Keracare 1st Lather Shampoo 32 oz / 950 ml - Deep Cleansing & Build-Up Removal

The clarifying step, and the name tells you where it goes. First lather, before anything else, stripping out the product that ordinary shampoo leaves behind.

Gel, mousse, hairspray, heavy oils and weeks of leave-in build a film on the hair that stops treatments working. Conditioner sits on top of the residue instead of getting into the strand, which is why a deep conditioner sometimes seems to do nothing at all. This shampoo lifts the film off along with the dirt, pollution and excess oil.

So it is a preparation product, not a weekly cleanser:

• Before a protein or deep conditioning treatment
• Before a relaxer
• After a long stretch of heavy styling product
• As a monthly reset on hair that has gone limp and dull

Frequency is the thing people get wrong. Once a month is plenty for most, or every couple of weeks if you use a lot of gel and oil. Reaching for it every wash will leave the hair dry, because the same power that clears the film also clears what you actually want to keep.

950ml is a professional bottle, which suits a salon or a household where several people are washing curly hair. It works across relaxed, natural, coloured and heat-styled hair, and it wants a conditioner behind it every time, since a clarifying wash leaves the cuticle open.