The 18 Best Shampoos and Conditioners, Recommended by Hairstylists
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We consulted with top hairstylists from around the country to help recommend the right shampoos and conditioners for your hair type.
InStyle / Brian Kopinski
1990s commercial hair. Hair so silky smooth, so perfectly curled, so lusciously hydrated, so enviously perfect that when you turn your head, every head on the street turns with it. We all want it. But how do you get it?
“Healthy hair starts at the scalp. And scalp health starts with using the right shampoo and conditioner,” says celebrity stylist and Virtue Labs creative director Adir Abergel. Considering some of Hollywood’s most enviable coifs — including those of Jennifer Garner and Charlize Theron — regularly emerge from Abergel’s salon, we’re pretty on-board with that directive.
But how do you pick the shampoo and conditioner that are going to be best for your hair type and give you the head-turning, red-carpet-quality hair you crave? "When it comes to hair care, knowing your hair type is essential,” says L’Oreal Professionnel Global Ambassador and NYC-based colorist Min Kim.
Best Overall: Nécessaire The Scalp Duo
What We Love: It is free of everything: sulfates, parabens, phthalates, PEGs, even fragrance, leaving us with literally nothing to complain about.
What We Don’t Love: If we had to really dig for something, maybe it’s that the brand is sustainably manufactured in the United States, despite carrying a French name? But honestly, there is nothing not to love here.
This hot brand certainly lives up to its name. It’s 100 percent necessary to add to your shower shelf in our minds — and in Abergel’s as well. “My hair responds so well to it!” he raves.
There’s very little not to love here. The formula is free of everything. No sulfates, no parabens, no phthalates, no PEGs. It doesn’t even carry a scent! That’s a lot to love before you get into the insanely hydrating effects of ingredients like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, panthenol, celery seed extract, aloe vera leaf juice, and vitamin B. All of that combines to bring serious moisture — and health — back to your scalp, leaving your head free of irritation and buildup and your hair looking like Abergel himself styled it.
The company is even a B-corp, so you can rest easy knowing that their manufacturing, supply, and distribution chains are as responsible and eco-conscious as they come.
Hair Type: Various | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Unscented | Size: 8.4 oz
Best Budget: Odele Smoothing Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: At an affordable price point, this line offers all the high-end essentials including an SLS/SLES sulfate-free formula, sleek packaging, and — most importantly — intensely moisturizing, lightweight ingredients that are ideal for a wide range of hair types.
What We Don’t Love: The texture can be a little grainy when you squeeze the formula out of the bottle, but that experience is quickly erased as you build the lather and reap the benefits of the high-quality ingredients.
If you’re looking for luxury shampoo features without the price point, look no further than Odele. This up-and-coming, women-owned and -operated, Minnesota-based brand has done its homework and delivers all of the features you would expect from products three-to-four times the price. The sulfate-free formula is clean, and while the ingredient list doesn’t feature many buzzy items, it does strictly adhere to EU cosmetic standards. The result is a combination of extremely high-quality ingredients that keep your experience level high and the price point low.
And what an experience it is! Though the texture can be slightly grainy at first, any hesitations are immediately rinsed away the moment this product hits your scalp. Both the shampoo and conditioner deliver a lightweight experience that cleans your hair without stripping it of its essential oils. The result is remarkably and consistently smooth, frizz-free hair for pretty much any hair type. If silky-smooth, irresistibly touchable salon-grade hair is what you’re after, this is it.
Hair Type: Various | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Neutral with a cucumber base | Size: 13 oz
Best Drugstore: Kristin Ess Hair Signature Hydrating Salon Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: This brand makes salon-grade performance available for purchase at virtually any drugstore around the country.
What We Don’t Love: The signature scent is extremely appealing but can be overwhelming for some.
The One is another brand that lives up to its name. If you’re browsing your local CVS or Walgreens, this is the one to grab according to Abergel. “It’s a really cleansing and delicate formula,” he says.
Like all of our favorites, the formula is sulfate-free and appropriate for a huge variety of hair types. It’s also vegan and ultra-hydrating, thanks to ingredients like castor and avocado oils. The result is soft, shiny, smooth hair that will have you turning heads the moment you walk through your local Walgreens’ automatic sliding doors and into the parking lot.
Hair Type: Various | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Signature with notes of magnolia, pear water, and sandalwood | Size: 10 oz
Best Splurge: Davines OI Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: The roucou oil-enhanced formula not only smells amazing, it offers a huge range of performance benefits that help counteract both natural and environmental damage.
What We Don’t Love: The packaging of both products is unwieldy to use in the shower. We found the shampoo easy to spill when pouring and the conditioner — with an aggravating twist-off lid and open container — easy to flood and spoil with water.
The secret to the luxurious experience offered by Davines’ best-selling shampoo and conditioner lies deep within the jungles of the Amazon. Roucou oil is derived from the fruit of the achiote, a shrub that is native to the world’s largest rainforest.
And its benefits are countless. Not only does it help to hydrate and smooth hair, virtually eliminating the need to detangle, it also purportedly helps reverse the natural effects of aging. Considering how rich in vitamins A and B, beta-carotene, ellagic acid, and natural antioxidants it is, it’s no wonder that the brand claims it counters the effects of UV exposure and even aids in the natural production of collagen and melanin. Just don’t let that cloud your vision regarding the real benefit — which, according to Abergel, is smooth, infinitely manageable, and therefore stylable hair.
Hair Type: Various | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Signature Scent | Size: Shampoo: 9.46 oz; conditioner: 8.8 oz
Best for Curly Hair: Holy Curls Hydration Infusing Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: A range of natural ingredients keep things lightweight but still offer outstanding hydration, leaving your curls with nothing to do but bounce.
What We Don’t Love: The pump packaging has a tendency to break easily.
For NYC-based curls specialist Candace Witherspoon, there’s only one choice for most of her clients’ hair, and that’s Holy Curls Shampoo and Conditioner. After years of straightening her natural curls, Somali-born Badria Ahmed founded Holy Curls as a solution for women with tight curls in a market that doesn’t offer many. The line offers amazing hydration through the use of lightweight, natural ingredients, like baobab and coconut oils, cupuaçu butter, and yucca plant extract. There’s nothing — including sulfates — in the formula to weigh your hair down, allowing curls to stay buoyant and bouncy all day long.
Hair Type: Curly, natural | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Sweet orange | Size: 300 ml
Best for Graying Hair: Arey The Shower Duo
What We Love: The jury is out on whether gray hair is in, but while we deliberate, we’ll gladly stall (and maybe even reverse!) the process with this excellent, well-balanced shampoo and conditioner. If you’re happy with your natural hair color, it’s an excellent alternative to expensive color treatments.
What We Don’t Love: The price. It’s expensive, but depending on your mindset, reversing time could be priceless.
Whether or not you’re looking to embrace graying hair is a matter of personal preference — one that many of us probably spend hours agonizing over, especially considering that research has begun to show that gray hair is not 100 percent hereditary. It can also be caused by environmental factors from things completely out of our control, like UV rays and even cigarette smoke.
So, if you’re unsure about gray hair and looking for some extra time to deliberate, we recommend stocking Arey’s Shampoo and Conditioner in your shower. The peptide-rich formula not only leaves your hair clean and pH balanced, it also slows the appearance of gray hair and even helps to repigment by stimulating the production of Melancortin 1 Receptor (MC1). The ability to stop time is a lofty claim — one that comes with a high price tag — but giving Arey a try is certainly cheaper than a lifetime of expensive color treatments.
Hair Type: All hair types | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Cedar and sage | Size: 8.45 oz
Best for Dry Hair: Klorane Shampoo and Conditioner With Organic Cupuaçu Butter
What We Love: Cupuaçu butter brings the moisture of the rainforest to your scalp to provide hydration through a formula that is suitable for nearly every hair type.
What We Don’t Love: While we are more concerned about the incredible outcome for the appearance of our hair, the packaging and branding leaves something to be desired when it’s sitting in your shower. It looks more like poison-ivy relief than a luxurious, hydrating experience for your scalp.
If you’re looking for moisture, what better place to take inspiration (and ingredients) from than the rainforest? Abergel highly recommends this shampoo and conditioner combo that draws its moisture-enhancing properties from cupuaçu, the fruit of a tree native to many of South America’s wet and steamy climes. Cupuaçu butter is rich in antioxidants, and some studies claim it has nourishing properties 1.5 times stronger than its cousin shea butter. The creamy texture of both the shampoo and conditioner doesn’t weigh your hair down, it’s great for providing moisture to most hair types, and it’s safe for color-treated hair as well.
Hair Type: Dry, damaged, thick, curly, batural | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Cupuaçu (slightly tropical) | Size: Shampoo: 13.5 oz; conditioner: 6.7 oz
Best for Colored Hair: L'Oreal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Glossing Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: Sulfate-free and pH-balanced, this shampoo-and-conditioner combo is perfect for color-treated hair. And the extremely reasonable price point is perfect for offsetting the costs of expensive color treatments.
What We Don’t Love: The purple packaging and iridescent logo feel suited to the shower of a teenager.
When you color your hair, you’re actually also restructuring the proteins in it which can lead to some undesirable outcomes, like loss of hair strength, reduced thickness, and generally more brittle hair, when left unchecked. That’s why many stylists, including Delaware-based Cassandra Olivia, recommend seeking out a shampoo and conditioner that’s specifically formulated to help combat those effects. This combo from L’Oreal is Olivia’s favorite, first and foremost because it is sulfate-free. “You never want to use products with sulfates in color-treated hair,” she says. “They are way too harsh in how they strip your hair, plus they’ll cause your color to fade faster!”
The last thing you want when you’re already putting your hair through the stress of color treatments is to put it under even more strain. Luckily, this gentle and reasonably priced formula avoids that issue and brings moisture and buoyancy with the addition of rosemary extract. It’s also great for a wide range of hair types, Olivia says, including natural hair.
Hair Type: Color treated, damaged | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Roses and sandalwood | Size: 8.5 oz
Best for Damaged Hair: Olaplex Bond Maintenance No.4 Shampoo and No.5 Conditioner
What We Love: Olaplex’s patented ingredient helps repair the bonds that make your hair strong and prevent breakage.
What We Don’t Love: If you wash your hair extremely regularly or every day, this may not be the best choice. It stimulates the production of more natural oils than other shampoos and conditioners.
Olaplex is recognized by many stylists as the leader when it comes to hair repair. Their patented hair-care system helps to repair the disulfide bonds in hair follicles that give your hair structure, strength, and stability. When those bonds are broken, your hair becomes damaged, which is where Olaplex’s patented ingredient, Bis-Aminopropyl Diglycol Dimaleate, comes to the rescue. The name may leave your tongue in knots, but your hair certainly won’t be. This powerful shampoo and conditioner combo strengthens and repairs your hair, leaving it touchably soft, silky smooth, and far less prone to breakage when you run a comb through it.
Hair Type: Damaged, but suitable for all hair types | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Fresh (slightly citrusy) | Size: 8.5 oz
Best for Oily Hair: dpHue Apple Cider Vinegar Revitalizing Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: Apple cider vinegar is a great, natural ingredient for clarifying hair without stripping it of moisture.
What We Don’t Love: With a base ingredient of vinegar, this product produces a fairly strong scent in the shower that might bother some. But it fades quickly and doesn’t follow you out of the shower.
Celebrity stylist Clyde Haygood says that when his clients come in with oily hair, he immediately reaches for products that leverage apple cider vinegar. “It clarifies hair to remove residue, build-up and dirt and helps exfoliate the scalp,” he says, “but it also locks moisture into hair follicles. The result is healthy, shiny, stronger hair.”
The Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Revitalizing Shampoo and Conditioner from dpHue takes the benefits even further with a formula that adds hyaluronic acid, apple stem cells, and maca root. And the effect of that combination on your scalp is noticeable even as it goes to work in the shower, producing a slight, pleasing tingle. Like an all-natural Drano for your hair follicles, the ACV Revitalizing Shampoo works to unclog your scalp just like a scalp scrub, exfoliating while also removing oil and build up to help stimulate your hair growth cycles. It will leave your hair shiny but never slick with oil.
Hair Type: Oily (but well-suited for all hair types)| Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Apple cider vinegar | Size: 8.5 oz
Best Moisturizing: Oribe Shampoo for Moisture & Control and Intense Conditioner for Moisture & Control
What We Love: An intensely hydrating blend of Oribe’s signature complex, amino acids, shea and illipe butters, and olive oil make this a go-to for locking in moisture, especially for those with curly hair.
What We Don’t Love: The price. But a little bit of product goes a long way here, so at least you won’t be purchasing it that regularly.
It’s often difficult for those with natural or curly hair to get the moisture their hair craves without weighing down their tresses. That’s why Witherspoon turns to Oribe when she’s looking to lock in moisture. The brand’s Moisture and Control line is ideal for moisturizing curls — especially types 2-4 — but also provides great results for those with thick, coarse, or frizzy hair.
Oribe’s signature complex of watermelon, lychee and edelweiss helps protect against the deterioration of natural keratin, while sunflower extract helps protect against natural damaging and drying environmental effects. Amino acids, shea butter, illipe butter, and olive oil all provide unparalleled moisture to the hair and scalp.
Hair Type: Curly, wavy, natural, coarse, thick, frizzy | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Citrus | Size: Shampoo: 8.5 oz; conditioner: 6.8 oz
Best for Fine Hair: Living Proof Full Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: By minimizing friction and buildup, this shampoo-and-conditioner combo provides natural fullness and body.
What We Don’t Love: This is definitely a product specifically for those with fine hair. It’s not well-suited for other hair types.
If you crave volume for your fine hair, Living Proof’s Full Shampoo and Conditioner is perhaps the finest option. The key is a new blend of ingredients that are heavy in slip modifiers, which reduce surface tension between strands and allow your hair to achieve more natural fullness. Both the shampoo and conditioner are also formulated with marine-derived polysaccharides that naturally protect against friction-causing buildup from harsh pollutants. With all that junk and friction removed, amaranth peptides can go to work more easily, providing some extra plump to your hair that further enhances fullness. The result is natural fullness and body, even for the finest hair.
Hair Type: Fine | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Citrus | Size: 8 oz
Best for Frizzy Hair: Bumble and bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: An all-star cast of natural oils come together to provide smoothness and control to even the driest, frizziest manes.
What We Don’t Love: It’s oil-based, so definitely do not use this if you have a naturally oily hair type!
When clients enter the salon with frizzy, out-of-control hair, Abergel immediately reaches for his favorite shampoo and conditioner from Bumble and bumble. Coming together to save your hair like the superhero cast of Captain Planet are an all-star lineup of six high-performing oils: Grapeseed, sweet almond, coconut, safflower, macadamia, and argan. With their softening, smoothing, and detangling powers combined, hair is instantly transformed from looking like you just put your finger in an electrical outlet to smooth, manageable tresses. It’s a great product for anyone with dry, damaged hair with medium–to-thick density, but stay away if your hair carries a lot of natural oil. These oil-based ingredients will not do you any favors.
Hair Type: Frizzy, dry | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Fruity | Size: Shampoo: 16 oz; conditioner: 16 oz
Best for Dandruff: Briogeo Scalp Revival Micro-Exfoliating Shampoo and Cooling Hydration Scalp Mask
What We Love: These weekly treatments greatly improve scalp health and reduce the occurrence of flakes and dandruff.
What We Don’t Love: The pot-like packaging of the shampoo is difficult in the shower, but since it’s a once-a-week ritual and the results are so astounding, we’re willing to make the sacrifice.
Most people love a fresh snowfall, except when the source is your hair! Dandruff is embarrassing and the surest sign of poor scalp health. A good stylist should never let you off the hook when it comes to treating dandruff, and Witherspoon is no exception. When her clients come in with obviously dry, flaky scalps, she immediately recommends they start using Briogeo’s weekly Scalp Revival treatments.
Both the shampoo and mask feature charcoal (which helps detoxify the scalp) and coconut oil (which brings back moisture) to provide maximal impact to your scalp health when you add a simple, once-a-week product swap to your routine. Plus, both products also feature soothing peppermint oil, which helps relieve itching and has the added bonus of smelling fantastic. The benefits are clinically tested to increase scalp hydration by up to two times, and 89 percent of respondents saw improvement after their first use. You’ll have beautiful, flake-free hair in no time.
Hair Type: Dry scalp and dandruff | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Peppermint | Size: Shampoo: 8 oz; conditioner: 5 oz
Best for Thick Hair: Adwoa Beauty Baomint Moisturizing Shampoo and Baomint Deep Conditioning Treatment
What We Love: Natural oils come together to provide control without adding volume or excess product buildup, making this minty line of products ideal for coarse, thick hair.
What We Don’t Love: The packaging. Pump bottles tend to break.
Many of Witherspoon's clients have thick, coarse, natural hair, and for those instances she highly recommends reaching for Adwoa’s Baomint collection. A combination of natural oils — including baobab, Jamaican black castor, sweet almond, rosemary, nettle, and prickly pear — couple up with the cooling properties of peppermint to deliver a hydrating blend that helps smooth out even the coarsest hair while adding back loads of moisture. Post-shower, the deep conditioning treatment leverages the anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties of a similar blend of oils and shea butter to add strength and shine. It’ll make styling a breeze.
Hair Type: Thick, coarse, natural | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Peppermint | Size: Shampoo: 14 oz; conditioner: 16 oz
Best for Natural Hair: PATTERN Hydration Shampoo and Lightweight Conditioner
What We Love: Pattern’s products offer moisture-rich ingredients that are ideal for natural hair and make detangling a breeze, allowing any woman to have hair as effortlessly chic as the brand’s famous founder.
What We Don’t Love: The floral scent will appeal to most but could overpower more sensitive noses.
Developed by style icon Tracee Ellis Ross specifically to address the concerns of women looking to embrace the beauty of their natural hair, it’s no small wonder that this is Witherspoon's top recommendation. Natural hair demands moisture, and Pattern delivers that in spades with shampoo ingredients like aloe vera leaf juice, coconut oil, and honey, plus conditioner ingredients, including Irish moss and biotin. The sulfate-, paraben-, phthalate- and formaldehyde-free formula cleans deeply and smoothes hair, leaving it easy to detangle and style. Pattern will give you the resources to make your natural coif as effortlessly chic as that of the brand’s famous founder.
Hair Type: Natural, curly | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Floral | Size: Shampoo: 25 oz; conditioner: 29 oz
Best Purple Shampoo: Virtue Labs Colorkick De-Brassing Shampoo and Recovery Conditioner
What We Love: The wide range of all-natural botanic ingredients provide an equally wide array of balancing benefits for blonde, silver, gray and color-treated hair.
What We Don’t Love: Your hair will look so vibrant and visibly healthy you might get too many compliments.
If you’re looking to tone color-treated locks, stylist Ali Dash insists you look no further than Virtue Labs ColorKick Debrassing Shampoo. “It uses all-natural botanicals to brighten, tone, and neutralize brassiness on all shades of color-treated hair.” That list of all-natural ingredients is impressive: Chamomile, red cabbage, lemon fruit, ginseng, and wintergreen extracts all combine to make for brighter blondes, while turmeric root extract provides protection from color-distorting UV rays. Viola odorata flower, lavender, and rosemary extracts neutralize brassiness.
But what really sets the Virtue Labs formula apart is the patented Alpha Keratin 60ku technology. It’s the only keratin protein actually derived from human hair, which gives it the clinically-proven power to heal any hair type and texture. Follow up with the brand’s Recovery Conditioner — designed with baobab oil to lock in moisture, plus hydrolyzed quinoa to enhance color and grapefruit extract to pump up shine — and your blonde locks will be radiant like the sun in no time.
Hair Type: Color-treated | Sulfate-Free: Yes | Scent: Yuzu, chamomile, sandalwood | Size: Shampoo: 8 oz; conditioner: 7.6 oz
Best Smelling: Le Labo Santal 33 Perfuming Shampoo and Conditioner
What We Love: The scent. We’re obsessed with Santal 33 regardless of which Le Labo product it appears in.
What We Don’t Love: The price. Although, when you recontextualize it as a perfume and shampoo combined as one (which it is!), it becomes more manageable in our minds.
If you haven’t yet experienced Le Labo’s bestselling Santal 33 scent, you’ve been missing out. Found in all of the trendiest restaurant and hotel bathrooms, Santal 33 is absolutely intoxicating. Pair the scent up with a high-performing shampoo and conditioner, and Abergel advises that you have one great product. The shampoo is enhanced with vitamin B and aloe, while the conditioner is rich in shea butter and sweet almond oil. You’ll leave the shower with hair that looks, feels, and smells like a million dollars.
Hair Type: Various | Sulfate-Free: No | Scent: Sandalwood | Size: Shampoo: 8 oz; conditioner: 7.8 oz
What to Keep in Mind
Your Hair Type
"Know thyself” is an aphorism that has been around since the ancient Greeks, and for good reason. If you don’t know your hair type, you’re setting yourself up for frustration when it comes to finding satisfaction in your hair routine. “Using a shampoo and conditioner that is specifically created for your individual hair type is absolutely the most important factor in achieving the best results,” says Haygood. He cautions his high-profile Los Angeles clientele that “finding the perfect product that actually works for your hair type is a lot of trial and error, which can be costly and wasteful!”
While it's not a one-size-fits-all process, there are a few overarching guidelines to keep in mind.
Curly Hair: “I’ll often recommend products specific to that hair type that add moisture and help to maintain a curl,” says Olivia. “But some of the heavier moisturizing products that are great for curly or natural hair would weigh down fine, thin hair."
Fine Hair: “Someone with fine, skinny strands would want a shampoo and conditioner that contains light ingredients that won’t weigh down and reduce volume," says Los Angeles-based celebrity stylist, Bradley Leake.
Coarse, Damaged, or Colored Hair: " I would recommend the opposite and push them to formulas with heavy ingredients that would be more effective at adding moisture and providing repair," says Leake.
If a shortcut is more your thing, just cut to the chase and ask your stylist for help choosing the right regimen for you.
Ingredients
As a general rule of thumb, nearly all of our experts immediately cautioned us to stay away from any shampoos that include sulfates, parabens and silicones. “Parabens may help inhibit bacteria and mold, but they are detrimental on many levels when absorbed into the body,” warns Haygood. “And while silicones coat the hair, which may make it feel better at first, over time they create buildup and can cause flakiness to the scalp and drying-out of the hair.”
Ingredients to look for in a shampoo and conditioner depend on your hair type and here are a few guidelines to get you started.
Wavy Hair: LA-based stylist Billy Yamaguchi loves the wave-enhancing and frizz-reducing properties of aloe vera for wavy hair, the extra moisture that coconut oil provides (without imparting heaviness) for curly hair, and the hydrating properties of honey and shea butter for especially dry hair.
Curly Hair: Philly-based celebrity stylist Annagijd “Kee” Taylor, who counts Keke Palmer and Tiffany Haddish as clients, explains that "moisturizing ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil, and glycerin help define curls and reduce frizz."
Coarse, Damaged, or Colored Hair: For my clients with color-treated hair, I look for antioxidants like vitamin E which are great at preventing fading. And for those with dry and damaged hair, I look to add extra moisture with natural oils like argan oil, jojoba oil, and avocado oil. But if your hair is already oily, I’m going to tell you to look for clarifying ingredients like tea tree oil, charcoal and salicylic acid that will help remove product buildup and elongate the amount of time you can spend between wash days.”
Sulfate and Sulfate-Free Formulas: Everyone agrees. Stay away from sulfates. “They are in detergents and household cleaners,” Haygood. “Would you want to cleanse your hair with those?”
Despite being universally reviled by professional stylists, sulfates show up in about 90 percent of shampoo formulas, according to Dash. He credits their popularity with the lush, frothy foam they create to cleanse the hair and scalp, but in turn, they strip out all the moisture, leaving you with brittle, straw-like ends. All of our experts agree: If you can avoid sulfates, you should, especially if you have curly or color-treated hair. “They just clean way too harshly for those hair types,” warns Olivia.
Your Questions, Answered
How often should you wash your hair?
Every single one of our experts agree that you should not wash your hair every day. But just how many washes you need in a week can vary, depending on both your hair type and your lifestyle.
“Most people don’t need to wash their hair daily,” says Olivia, adding that someone with oil-prone fine, thin hair may want to wash more frequently (3-4 times a week), while people with thicker, curly hair might only need a good cleanse once or twice a week. Natural hair can go even longer, says Taylor, somewhere in the seven to 10 day range.
Of course, if you are particularly active and sweating a lot and generating a lot of extra oil, you’ll probably want to wash more frequently than every 2-3 days, says Kim. Although it's more often than most, that doesn't make it wrong or bad; it's just what your hair needs. Unless maybe gym hair is your thing?
Should you condition your hair every time you use shampoo?
The American Academy of Dermatology (and all of our experts) agree universally: You should condition every time you use a shampoo.
“A shampoo is designed to cleanse the hair and remove product buildup and the body’s natural oils, which is ideal for keeping hair clean and healthy but also has a tendency to dry your hair out,” says Olivia. “Regular use of a conditioner helps to counteract those effects and bring back some of the much-needed moisture.”
What happens if I use the wrong shampoo for my hair type?
“It’s not going to be the end of the world,” says Abergel, “it just won't look as healthy or vibrant as it would with the right formulas." Miami and NYC-based stylist Laura McNamara agrees. “Nothing truly bad is going to happen; your hair may not be hydrated enough, or it might end up too hydrated and look oily or feel flat.”
Andrew Fitzsimons warns that can be true of conditioners as well. “If you have thinner hair, I would actually recommend using less conditioner or skipping it altogether,” he says. “It has the potential to really weigh down your locks.”
Why Shop with Us
Peter Tittiger is a contributing writer at InStyle as well as Byrdie. He has over 10 years of experience researching and producing content programs for top luxury and lifestyle brands including TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Lexus, and Best Made Co. While writing this article he consulted thirteen professional hairstylists from around the country, including Adir Abergel, Candace Witherspoon, Annagijd “Kee” Taylor, Andrew Fitzsimons, Ali Dash, Cassandra Olivia, Min Kim, Laura McNamara, Bradley Leake, Billy Yamaguchi, and Clyde Haygood.
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