Best Pureology Conditioner

The best Pureology conditioner is the one that matches what your hair is doing right now, not the one with the nicest bottle. Pureology is a colour-care brand first, so most of its conditioners are made with coloured hair in mind. The real choice is about texture, thickness and how much damage you're dealing with. Below is how we'd sort it, and you can shop all Pureology if you already know the range.

Start with your hair, not the label

A conditioner smooths the outside of the hair so it feels softer, tangles less and holds on to moisture. How much of that you need depends on your hair.

• Fine or flat hair: go for a light conditioner and keep it to the mid-lengths and ends. A heavy formula on fine hair will drag it down by lunchtime.
• Thick, dry or coarse hair: you can use a richer conditioner and leave it on a little longer. This hair type usually wants more slip, not less.
• Damaged or over-processed hair: use a conditioner every wash and add a mask once a week. A conditioner alone won't do the work of a treatment.
• Curly or wavy hair: you want moisture and slip for detangling, without a film that weighs the curl pattern out. Our best pureology for curly hair page sorts the range for curls.

Coloured hair

If you colour your hair, this is where most of the Pureology conditioner range sits. Colour fades every time you wash, so a gentle shampoo and a matching conditioner make a real difference to how long a shade holds. See our best pureology for colour treated hair for the full colour-care line-up across shampoo, conditioner and treatments.

Rinse with lukewarm water rather than hot, and leave a day or two between colouring and your first wash where you can. Any stylist will tell you the same.

Pair it with the right shampoo

A conditioner works best after a shampoo built for the same hair type. If the shampoo strips the hair, the conditioner spends its time catching up. Match them by need: hydrating with hydrating, volume with volume. You can compare options on the best pureology shampoo page, or go straight to our best pureology shampoo for colour treated hair if colour is your main concern.

Rinse-out, leave-in or mask

• Rinse-out conditioner is your every-wash step. Apply after shampoo, leave for a minute or two, rinse.
• Leave-in conditioner goes on damp hair after washing and stays in. It helps with detangling and gives a bit of extra softness, which suits dry ends and curls.
• Masks are the weekly top-up for hair that needs more than a conditioner can give.

Most people do well with a rinse-out conditioner and one extra step, not all three.

Using it properly

Squeeze out the excess water first, so the conditioner isn't diluted. Work it through the lengths and ends, comb it through with a wide-tooth comb, then rinse. Keep it off the roots unless your scalp runs very dry. Using more product doesn't give you more result; it just weighs the hair down.

If you're still deciding where to start with the brand, the best pureology products page covers the whole range in one place.

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