Please can you recommend a good softening shampoo?

[TheDevilMadeMeDoIt]

My hair is very short, and also very, very thick and strong and quite coarse. It isn't dry, so using heavily moisturising shampoo and conditioner just makes it oily.

It has a mind of its own and does exactly what it wants. Does anyone know of a shampoo/conditioner that will stop it being so flippin' strong and make it softer and more manageable?

Philip Kingsley Elasticiser?

Baby shampoo?

Kerastase cristalliste for fine hair. I have ultra thick frizzy hair and this transformed it into soft and manageable. Sorry it’s a bit expensive but you don’t need a lot, it lathers up well.

What I find makes most difference to the softness of my hair is the water it’s washed in. I live in a hard water area, but if I go to a soft water area on holiday, the difference in my hair is really noticeable. I always mean to try washing my hair in rain water, or filtered water back home, but of course I never get round to it.

NearlyChristmas I've been lucky, I've lived in soft water areas all my life (oop North!!) and things are even worse in hard water. Going visiting where the water's hard, I've been known to take a 2l pop bottle of water from home to rinse with!

I've looked at the Elasticizer before, but everything I've read says it's for dry, damaged hair and mine's neither, so I've backed off in case it make it greasy and even stronger.

andy I'll investigate the Kerastase. If it works I don't mind the cost, but the idea of buying a shampoo for fine hair is mind boggling. Do you use shampoo and conditioner, or is the shampoo alone enough?

Devil - I usually use tresemme conditioner - the green bottle, its a clean rinsing conditioner, or the tresemme conditioner for coloured hair, although my DD uses the matching kerastase conditioner and she has hair similar to mine, it’s just down to personal preference with the conditioner- I found the cristalliste conditioner a little too heavy for me. Yes don’t get the cristalliste for thick hair, the one for fine one really does work better. I also use a tiny amount of CHI silk infusion before blow drying. It’s available from amazon and silicone free and very lightweight unlike some serums. Since i started using these products my hair feels soft for the first time.

Redken all soft is incredible if you have coarse hair, I have very curly coarse hair and use it if I want to straighten my hair, all soft combined with a bit of serum before straightening gives me soft silky shiny hair and it stays soft for longer than the first day of washing.