Walk into any salon and you'll find twenty shampoos on the shelf. They are not twenty versions of the same thing. Picking well comes down to three questions.
1. What is your hair doing that you don't want it to do?
Start with the problem, not the promise on the bottle. Hair that snaps when you brush it needs strengthening. Hair that feels like straw needs moisture. Those are different fixes, and using one for the other usually makes things worse. Protein on already-brittle, protein-heavy hair leaves it stiffer, not stronger.
2. Is your hair coloured?
Colour changes everything. A clarifying or deep-cleansing shampoo will strip tone faster than almost anything else you do. If you've paid for colour, protect it with a colour-safe wash and save clarifying for once a month at most.
Blondes have a second problem: brass. Violet-pigmented shampoos neutralise the warm tones that creep in between appointments. They are a toner, not a cleanser — use them once or twice a week, alternating with your usual shampoo, or your blonde will start looking dull and grey.
3. How fine is it, really?
Fine hair and thin hair aren't the same. Fine describes the individual strand; thin describes how many you have. Fine hair is easily weighed down — rich, oil-heavy formulas will flatten it within a day. Look for volumising or lightweight ranges and keep conditioner off the roots entirely.
The short version
- Dry or damaged — moisture and repair ranges
- Coloured — colour-safe, sulphate-conscious
- Blonde or grey — violet shampoo, once or twice weekly
- Fine — volumising, lightweight, nothing rich
- Curly — moisture first, and go easy on protein
- Oily scalp — balancing or scalp-specific
If you're still not sure, ask your stylist what they used on you last time. They know your hair better than a label does.