifying shampoos, regular shampoos, low-poos, and co-washes. I’m going to be rating them based on how much lather they produce, their ability to remove silicones, and more.

Also note that these will all be curly girl method-approved.

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How do you Choose a Cleanser?

I personally like having a variety of cleansers in rotation.

1. Clarifying shampoo to remove build-up. Use 1-3 times a month. Usually more stripping and must be followed up with a deep conditioner.
2. Standard shampoo to cleanse the hair. Use weekly/bi-weekly. Not as stripping as a clarifying shampoo and can be followed up with a regular conditioner or deep conditioner.
3. Low-poo or co-wash for a very gentle cleanse, non-stripping. Use mid-week or daily if necessary. May not need a conditioner after.

If you were on a tight budget and could only pick 2, I would select a clarifying shampoo and a regular shampoo that is on the mild side. There’s a few things to consider though…

• The heaviness of products you use (oils, butters, silicones, polyquats)
• How oily your scalp is
• How often you wash your hair
• If you have hard water or not (see end of post)

Hard Water Build-Up

Having hard water at your home is very common. Typically this occurs with those on well water, and it can cause havoc on your appliances, pipes, skin, and hair. The heavy mineral content, such as calcium and magnesium, can build-up and stick to surfaces, especially our hair. This can block moisture from entering our hair, and even cause shampoos to not create much lather.

Using a chelating shampoo is one of the only ways to truly remove hard water build-up. Look for these ingredients in your shampoo:

• Disodium EDTA
• Tetrasodium EDTA
• Pentasoidum Pentetate
• Sodium gluconate
• Sodium phytate, phytic acid

Installing a water softener, or purchasing a hard water shower head filter is imperative if you have very hard water. Clarifying regularly using a chelating shampoo will prevent your hair from getting build-up.

Here are some recommendations that remove hard water. Note that I have only personally tried the NYM Curl Talk Shampoo from this list:

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Your Favorites

Since I’ve only tried but so many shampoos, I wanted to find out what are y’all’s favorites! I asked you over on Instagram to submit your go-to cleansers to give everyone more suggestions. Here are the most common answers that I don’t have listed above already:

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