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Like many people, I have zero patience for grooming. While getting my fade touched up every six weeks, my barber will suggest a pomade or setting spray to help me style my hair once it starts to grow out. His suggestions go in one ear and out the other because I truly champion Beyonce’s “I woke up like this” mantra.
Because of my hair’s fine, silky texture, I can get out of bed without styling on good days. On the flip side, my hair grows really quickly. According to my wonderful barber, my hair grows about an inch per month, compared to the normal half-inch per month. The new growth weighs my hair down, and when you add everyday oil and sweat production, my hair loses its volume altogether and I end up looking like a sweaty Justin Bieber coming from a long workout.
Months into learning how to manage my gender-euphoric hairstyle, I learned that the key to low-maintenance hair styling is to pick one or two staple products that will keep my hair as healthy as possible. And that’s where Hairstory’s New Wash Shampoo comes in.
The Cleanest Ingredients For Healthy Hair
Founded by former Bumble & Bumble director Michael Gordon, Hairstory aims to stop the “wash, grease, repeat” cycle. Cheap drugstore shampoos typically contain detergents — yeah, I gasped, too, when I found out — which can leave the scalp dry, stripping it of necessary oils that help healthy hair growth. Without those healthy oils, hair will attract more dirt and grease from the environment, making it even greasier than it was before. Naturally, you’ll want to wash your hair again, which leaves the scalp dry again, and the cycle repeats itself.
I was shocked to learn that my relationship with drugstore shampoo is addictive. Cheap shampoo has been ruining my hair, then luring me into buying more of the same scalp irritants. It’s a scam to keep you buying more of the cheap products that are actually hurting you. In contrast, Hairstory provides a transparent ingredient list, with words you can actually pronounce and recognize.
Hairstory’s product page also lists The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep ratings, which assigns a number between 1-10 (1 as the safest and 10 as the most hazardous) to each ingredient. The highest score I saw from the ingredient list was a 3, which is seriously impressive. The brand even shares why it added each ingredient, which can come in handy while you’re shopping for other cosmetics.
A Shampoo That Smells Really Good — For All Genders
Hairstory was kind enough to send me its New Wash Original shampoo to try out — and I was blown away. The shampoo’s consistency is thick and creamy, and my scalp felt so refreshed afterward. It comes in three different formulations: Rich for hair types that need more moisture, Original for most hair types, and Deep for hair that needs more intensive cleaning. Since the shampoo is packed with essential oils, my hair felt nourished instead of greasy after a day of running errands.
There were a few new things to get used to when using Hairstory for the first time. Handling a slippery pouch of shampoo in the shower isn’t ideal, but getting a small container or an old soap bottle with a pump is an easy fix. Plus, Hairstory’s packaging uses 63% less plastic than a traditional shampoo bottle, which made me love it even more.
I also found the scent really surprising. Most shampoos smell really strong and perfumed, but that fresh scent doesn’t stand up to the day’s challenges, like work and errands. Hairstory’s New Wash Original smells like natural essential oils that my friends noticed many hours later. It does smell really floral and fragrant, which some people might label feminine. But there’s also an underlying scent of jojoba and peppermint that balances it out. And who says floral scents can’t be masculine anyway!? This shampoo’s natural primrose and jasmine-forward scent will give you that extra boost of confidence — no matter what your gender is.
The Only Hair Care Product I’ll Need From Now On
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My favorite thing about this shampoo? It’s also a conditioner. Plus, it left my hair looking so healthy and volumized that I really didn’t need any other products to style it -- even when air drying. Now that I don’t need to wash my hair as often, I don’t even know when I would need to reorder a new pouch. This first one is going to last me ages!
The $40 price tag might scare some people when they first click on the website. But honestly, it’s worth it for how little I actually need to do to keep my hair looking fresh, healthy and thick. A small quarter-sized dollop every three days is enough to cover my short hair.
For lazy people like me, switching to this shampoo is a no-brainer. Gone are the days of worrying about extraneous hair products and wasting 20 precious minutes in the morning styling my hair. I woke up like this — and I still love the way my hair looks.
5 More Reasons To Love Hairstory:
- The Scalp Brush. What an incredible accessory. I didn’t know how much my scalp needed these soft, silicone bristles for a gentle massage that encourages better blood circulation.
- The incredibly effective dry shampoo, Powder. This dry shampoo will get you through particularly sweaty days between washes. To spare the environment, it doesn’t use aerosol and it features the same signature scent as the New Wash shampoo. Plus, in addition to hair cleansers, the brand also sells a hair balm, texturizing spray, and hair protector.
- The versatile formula for all hair types. Whether you have fine hair, frizzy hair, curly hair, dry hair, greasy hair, tangled hair, and damaged hair, Hairstory’s formula is packed with essential oils that will soothe your hair woes.
- The eco-friendly packaging. The New Wash shampoo pouch uses 63% less plastic than a traditional shampoo bottle, which can drop your single-use plastic consumption altogether by 91%, if you typically get a shampoo bottle and a separate conditioner bottle. You can even buy reusable metal jars and bottles to use with your refills.
- The subscription. You never have to run to the drugstore to buy cheap shampoo ever again. Let your New Wash come to you every 6, 8 or 10 weeks with free shipping and a complimentary travel bottle on your first purchase.
