The Best Hair Serums Money Can Buy — According to Experts

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Listen up: The secret to a flawless hairstyle is using the right products. Yes, there are obvious choices, like shampoos, conditioners, hair masks, and heat protectants, but one of the best ways to get commercial-worthy hair is by using one of the best hair serums you can find.

Don’t believe me? According to Peter Butler, go-to hairstylist of It Girls like Ana DeArmas, Sydney Sweeney, and Beanie Feldstein (#casual), hair serums are the hair industry’s equivalent to skin serums. “Hair serums are formulated with proactive ingredients to penetrate the hair cuticle," he explains. "They help control frizz and finish off hairstyles, giving both your hair and look polish and shine. The serums soften and protect the hair from cuticle damage and dullness.”

To help you achieve the most beautiful, envy-inducing hair ever, I consulted Butler and Mitchell Ramazon, a Mane Addicts Artist, on the many benefits of hair serums, what to consider when shopping, and what they consider to be the best hair serums of all time.

The Best Hair Serums

• Best Overall: Olaplex No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum

• Best Budget: Sleek and Shine Anti-Frizz Serum

• Best for a Range of Hair Textures: Kérastase Elixir Ultime Hydrating Hair Oil Serum

• Best Splurge: Sleep Masque Night Repair Serum

• Best New: Better Not Younger Superpower Fortifying Hair & Scalp Serum

Benefits of Hair Serums

Butler and Ramazon, who counts Julianne Hough and Nicole Scherzinger as clients, both agree that the best hair serums have multiple benefits, including:

• Prolonging your blowouts

• Smoothing the hair, controlling frizz, and detangling strands

• Doubling as heat protectant

• Delivering moisture to parched strands

• Adding natural luster and manageability

• Maintaining hair texture, including waves, curls, and coils

• Repairing hair from previous color or heat styling damage

What to Consider

Hair Finishing Serums vs. Hair Treatment Serums

Butler says the best hair serums fall into two categories:

• Hair finishing serums, such as the Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Anti-Frizz Serum, are lighter than hair oils and are just for styling purposes rather than hair health benefits. Butler does not recommend placing these products on the scalp or the hair on the top of your head because they can make your hair appear greasy, heavy, and unnaturally shiny.

• Hair treatment serums, like the Olaplex No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum, are formulated for scalp and hair health. Butler says healthy hair starts at the root, so using a scalp serum for growth and scalp health can help reinvigorate the growth cycle of your hair. “These formulas are used to revitalize your hair and nourish follicles without leaving you oily between washes, leaving you with stronger, healthier-looking strands,” he says.

Hair Type and Ingredients

According to Butler, the best hair serums are typically silicone-based products that coat and smooth out flyaways, and choosing one that compliments your hair type is helpful. Here, the LA-based hairstylist shares a few of his favorite ingredients based on your unique hair needs.

• Dry and frizzy hair needs intense hydration from ingredients like castor oil and marula oil, the latter of which is found in the Kérastase Elixir Ultime Original Oil.

• Split ends are a pain, but using a hair serum made with keratin, such as Virtue Split End Serum, can help temporarily seal the ends.

• Dry and colored-treated hair will appreciate a hair serum that contains hydrating ingredients such as jojoba oil, and calming ingredients, like lavender and chamomile, all of which are in the Better Not Younger Superpower Fortifying Hair & Scalp Serum.

• Curly or thick hair will benefit from a hair serum infused with excellent moisturizers, such as jojoba and sweet almond oil.

Ready to achieve a stunning head of hair without an expensive trip to the salon? Be sure to incorporate one of these best hair serums into your styling routine for guaranteed healthy and shiny hair from the comfort of your home. Most of these picks earned snaps from Butler and Ramazon, while others were selected by me and are aligned with expert guidance. Also, keep scrolling after our recommendations for expert tips on correctly using hair serums.

No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum

Olaplex earned the top spot in our best hair serums guide because Jeremy Tardo, the go-to hair colorist for Jared Leto, Miley Cyrus, and Miranda Kerr, tells us that he considers it one of the best on the market.

He loves that it combines red algae extra with the brand’s signature bond-building tech called bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate. A total mouthful to say, but it’s incredible for your hair health. Essentially, it repairs your hair bonds to reverse damage caused by heat damage and bleach, and let’s be honest: Who doesn’t love that?!

As for styling, this hair serum is elite. Its weightless formula is helpful for fine and thin hair, but anyone with thicker hair will also experience shiny, soft, and detangled hair. Annoying winter static caused by hats will be a thing of the past. If you or your loved ones have waves and curls, everyone will be happy to know it helps texture bounce back.

Tardo suggests combing it through wet hair for a nice, even distribution. Then you can style your hair and achieve a more consistent result.

More: Hyaluronic Acid is the Most Underrated Ingredient for Your Hair Health

Sleek and Shine Anti-Frizz Serum

This Garnier anti-frizz product is among the best hair serums when you only have a few bucks to spare but want sleek and shiny hair. This dry-hair essential is truly excellent for nixing frizz.

I love that it can be applied to dry hair and used later in the week to help prolong your style and doesn’t weigh down hair. It can also help revive second-day hair, which is super handy.

The tradeoff is that your giftee is not getting the same luxe feel, skincare-quality ingredients, or light fragrance compared to other higher-end options, but when you’re paying just under $7 for an effective hair serum, can you really complain?

My best solution: If this hair serum offers too much slip, encourage your giftee to use less than a pea-sized amount and warm it up in their hands before applying it from the midsection of their hair down to the ends.

Elixir Ultime Hydrating Hair Oil Serum

Our runner-up hair serum recommendation goes to Elixir Ultime because Ramazon and I are both fans of this product. It’s infused with a blend of argan, camellia, and marula oils to nourish and smooth hair while imparting shine, ensuring your blowout is always on point.

Given its oil-based ingredient list, Elixir Ultime has a thinner consistency compared to other serums on this list, including the Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum listed below.

We also love how it’s compatible with all hair textures. No, really; I use it on my thick curls or wavy extensions, and my friends love applying it to their fine, straight hair for frizz-free blowouts.

Sleep Masque Night Repair Serum

Ugh, I know the price tag is a jumpscare, but devotees of R+Co’s higher-end line, R+Co Bleu, are obsessed with its luxurious products infused with splurge-worthy ingredients.

Adam Federico, R+Co vice president of technical education, promises this luxurious serum delivers healthy, shiny, frizz-free hair that offers movement.

“It works to repair parched, damaged hair while you sleep. This is thanks to green caviar, a type of algae rich in oligo-elements, vitamins, and minerals, which helps to nourish, rebuild, and revitalize hair, leaving it shiny, smooth, healthy, and strong,” he says. Federico notes that it doesn’t weigh down hair, but those with extremely fine or thin hair might prefer something else.

Superpower Fortifying Hair and Scalp Serum

Is your mom worried about thin, lifeless hair? Then, you’ll want to gift this nourishing hair serum right away. Butler considers This fortifying hair and scalp serum the best newcomer because it utilizes plant-based ingredients, such as ginger and Centella asiatica extracts, to nourish the scalp and address early signs of aging hair.

He says it leaves users with healthier-looking hair with plenty of volume. For instant results, he suggests using it nightly or every other day. Afterward, your giftee can shampoo the serum out or leave it in. Either way, he promises that they’ll love their hair and the volume it creates while leaving it clean, full, and healthy.

Phytopolléine

To Butler, this Phyto Paris product is among the best hair serums because it’s made with 100% botanical oils, like corn, lemon peel, and rosemary oils, that stimulate and energize your loved one’s scalp. This unique hair serum rebalances itchy, irritated, and dry scalps. And they can even use it if their hair scalp is typically on the oily side.

Once a week or whenever the scalp needs a refresh, Butler advises applying this treatment hair serum onto the scalp and letting it sit for at least 20 minutes. For a more intense hair regimen, your loved one can leave it on overnight and shampoo out in the morning.

Need further proof it’s worth the price tag? It can help stop hair from shedding and thinning and promote new hair growth.

Magic Serum

Seen’s Magic Serum is made with minimal ingredients to help tame frizz, add shine, and strengthen weak hair while protecting strands from hot tools and breakage. It’s safe for all hair types, including those with super sensitive scalps dealing with eczema.

Best of all, the brand was created by board-certified dermatologist Dr. Iris Rubin, M.D., a Harvard Medical School graduate and former Harvard faculty member.

“It gives you the smooth, shiny hair you’ve always wanted, and won’t cause breakouts or skin irritation," Rubin explains. "There are only three naturally derived ingredients in Magic Serum: Ethylhexyl olivate, squalane, and hemisqualane. It provides instant shine and frizz control on wet or dry hair with just a few drops, and Seen Magic Serum reduces breakage by up to 81% after a single use."

This fragrance-free and non-comedogenic hair serum also won’t clog pores, which can lead to scalp acne. (Yup, it’s a real thing!)

Crybaby Anti-Frizz Smoothing Serum

Do you and your giftee only want to use haircare products created by professional hairstylists? Well, that sentiment is totally understandable — and IGK, a favorite of Hailey Bieber and Sofia Richie Grainge, delivers top-rated results.

IGK co-founder Aaron Grenia explains that this serum "is a lightweight serum that is the perfect smoothing finisher for any style, as it contains coconut oil, which is known to help seal in moisture. This formula also can help control frizz for up to 72 hours, which is perfect for creating looks with longevity."

It also contains antioxidant-rich prickly pear to smooth, soften, enhance shine, and boost the dimension of color-treated hair. This weightless hair serum even offers UV protection from solar rays that could fade your hair color.

Haute Performance Finishing Serum

Tardo, who also counts Florence Welch, Mel B, and Jeremy Strong as clients, loves using this hair serum. “This is a beautiful hair protector that shields from UV damage, color fading, and heat styling. It also helps to smooth the hair nicely,” he says.

Notably, it contains tucuma seed butter and vitamin B-5 to hydrate thirsty strands. Other standout ingredients include keratin, silk protein, macadamia extract, and marula oil, all of which ensure your giftee won't compromise the integrity of their hair while heat styling.

Tardo loves applying this hair serum onto his clients’ wet hair and then blow drying it straight. “The finishing serum makes it easier for me to straighten their hair without making the hair feel weighed down. The hair doesn’t feel like it has product in it once I’m finished. Afterward, their hair has style memory and silky softness,” he says.

Résistance Sérum Thérapiste

Ramazon highly recommends this hair serum for anyone who uses hot tools on their over-processed or damaged hair because it has a hair-repairing formula.

“The super hard-to-come-by product treats your hair while protecting it," he says, adding that it's great for anyone with breakage around their face because "its formula is lightweight and doesn’t leave the hair feeling oily or weighed down. This is perfect for someone wanting to keep their length while maintaining their hair color."

Ramazon says its secret sauce is a trio of under-the-radar ingredients, including a gluco-peptide that penetrates the deepest layer of the hair cuticle to strengthen existing hair and stimulate hair growth. He’s also impressed that it's formulated with a wheat protein derivative to improve the elasticity of damaged hair, restore uniformity, and smooth your strands. Rounding out the ingredient list are native plant cells that hydrate and soften.

Super Skinny Serum

I’ve been using this hair serum since college, and I can safely say it is the best-smelling product on this list. I always say the fragrance reminds me of a stick of high-end watermelon gum, but we’re actually smelling a nice blend of crisp apples, juicy berries, and sweet florals. It’s genuinely so enticing and low-key ruined other hair serums for me because it really smells that delicious.

Fun fragrance aside, it’s totally functional; it locks in my silk presses, aka a blowout, followed up by a flat iron, bone straight and shiny. What’s most impressive is that it kept my hair frizz-free while living in Miami, which is no easy feat considering it’s hot and humid throughout the year.

It’s a game-changing serum that leaves hair feeling like satin and most importantly, it decreases drying time by about half, so my arms no longer hurt.

Split End Serum

Virtue’s Split End Serum revives second-, third-, and sometimes fourth-day hair for a fresh, blown-out look with shiny and smooth strands and minimal puffiness.

Users will experience a dramatic improvement in their hair after using this hair serum for two weeks. This hair serum uses Alpha Keratin 60ku to help heal hair in between professional trims, making it the ideal gift for someone with split ends.

Is this the best hair serum? You'll have to find out yourself, but if it's any consolation, celebrities such as Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry are big fans of Virtue — and so am I! The Virtue Smooth collection is incredible and I always get compliments on the smell of my hair whenever I shampoo and condition with those products. Given my positive experience with Virtue, I’m confident this hair serum will deliver on its promises.

Absolue Keratine Ultimate Repairing Serum

LA-based celebrity hairstylist Bobby Eliot counts stars like Julia Garner, Alex Daddario, and Jodie Comer as clients, so you already know his recommendation will be incredible. He’s a huge fan of this under-the-radar hair serum. Notably, it utilizes plant-based keratin to repair hair damage and helps prevent future split ends.

It’s also formulated with organic camelina oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, to deeply nourish your hair, and pellicer to help repair the hair fiber from heat damage and other external factors.

Eliot appreciates its lightweight feel and highlights its compatibility with all hair types as a major win. He also loves that it doubles as a heat protectant, guarding strands up to 428 degrees Fahrenheit.

Potion No. 1

Men deserve healthy, stylish hair, too. Enter Hour of Skuff, an emerging brand created by Hollywood groomer Mira Chai Hyde and perhaps the best hair serum for men out there. (Her client list ranges from David Beckham and Brad Pitt to Pedro Pascal and Simu Liu, plus the line earned high praise from Tardo.)

“Every man needs to try this amazing hair styling aid. It is like a serum and hair lotion combined,” says Tardo. He loves that it boasts a pH-balanced formula compatible with our skin and hair. He also appreciates that the brand only uses organic essential oils instead of synthetic fragrances to help you achieve well-groomed hair.

“It’s great on every single hair texture. When used on wet hair and left to air-dry, it acts like a styling gel that isn’t hard or flaky. When used wet before blow drying, it adds a look and feel of thickness to thinning hair. It holds the hairstyle, but in a natural way,” says Tardo.

It’s so fantastic that Tardo even uses it on his own hair — he likes to apply it dry to reshape his hairstyle easily. “This is, by far, my favorite product I’ve ever used for men’s hair,” Tardo says.

How to Use a Hair Serum?

Timing: Ramazon suggests applying hair serum to hair that is about 70% dry, so the product penetrates into your cuticle or coats the hair correctly.

Size: Both Butler and Ramazon agree that hair serums tend to be thicker in texture — not much is needed at first. Butler likes using one pump that's less than a pea size of the serum into his hands and while rubbing your palms together, wait about 10 seconds for the formula to heat up and thin out. “This will help it liquify and slide all over the hair more evenly,” he says.

Placement: Butler advises always starting at the ends of the hair and working your way up to mid-shaft. Ramazon adds a quick way to think about it is to add serum to the hair outside of your ponytail. Otherwise, you risk weighing down your hair at the crown and making it greasy.

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