This Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Conditioner is My Secret to Healthy-Looking Hair

Our writer was given Ouai Shampoo and Conditioner for Fine Hair to put it to the test. Keep reading for our full product review.

There are no hard and fast rules on what shampoo and conditioner you’re supposed to use, but as someone who falls in between two tricky categories (my hair is fine and curly), I’m all too familiar with being confused in the hair care aisle. 

Before testing out the Ouai Shampoo and Conditioner for Fine Hair, I knew there was something missing in my hair-washing routine. Since I have natural curls and waves, I usually use super moisturizing products that give my curls life, but on the flip side it weighs the rest of my fine hair down. I never actually tried hair care products designed specifically for fine hair, so when I saw that this formula from Ouai was designed to hydrate, volumize, and soften fine hair while being completely lightweight, I knew I had to try it.

Read on for my full review.

About My Hair: Fine and Curly

My hair is fine. It used to be thicker, but thanks to an obsession with flat ironing my hair into oblivion in middle school, it’s a lot thinner now. Despite each hair being fine, I have a lot of hair — so much so that my boyfriend loves to remind me about the trail of hair I leave wherever I go. For these reasons, I often find myself confused about what products to use on my hair. My natural curls and waves need hydration to look their best, but most formulas designed for curly hair types are too thick, which flattens my strands and makes my hair look really greasy. 

While the Ouai Shampoo and Conditioner for Fine Hair isn’t specifically designed for curly hair, it works well for me. It’s hydrating and softening enough to give my curls that boost of life they need while being completely lightweight. My favorite part of all is that it gives my hair volume and strength, making it appear more full.

The Feel: Sudsy and Smooth

When it comes to this shampoo and conditioner’s texture, I was happy with both. The shampoo comes out of the bottle like a gel, but when you lather it in your hands with water, it starts to get all sudsy — which doesn’t always happen with a sulfate-free formula. Then, as you work it through your hair, it gets even more bubbly and foamy. 

The conditioner is also like you’d picture it to be: Creamy and soft. Thanks to ingredients like chia seed oil, biotin, and hydrolyzed keratin, smoothing the conditioner through hair is easy and doesn’t require any pulling or tugging. After rinsing under lukewarm water, my hair feels clean, buttery soft, and super manageable. 

The Scent: Fragrant and Floral

Like most shampoos and conditioners, these have a pretty strong fragrance. Featuring one of Ouai’s signature scents, Mercer Street, the shampoo and conditioner are pungent — notes of Italian lemon, Turkish rose, jasmine sambac, iris, lily, and white musk take center stage. 

According to the brand, it’s intended to evoke a feeling of summertime in the city — which it does for most people — but be aware that some reviewers found it to smell a little too perfume-y for their liking. It’s a pleasant floral scent, but I wish it was a little tamer. 

The Value: Worth Every Penny

There’s so much goodness packed into each bottle of the shampoo and conditioner, it’s hard not to appreciate the value. Despite being pricier than some options available on drugstore shelves, this shampoo is absolutely worth every penny. After about a week of use, I could already tell a difference in the fullness and hydration of my hair, more so than with any other duo I’ve tried. Other options seem to work initially and then my hair falls flat by the end of the day. With this shampoo and conditioner, my hair stays volumized and perky for at least three days.