Do you need Hyaluronic acid in hair products?

Hyaluronic acid is an overrated ingredient in the skincare industry and it can hold up to 1000 times its own weight. In addition to that, it also hydrates the skin. Promoting HA for haircare just because it can hold so much water doesn’t make sense.

Haircare products are not about hydrating or adding water to the hair. The hair needs to be conditioned i.e. conditioning agents form a film around the hair to smoothen it. When searching for hair care ingredients, we are looking for ingredients that can coat the hair and smoothen it.

HA has lubricating properties, but the ingredient needs to be able to bind to the hair. In order to do that the ingredients need to have a certain affinity with the hair.

The interesting fact is that HA is hygroscopic and the hair surface is hydrophobic so, it will be difficult to deposit and keep those materials within the hair.

There are currently 2 research studies where the potential of hyaluronic acid is being explored. Both studies add HA to other conditioning agents and show that the combination works better than without HA.

The only problem here is that these studies don’t compare the HA complexes with already existing conditioning agents.

Both of these studies combine HA with other specific ingredients to show its potential. Adding HA to a random formula or water does not mean that it works.

If you feel like it works for your hair, then you can keep on using it. But, it’s more better to use a cheap conditioner for the hair.