All ingredients that contain the following words. The reason these are discouraged on curl friendly routines is they can build up on the hair and it is not possible to remove them with just a cowash.
Any silicones that start with these words are water soluble, so they should wash out with cowashing. Some believe they are OK but others say to avoid them. It's up to you:
All ingredients that contain the following words. The reason these are forbidden on curl friendly routines is they can build up on the hair and it is not possible to remove them with just a cowash.
There are a few exceptions which are these water-soluble waxes:
See our Cleansers article for more info
The following are sulfates or similar cleansers and not recommended because they can dry out hair. How drying a product is depends on more than if it contains sulfates or not, but it's easiest just to avoid them.
Curlsbot also detects the following questionable ingredients
Soap can be as drying as sulfates. Check out our article on soap for more info. We detect by looking for the following, but this may not catch all soap. We recommend contacting the manufacturer to ask if something contains soap :
Lorraine Massey cautions against these in the curly hair Handbook saying "In recent years, they’ve become controversial as experts question whether they are safe. (Some say they may be linked to cancer.)" We recommend we do your own research.
Most types of witch hazel contain alcohol. Contact the manufacturer to see if the witch hazel in this product contains alcohol. Even if it does not contain alcohol, many people find witch hazel drying. Use with caution if you have hair prone to dryness.