Best Conscious Hair-Care Buys
Best Shampoo
Best Conditioner
Everist Waterless Conditioner Concentrate
Best Hair Mask
Fable & Mane HoliRoots Hair Mask
Like the invention of wireless AirPods or the "skip ahead" feature on Netflix, one shower with the Everist Waterless Conditioner Concentrate ($24) will have you wondering why no one had thought of it before. Housed in a cute aluminum tube, the formula is hyperconcentrated — it comes out like a paste, so you'll need to activate it with water from your shower — with three times the active ingredients, which makes it equivalent to one big bottle of conditioner. The included zero-waste key makes it easy to dispense the thick cream until the very last drop.
If we could give the Fable & Mane HoliRoots Hair Mask ($32) 11 out of 10 stars, we would. First of all, it smells like a tropical frozen drink you might order at an upscale beach restaurant — we get hints of banana, coconut, and almond — and is loaded with hydrating butters to leave hair feeling soft as silk. Even better, though, is how the clean and cruelty-free brand gives new meaning to products with a purpose: it's dedicated to saving the dwindling population of big cats in India and Africa through its charity arm Fable Fund.
Best Hair Serum
Superzero Frizz Fighter
Hair Serum Bar
If you're noticing a trend of hair bars, that's because the water-free delivery method is a sustainability game changer, but the Superzero Frizz Fighter Hair Serum Bar ($22) is in a category of its own. Just massage the bar into your dry hands to release the wax- and oil-infused formula, and work it through damp, towel-dried hair to give it a little extra shine. You can even use it on dry styles to smooth any errant flyaways or baby hairs.
Conscious Hair Care
Hall of Fame
Davines A Single Shampoo
From the brand that brought sustainability
to the masses before the beauty industry
even considered it a buzzword, the
Davines A Single Shampoo ($35) is 100-percent carbon neutral (a fancy way of
saying everything from production to the electricity used in its offices to employee commutes is entirely offset), and 98.2-percent biodegradable, with 95 percent of the ingredients coming from natural origins,
and it comes from a certified B Corp —
and that doesn't even account for the ridiculously good formula packed inside.
Ethique Hydrating Shampoo Concentrate
We love the idea of a shampoo bar . . . until we get into the shower and it slips through our fingers or doesn't lather up enough to give a thorough cleanse. But that's not true for the Ethique Hydrating Shampoo Concentrate ($9). With this bar, just channel your inner Bill Nye and mix one block with boiling water to concoct a hydrating liquid shampoo that will leave your hair just as smooth and shiny as the best of them. Plus, the DIY formula finally gave us an excuse to use those aesthetic amber bottles we've been collecting.