What Protein Treatment Is Best For Your Hair?
There’s a simple way to figure it out.
Take this quiz to see the type of protein you really need.
Different protein treatments work differently on different hair types. But it’s not just your curl or lack thereof that counts. This quiz takes key aspects of your hair’s behaviour and its traits to find your hair’s ideal protein partner.
And if you have hair that fits into any of these categories, check the sections below to get more details on the best protein treatments for:
- Natural hair (naturally curly hair, types 2-4)
- Relaxed hair
- Bleached hair
- Locked hair
- 4c hair
- Protein sensitive hair
- Low porosity hair
What’s the best protein treatment for curly hair?
For naturally curly hair, we typically recommend these protein treatments:
- La Aplanadora Treatment
- Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask,
- BPT Wheat Germ Treatment
- MayOliva Treatment
- Silicon Mix Treatment (Original)
- Crece Pelo Treatment
The lower the porosity of your curly hair, the more you should concentrate on the first few 1-4 conditioners; we’ve listed the most penetrating first. If your hair is moderately low to high porosity, you should get good results with any of these six – subject to other characteristics of your hair of course.
What’s the best protein treatment for Afro hair?
The same as the ones we recommended for curly hair. Afro hair = curly hair in most cases (those with real-life Addy doll hair excepted of course). If your hair is relaxed, check out our suggestions in the section on relaxed hair below.
So again, the list of best protein treatments for Afro hair:
- La Aplanadora Treatment
- Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask,
- BPT Wheat Germ Treatment
- MayOliva Treatment
- Silicon Mix Treatment (Original)
- Crece Pelo Treatment
What’s the best protein treatment for 4c hair?
In most cases, we’d caution against using your curl type to tell you what protein treatment or any other product to use. Why? Because curl type = curl size for the most part. It doesn’t tell you anything about texture, porosity, condition – all factors that have way more influence on what product will or won’t work.
But 4c is different.
4c is the only curl category that takes porosity into account, so it tells you a lot more useful information on what hair characteristics you’re working with. With 4c hair being pretty much universally low porosity (most of it super low porosity), you can tell immediately that certain conditioners – the ones with formulas that just don’t bind to the hair as well – aren’t going to work.
4c hair is also typically extremely dry, so a protein treatment for 4c hair needs to bring some degree of moisture. Otherwise, the stiffness caused by the protein (necessary in most cases to strengthen the hair) could lead to brittleness, or “protein sensitivity”.
The condition the hair is in is the third major factor. If your hair is seriously damaged, it will need a higher strength protein treatment.
Not only does the concentration of protein in the treatment need to be high enough to really make an instant change on hair that is at that breaking point, but the protein it contains should be the most binding, too.
And to make all of that happen, the overall formulation of the treatment will need to be good at binding to the cuticle, or your hair won’t be able to benefit.
We managed to narrow that down to two: La Aplanadora Treatment and Halka Baba de Caracol Hair Moisturizing Mask.
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For 4c hair with severe damage or breakage, it’s La Aplanadora Treatment. This is a high moisture, high protein treatment so will take care of the moisture-protein balance issues on really dry 4c hair. It’s also based on keratin isolates, which have a greater affinity for hair so can bind to the damaged sections really well.
For 4c hair that’s less damaged and is sometimes on the protein sensitive side, the best protein treatment would be Halka Baba de Caracol Hair Moisturizing Mask. The protein aspect of this treatment is slightly less intense; it’s based on collagen and elastin proteins rather than keratin. It’s intensely moisturising and softening though.
By the way, to get this treatment to bind to 4c hair properly, you have to layer on its sister conditioner, Halka Baba de Caracol Conditioner, first. That product acts like a carrier to bring the treatment into your hair.
If your 4c hair is certified protein sensitive, then you can use atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner. It’s a more gradual strengthener, using ceramides to strengthen hair, so it’s a good alternative to protein for 4c hair that doesn’t tolerate proteins that well.
Another gradual way to strengthen damaged hair without protein is through moisture training.
Can you use a protein treatment on locs?
Technically the answer is yes. The one concern would be the residue; protein treatments are designed to leave deposits of protein on the hair to strengthen it.
For that reason, protein treatments can sometimes cause temporary buildup issues, though on unlocked hair that’s usually solved with a clarifying shampoo. With locs, any buildup issue that you get on loose hair tends to be more complicated to remove.
For locked hair, we recommend less intense protein alternatives like atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner, which uses ceramides to fill in the gaps in your hair instead of protein. The lighter, more liquid consistency also makes it easier to apply on your locs..
Can you use a protein treatment on protein sensitive hair if it’s breaking?
Deciding what to use on protein sensitive hair when it’s extremely damaged can be tricky. On the one hand, proteins on protein sensitive hair can cause near instant breakage. But on the other, proteins are one of the main ways to stop your hair from breaking.
The safest thing is to test your hair’s reaction to protein first. So clarify with a deep cleansing shampoo to remove all the buildup. atrActiva Anti-Stress Shampoo does this well. Then apply your protein treatment to one small section, leave it on for the allotted time, rinse it and note your hair’s reaction as it dries and over the next couple of days.
If your hair doesn’t start to feel brittle, it’s probably safe to apply the protein treatment all over your hair. It also indicates that you probably had a type of very temporary protein sensitivity which was just due to buildup.
If your hair does get a little stiff, but still feels stronger overall, you can try mixing the protein treatment with a non protein treatment, e.g., La Aplanadora Treatment + atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment. Using a milder protein treatment like Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Mask, as long as you use the matching conditioner under it, should also work.
If your hair feels brittle after your protein test, then go for a protein alternative like atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner.
What’s the best protein treatment for bleached hair?
For bleached hair, we’d recommend La Aplanadora Treatment; you need a seriously strong protein that can cope with the severe levels of damage caused by bleach. Another really good protein treatment for bleached hair – that few people realise is a protein treatment – is Silicon Mix, the original formula.
It’s not as strong as La Aplanadora in the protein stakes, but the combination of keratin and silicones are great for filling and sealing respectively – two really important conditioning goals on bleached hair. Silicon Mix Proteina de Perla Treatment is another good option on bleached hair, based on pearl protein extract.
What’s the best protein treatment for relaxed hair?
Relaxed hair is dealing with some very similar damage to bleached hair, so has similar needs. Depending on other factors in your hair, you can use the same protein treatments on your relaxed hair, but take the quiz above to be sure.
La Aplanadora Treatment, Silicon Mix Treatment (original), Silicon Mix Proteina de Perla Treatment and Crece Pelo Treatment are all good protein treatments for relaxed hair.
What’s the best protein treatment for low porosity hair?
The best protein treatments for low porosity hair are, of course, the ones that are best able to bind to your hair.
That would be La Aplanadora Treatment, Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask, BPT Wheat Germ Treatment and MayOliva Treatment. And yes, you can use protein treatments on low porosity hair. We have a whole article on that, here.
What’s the best protein treatment for high porosity hair?
Like bleached hair and relaxed hair (both of which are at the high porosity end of the spectrum), strong protein treatments are the way to go for high porosity hair. La Aplanadora Treatment, as a potent rejuvenator formula, will help fill in the gaps on the surface that high porosity hair is more prone to, as well as connecting with the binding sites on the surface that make high porosity hair so thirsty. Silicon Mix is a great follow up.
Alternatively, try Halka Baba de Caracol Conditioner paired with Halka Baba de Caracol Moisturizing Hair Mask. This combination is less intense, but is still very strengthening. It also balances that strengthening side very well with its emollient element, so can be used long term without fear of the stiffness that can come with protein overload.
To find out more on how to take care of your high porosity hair, download our free, full-length DHA High Porosity Guide.