Protein Shampoos – Your Choice for Nourishment

Protein is one of the natural and nourishing ingredients of your hair. It is one of the vital ingredients that are required for the healthy growth of your hair.

Now, it is very common to either perm or color or highlight one’s hair. But the hair tends to lose its protein and vitamins due to the consistent treatment of your hair. If your hair has become dry, frizzy, brittle, weak, thin, dull or easily breakable then that means your hair needs a lot of nourishment consisting of proteins, amino acids, and vitamins to replenish the lost nutrients and vitality.

Protein Shampoos helps your hair to get back all those proteins that have been lost due to the chemicals. Protein Shampoo brings back the healthy growth and glow to your hair, just like Vitamin Shampoos. Protein Shampoos not only contain proteins but also vitamins and amino acids that are required for the healthy hair.

Ensure that the protein shampoo you want to use does not have harsh surfactants. There are protein shampoos that remove the naturalness of your hair. Hence take care not to use a protein shampoo that has such harsh surfactants.

Best Protein shampoos

1. Aveda Damage Remedy Shampoo

Quinoa protein
For damaged hair
Chemically treated hair
For daily & weekly use
User reviews star rating:
(5/5)

What users say: Softness, good smell, better hair look. Better to use with conditioner
Shampoo with protein for hair weakened by coloring and heat styling or the sun. Quinoa protein restores the structure of damaged hair. This protein shampoo is suitable for daily care. Shampoo with a creamy texture. Without sulfates, but gives a good lather. The aroma of bergamot, ylang-ylang, Mandarin.

2. “it’s a 10” Miracle Shampoo plus Keratin

Keratin Protein infused
Sulfate Free
Sodium chloride Free
Sun-Damage Protection
Hair color protection
Thermal styling protection
User reviews star rating:
(5/5)

What users say: Hair tends to become thin and stringy. Best Choice for swimmers. Better to use with conditioner.
This protein rich shampoo Contains Chinese tea leaf extract, antioxidants, and nutrients. Enriched with sunflower extract, a natural sunscreen component. Saturated with flax oil, which deeply moisturizes the hair. Prevents breakage and keeps the hair color. Protects hair from thermal effects and external factors. Makes hair soft and elastic. Without sulfates, sodium chloride and parabens.

3. Revlon’s Flex Body Building Protein Shampoo

Protein rich
For daily & weekly use
Pro-Vitamin B5

User reviews star rating:
(5/5)

What users say: This protein shampoo makes your normal or dry hair thicker, healthier and lustrous. It strengthens your hair with Pro-Vitamin B5 from inside. The shampoo nurtures your hair with a protein complex by providing volume and shine to your hair. It leaves your hair healthy, sparkling, easily manageable, bouncy and balsam fresh fragrance.
Click to check out the current price  on Amazon

4. Made from Earth Tea + Protein Herbal Shampoo

Protein rich
For daily & weekly use
Pro-Vitamin B5
Aloe Vera Juice

User reviews star rating:
(4.5/5)

What users say: This organic shampoo contains a large percentage of protein as it is made of organic plant-based contents to soften scalp and hair. The ingredients in this shampoo are organic tea, grasses, whole wheat proteins and extract from other herbs revitalize and soothe your hair. The shampoo also includes Pro-Vitamin B5 that re-energizes your hair.
Click to check out the current price – 20 oz (592 ml) on Amazon
Definitely, these protein shampoos make your hair healthy and strong. But it is also important to remember that to get back those proteins onto your hair, you need to take the help of shampoos and nutritious food rich in protein.

5. Salerm Protein Shampoo

Protein rich
For daily & weekly use
Natural pH level
User reviews star rating:
(5/5)

What users say: For intensive care of damaged hair, especially after chemical treatments or high temperatures exposure.
This protein shampoo is quite runny, unlike his counterparts from other lines. Foams well, cleans the scalp, with a weak pleasant smell. Due to the natural pH level, does not violate the moisture balance of the scalp and provides long lasting feeling of freshness and comfort.

Click to check out the current price – 36 oz (1 L) on Amazon

6. Redken Extreme Shampoo

Protein rich
For daily & weekly use
Exclusive protein (RCT)
User reviews star rating:
(5/5)

What users say: Quick hair restoration. Suitable for daily use on any type of distressed hair.
This protein shampoo has specially designed complex aimed at the internal strengthening of the hair: ceramides are responsible for structure restoring; proteins give strength; lipids care about the Shine. Strengthens the entire length and restores the damaged areas of the hair. Proteins penetrate deep into the hair structure and strengthen it from the inside.

Click to check out the current price – (10.1 Oz, 12 Ounce) on Amazon

7. Sukin Protein Shampoo

Rice and wheat protein
Natural Shampoo
Sulfate Free
User reviews star rating:
(4/5)

What users say: Natural product. The scalp feels clean. The hair is easily manageable after dries. Not very convenient because of low frothing.
Gently cares for the scalp. Makes hair (paired with the conditioner) shiny and soft. Suitable for frequent use, does not overdry skin or hair. With prolonged use reduces the oiliness of the hair.

Click to check out the current price – (8.46 Fluid Ounce) on Amazon

Everybody’s hair needs protein to greater or lesser degrees.

Our hair is made up mostly of protein – so it’s basically this protein moisture balance that we really need to pay attention to (especially curly hair). We know curly hair needs moisture more than straight hair and if you’ve transitioned over into a curly girl friendly type of way of taking care of your hair you’re probably giving it a lot more moisture than you used to.

When we start giving your hair a lot of moisture we throw that balance that homeostasis between moisture and protein off. Some people have such natural amounts of protein in their hair that they really don’t need to add much hardly ever. There are other people whose hair loves protein and can take it all the time but of course, those are the ends of the spectrum. There are people who fall all the way through the middle of that spectrum as well.

Fine (thin) hair

A lot of times fine hair really responds well to protein because it gives it strength. It kind of internally shores up the structure of the hair and actually can help it support its own weight which will allow it to show the curl pattern better. Otherwise, it can get elongated because it’s not strong enough to support the curl pattern that it really has the potential to have.

Colored Hair

The other reason my hair likes protein is that it’s colored – so there’s damage to it. If you are changing the structure of your hair through really hot flat irons, chemicals perms, coloring – then there’s a good chance your hair needs some protein.

How long is it going to need protein? “Rescue mode” or big amount of protein?

For example, my hair is constantly being colored, even though I try not to do much color to the ends, it always needs protein.

Protein for your hair can be found not only in protein shampoo but in your products with the name printing obviously…

But there’s a lot of other words that go along with it that are helpful to understand. So protein in its regular form, like you would find it in food, when we think of carbohydrates and proteins and fats when it comes to food – this type of protein molecules are generally too big to absorb well into the hair, so there’s a couple of processes that can be done to proteins to make them more accessible to your hair.

Hydrolyzing the protein

One is hydrolyzing the protein. So if you see the word “hydrolyzed rice protein”, then you know that that protein has been modified to be made smaller, so now it’s more accessible and absorbable by your hair. That’s good – so hydrolyzed proteins are great.

Amino acids

Proteins are made up of amino acids, so if you see the word “amino acid”- it’s just like a smaller piece of protein, and that is a protein for you. So it could be “rice amino acids” again, we’re in the protein family there.

There are a lot of different types of proteins too: oats, wheat, silk, keratin, quinoa and vegetable proteins as well as some others. So look for the word “protein”, look for the word “hydrolyzed”, look for the word “amino acids” – those will all get you in the ballpark of protein. And if you want it to be most absorbable, then it has to be “hydrolyzed” or “amino acids”.

Protein effects

How damaged hair actually looks like?

This is how healthy hair looks like

Damaged cuticle due to normal weathering, combing, heat etc

Temporary Repair – Hydrolysed protein temporarily patches the hair

Damaged – Raised due to bleaching or hair colouring

Hydrolysed protein temporarily patches the hair

Some of the proteins create more rigidity or structure than others, and I believe wheat and oat do that more than silk. So you may find that your hair is like silk because it’s just gentle, but wheat is too much and makes your hair feel rigid or stiff – that’s one of the signs of when you have too much protein. Your hair will feel rough, dry, tangly, breaking. You’ll see little shreds of hair and not full hairs that are falling out but little bits that are breaking. It could be real tangly. Those are things that happen when we have too much protein, so look at your products that you’re using.

Perhaps, you have protein in too many things on a regular basis and if you swap something out (let’s say you swap out your leaving conditioner for one with protein to one without) and use the other things that are in your lineup, that one swap maybe is just enough, maybe it’s not. Maybe you need to swap a couple of things out for an alternative that doesn’t have protein, or has a different type of protein, or has protein lower on the ingredient list. Remember: anything in the top five ingredients in your products is gonna be very dominant, so look for it potentially lower down, than that.

Protein regimen

How do I know if my hair needs protein? Well, there are a couple things to look for. But the best thing to do is try. But what you can look for is if your curls are starting to look:

• weak
• limp
• elongated
• fuzzy
• just not holding their shape

Look at what you’ve been doing. Have you been really moisturizing? If you have, you maybe threw that homeostasis off a little bit and you need to add a little bit of protein back into your regimen. It could be that your hair is also just gone through something, maybe there’s been a change in your products, or you got it cut, or you’ve been growing it. All different things can affect your hair:

• Your hair loved protein and you got a lot of it cut off, while that damaged part that loved the protein is gone, so maybe the rest of what’s left doesn’t need as much and it’s much healthier.
• Maybe that was the old set of products working for the long hair, and now the shorter hair needs something else.
• You grew out your highlights and you’re not highlighting anymore, so maybe you don’t need as much protein because there’s less damage to your hair.

Just look at your products, look for the words we’ve talked about and if you feel like your hair is starting to get dry, rough, tangly or brittle – back off or substitute something else. If you feel like you’ve been moisturizing like crazy and your hair is now starting to look limp, long and your curls are not popping like you once have them do, then add some protein in.

Either way, throwing it off too much protein or too much moisture can be rectified by adding the other in. So if you are “overproteined” then pull out the protein from your regimen and do some deep conditioning. Maybe even do a clarify and a deep conditioning, because when you use protein topically on your hair – some of it can go under the cuticles and get in, but it’s not a permanent effect. Think of it as like temporary hair color. It like starts to wash off, it starts to pull out of the hair. So keep that in mind and you’ll need to find your regimen. You may find that in the winter you need lots of moisture, but in the summer you tend to need a little bit more protein because too much moisture can make you frizz.

Analyze your hair to find out the best strategy

You really have to just start paying attention and even taking notes for your own hair and when you have good results, think about the next time you use that same regimen. Did you good results? What about the third? Or the fourth? Or the fifth? If the results are diminishing returns then your hair is telling you – maybe not every time or maybe you don’t need that twice a month protein treatment. Maybe you`re good with just once a month. Just keep an eye on how things are reacting, that’s my best recommendation. And I recently saw somebody’s video that was really helpful and she said:

“if your hair feels like it’s gonna break in the shower, then you need protein; but if your hair feels like it’s gonna break when it’s dry, then you need moisture”

And that’s a great way to look at it, that could be helpful for many people. So don’t be afraid to try protein, but listen to your hair. You need to find out your rhythm.

Look at your products

Do you get how many variables there are to consider? It seems overwhelming, but I’m almost positive unless you are trying to avoid protein. If you start looking at your products, you might have some protein already in some things. So if you switch to a new product and it was great at first, and then, all of a sudden, it feels rough, dry and tingly, you need it a little hit of protein and that’s all you need it, but you don’t need it again the second wash. So your hair’s telling you: it doesn’t love a lot of protein often, it just needs a little sometimes.

So I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions and hopefully, that answers some of the bigger questions that people have when they start to look into using protein. Don’t be afraid, do experiments, do a regimen without protein or do a regimen with protein and see how your hair acts and find your happy medium.

Deep conditioning hair process for better protein treatment effect

1. Get your hair wet first generally a good shampoo will be really nice for cleansing all the old oils off your hair and any kind of products build up
2. Take whatever kind of really deep conditioning treatment you have.
3. Take a really generous amount and get it into your hands and just kind of make sure it’s all over all of your hands.
4. Use your fingers as combs and work it through your ends first really focusing on where your hair gets really dry down to the ends.

Stage 2

1. Once you have that all saturated grab a little bit more and work it through the top of your hair.
2. Now once you have the conditioner applied – take a wide tooth comb and just bring it through to make sure it’s all even.
3. When you’ve combed it through, if you have long hair – twist it up, put a clip in there and put under a cap.
4. If you’re at home you can just use I’ll use any kind of plastic shopping bag or if you have shower caps you can use them.

Put the cap on and then you can process for an hour at room temperature or you can sit under your blow dryer for about half an hour just with it on low and just kind of go around your head.

Once that processing time is done you would take the cap off and rinse your hair in the shower.