Shea Moisture: The Curly Community's most complicated brand

Understanding the community's perspective on Shea Moisture products, from formula changes after the Unilever acquisition to concerns about product weight for different hair types.

April 5, 2025

This post was originally published in 2018, but I've updated it for 2025.

Shea Moisture is one of the most common brands marketed towards curly hair. It's easy to find nearly everywhere. However, as a someone who moderates a curly hair community on Reddit, I see a lot of problems caused by their products. The main issue is that while they now market to all curl types, their products aren't really good for every curl type. People with wavy and loose curls often end up with their patterns weighed down by the ingredients in Shea Moisture.

The problem is so common that I programmed a bot on the subreddit to automatically inform people that Shea Moisture products might not be suitable for all hair types.

And even among those that their products were originally formulated for, people with stronger curl patterns, there has ben some dissatisfaction with the brand since they were acquired by Unilever in 2017.

Who should not be using Shea Moisture: people with wavy hair or loose curls

The main problem with Shea Moisture is that most of their products are formulated for curl types that are not weighed down by ingredients like oils and butters.

How do you know you have a curl type that is weighed down by oils/butters? If you have any of the following

parts of your hair are wavy or straight rather than curly
your main problem is curls/waves loosening out/not holding (sometimes becoming stringy)

It's not that you can never use oils and butters, you just have to know that the more oils and butters are in your hair, the less curly it will be.

Not all Shea Moisture products are too heavy for this type of hair, but a majority of conditioners, leave ins, and stylers are. The reason for this is the ingredient that their brand is named after: shea butter. CurlsBot classifies it as a "medium oil" because it has a moderate ability to penetrate hair. Which is great if you want it penetrating your hair, but not so great if it's weighing your hair down and you're trying to remove it.

You can check a product on CurlsBot's ingredient analyzer. If the summary says "Lightweight product" it is likely more appropriate for loose curls and waves.

You can see an example of a CurlsBot analysis for

A heavy product: Shea Moisture Curl & Shine Smoothie which does NOT have "Lightweight product" in the results summary
A lighter product: Shea Butter Aloe Butter Scalp Moisture Shampoo which does have "Lightweight product" in the results summary

It's also a good lesson to not always believe a brand if it says its products are appropriate for looser curls/wavy hair. Shea Moisture has a page of "wavy" hair products on their website and I'd recommend almost none of them for wavy hair. Their "weightless" line I've personally tried and would not recommend for wavy hair despite the name.

Lightweight Shea Moisture products

Here are the Shea Moisture products that are classified as "Lightweight" by CurlsBot:

100% Virgin Coconut Oil Moisture & Smooth Shampoo
African Water Mint & Ginger Detox Hair & Scalp Gentle Shampoo
Aloe Butter Leave In
Aloe Butter Scalp Moisture Shampoo
Cannabis Sativa (Hemp) Seed Oil Lush Length Shampoo
Coconut And Hibiscus Curl And Shine Shampoo
Daily Hydration Shampoo
Papaya & Neroli All Day Frizz Control Shampoo

Keep in mind that as CurlsBot can't know the exact formula of every product, the "Lightweight" classification is not always 100% accurate. And ingredients can change so you might want to check the product on CurlsBot to make sure it's still lightweight.

And "heavy" products especially pre-poos and deep conditioners can be OK for higher porosity ends if you have mixed porosity hair.

UGH I accidentally bought Shea Moisture products and I have loose curls/wavy hair

I'm sorry, it happened to me! And SO many people that I see it on Reddit daily. What I'd recommend is

Clarify your hair with a clarifying shampoo
Get lighter weight products (we have many listed on our low porosity page)

Occasionally people say they don't want to waste them or they can't afford new products. Some tips for using them are

Use the stylers in VERY tiny amounts like a dime-size glob, emulsified with water in your hands in the shower and applied to dripping wet hair
Clarify regularly
Shampoos are probably OK since they may not even deposit oils/butters
If you have the leave in and conditioner, you can use the leave in as a conditioner (it's lighter) and the conditioner as a deep conditioner- also apply these to dripping wet hair because it helps distribute and dilute them
Focus any oily products on the ends of your hair, staying away from the scalp

How Shea Moisture alienated its main audience

Shea Moisture's original main audience was Black women in the United States, who often have curl types that are not significantly weighed down by oils/butters.

Originally, Shea Moisture was a Black-owned brand, but in 2017, Unilever acquired Sundial Brands, Shea Moisture's parent company, for an estimated $1.6 billion. This acquisition sparked significant discussion in the curly hair community, especially in the Black Natural Hair community:

Community Concerns

Formula Changes: Many long-time users report changes in product formulations
Quality Consistency: Some products seem to vary batch-to-batch
Corporate Influence: Concerns about maintaining the brand's original mission
Accessibility vs. Authenticity: While distribution has increased, some feel the brand has lost its roots in order to appeal to a wider audience

Are Shea Moisture products even good for very curly hair

There is a movement in the Natural Hair community away from butters and oils. It reminds me a lot of the Curly Girl movement away from silicones. Both can buildup, and oils/butters are arguably worse than silicones at preventing moisture from reaching the hair shaft, but also there is a lot of variation in the way people's hair reacts to them.

Using them in smaller amounts and being aware that they don't wash out easily is hard, but is worth it if you want the benefits of these ingredients. Both silicones and butters/oil are excellent at protecting hair, lubrication, and adding shine/softness.

Just like with silicones in the wavy/loose curl community, people in the Natural Hair community are finding ways to incorporate oils/butters into their routines to get those benefits.

That said, these days there are lots of quality smaller Black-owned brands to choose from like Miche and Ecoslay that are IMHO much better than Shea Moisture.