Compare the conditioners! Which of these ingredient lists is 'better'?

[Sylvestrix]

Alrighty! To start off, I know there's a lot of dislike for cones, sulphates and other ingredients around here, but putting that aside for the moment, I have a question!

I have two conditioners I use regularly, one of which is monumentally cheaper than the other, and I'd like to know in a purely ingredient-based way which one is, well, the best! I've put the ingredient lists below, I know this is a bit wordy but I basically have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to ingredient lists, and am just looking to find out if it's worth spending the extra moolah on the more expensive one!

Conditioner A:
Aqua, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Behenamidopropyl Dimethylamine , Bis-Aminopropyl Dimethicone, Glutamic Acid, Benzyl Alcohol, Parfum, EDTA, Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Butylene Glycol, Magnesium Nitrate, Santalum Acuminatum Fruit Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Alcohol Denat, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Sulfite, Potassium Sorbate

Conditioner B:
Aqua, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Cetrimonium Chloride, Quaternium 80, Amodimethicone, Ricinus Commmunis Seed Oil (Castor), Parfum/Fragrance, Algae Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil, Anthemis Nobilis (Roman Chamomile) Flower Oil, Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis) Leaf Extract, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil, Limonene, Butylphenyl Methypropional, Hexylcinnamal, Linalool, Citronellol, C11 15 Pareth 7, C12 16 Pareth 9, Trideceth 12, Trimethylsilosyamodimethicone

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated! Insert hopeless pleading here! =D

[In2wishin]

Conditioner A looks like it can be drying because of the Benzyl Alcohol and the denatured alcohol (both solvents). It also has a lot more preservatives in it. On the other hand, it does have EDTA which is for chelating and Sodium Sulfite which is a chlorine neutralizer.

Conditioner B has glycerin as the third ingredient plus aloe so it may be an issue if your hair doesn't like humectants.

Personally, if I had to choose between the two, I would choose B for my hair. It seems more emollient.

[Sylvestrix]

Thankyou! I think I can feel a difference in my hair when I switch between the two, but to be honest it could well just be my imagination so I was looking for some educated advice!

I think I need to do a controlled test between the two to really figure out what my hair likes- I'm not sure how my hair feels about humectants, because I've only used straight aloe on my hair a few times and I wasn't actively paying attention to the condition at the time. I must be more observant, I must be more observant! I wonder if it would be at all effective to treat one side of my hair with one, and the other side with the other? I think being able to compare the results at the same time might be useful to me, because as you've probably gathered, I'm not very good at noticing changes in my hair unless something has gone very wrong! Would that be batcrap crazy, or a good way to compare, do you think? Thankyou for your help!

Also, as an aside, your signature makes me so happy xD

[Kaelee]

I would lean towards conditioner B- it looks like it has far more conditioning ingredients than conditioner A (which doesn't seem very conditioning at all!)

However, conditioner B does have a LOT of glycerin. Glycerin is great, except in dry climates. Humectants draw moisture to themselves, which is great in a humid climate because it draws moisture towards your hair. However if you live in a dry climate, it will draw the moisture OUT of your hair.

[Sylvestrix]

I honestly had to google how humid it is here, I feel a bit awkward that I didn't know anything about the humidity here before xD Apparently, it "ranges from 54% (mildly humid) to 96% (very humid) over the course of the year, rarely dropping below 36%" so I'm thinking maybe the glycerin would be okay? It certainly never feels humid here, the way I think of humidity, but then it does rain a lot, so I can see their point!

I'll maybe do my 'half and half' test, but I'm leaning towards B thanks to you lovely informative people! Ideally I would like to not use conditioner, but for some reason lovely oils on their own don't seem to want to behave in my hair, so I feel almost reliant on the stuff for the nice silky texture I like!

[Kaelee]

Your humidity sounds fine. I think if you lived in a DRY climate you would know it. Your hair would stand on end when you took it down at the end of the day, and you would get shocked whenever you touched something metal, for starters. Happens here in the winter, I have to run a humidifier in the winter so my eyes don't burn. :(

[Sylvestrix]

Funnily enough I do get shocks from almost everything I touch- it was a disaster when I was working in a stock room xD But I don't have standy-on-end hair, so that's good! Erp o.o Burning eyes does not sound like fun...I feel like I should send you some of the damp, since we have an abundance of it!

[Kaelee]

Funnily enough I do get shocks from almost everything I touch- it was a disaster when I was working in a stock room xD But I don't have standy-on-end hair, so that's good! Erp o.o Burning eyes does not sound like fun...I feel like I should send you some of the damp, since we have an abundance of it!

It gets sweltering here in the summer and dry as a bone in the winter. :lol: Quite a varied climate.

[Sylvestrix]

Yowza! We tend to have soggy, soggy soggy, ohwaithavesomesnowinapril, soggy, EHMAHGERD SUNSH-oh no wait it's raining again. Can't complain though, since I have never experienced burning eyeballs! I think I'd have to live in my fridge if I was somewhere warm, I'm too used to being damp and chilly xD

[HylianGirl]

I'll keep an eye on this thread to learn more about the ingredients on conditioners ^-^

About air humidity, I tend to be one of those people who don't really feel it, and I use the time it takes for my hair to dry as an indication of it.

[earthnut]

Dew point is more important than humidity. For instance here in the winter, we have high humidity but our dew points are moderate, because we have relatively cold temps. Our summers are pretty dry, but again the dew points are moderate. Because the dew points stay moderate all year, my hair behaves pretty much the same year-round. The humidity, OTOH, fluctuates greatly.

[In2wishin]

Yowza! We tend to have soggy, soggy soggy, ohwaithavesomesnowinapril, soggy, EHMAHGERD SUNSH-oh no wait it's raining again. Can't complain though, since I have never experienced burning eyeballs! I think I'd have to live in my fridge if I was somewhere warm, I'm too used to being damp and chilly xD

What part of Scotland do you live in? I spent 12 days there one September on vacation (Edinburgh, Inverness, and a week walking in the Highlands and on Skye). The whole time my hair was thick and wavy like it is here during our hot/humid summers. I loved the country and the people! (I have some Scots ancestry, mostly from the borders)