A lot of what the everyday consumer knows about hair products is anecdotal — even more so when it comes to textured hair. That said, it’s important to always ensure the tips you actually implement into your routine are backed by science. Case in point? The tingle-activated hair product.

It’s long been communicated in curly-and-coily circles that when a product makes your scalp tingle or experience a cooling sensation that it’s a sign of the product “really” working. The most popular ingredients to evoke those feelings are peppermint oil and tea tree oil, and they happen to also be extremely common in textured hair products. Outside of natural oils, menthol is known to cause similar sensations.

But are those activated feelings always a good sign? Not always.

While the tingling feeling can represent the stimulating properties of products that are properly diluted, it can also be a sign of irritation. In the latter case, when your skin is irritated or experiences a trauma, your body increases blood flow to the area and sends healing cells to fix the damage. This can cause additional and unecessary inflammatory response and damage to the scalp.

To avoid this, it’s important to ensure any “stimulating” or “tingling” oils are diluted in a carrier product, like a conditioner or mask, unless a physcian or lisecened cosmetologist instructs otherwise.

The real — and truly safe — way to determine whether a product is or isn’t working all comes down to the results once you step out of the shower, not how the product makes your scalp feel while its still atop your head. To do that comes consistency and a open line of communication between you and your stylist — or in our case, a coach — that is intune with what your hair goals are and can help you work through which products are working for you, and which ones are actually working against you.