If you’ve ever dealt with dry, brittle hair, there’s a good chance your usual shampoo and conditioner aren’t cutting it. That’s where a hair mask comes in. According to Michael Douglas, a styling tool entrepreneur and celebrity hairdresser, “damaged hair looks a bit like honeycomb and hair masks essentially fill in the holes”. He explains: “This makes the hair more robust and strong.” Designed to deliver more intensive nourishment, the best hair masks can be used at various points in your wash routine and are intended to work alongside – rather than replace – your regular conditioner.
Whether you’ve fine, straight strands or a more coarse, curly texture, there are hair masks to suit every hair type and budget. But with so many brands and formulas to contend with, it can be tricky knowing which one to go with. So, I set about testing the most popular and industry-recommended products, in a bid to discover the top performers. Here’s how I got on.
I review haircare year-round, so I’m well aware of what makes a good hair mask. For this guide, I tested a large number of formulas (more than those that made the final cut), washed my hair with the same shampoo and conditioner every time, and left each one on my hair for the recommended time period. As for my criteria, I looked at the state of my hair after use, both when wet and styled, and paid close attention to factors like scent, treatment time, packaging, price and ingredients.
Kérastase hair products deserve a spot in the beauty hall of fame, and the brand’s densifique mask is one of the best. With a premium powdery scent, the formula is designed – as its name suggests – to create density in fine or lack-lustre hair. My hair falls somewhere between fine and medium weight but, the longer I go between washes, the more flat and straggly my strands begin to look. Admittedly, the idea of using a conditioning mask to create volume confused me, given that I’d normally look to a shampoo to achieve this result. However, this mask does what it says on the tin and I could definitely see my roots had gained height, while the ends appeared newly cut (despite being far from it). More importantly, my hair was the softest it’s ever been and, in all honesty I couldn’t stop touching it in the days after use. This softness didn’t come at the expense of an oily scalp and, more than 15 hours after blow drying my hair, I could still finger comb my strands without finding tangles or matted areas. Aside from the high price and the small gripe that I had to find instructions online, this mask was faultless.
Olaplex’s weightless nourishing hair mask is one of its most recent launches. It dropped alongside the rich hydration mask (£39, Cultbeauty.co.uk), which is better suited to thicker and coarser hair types. Featuring the brand’s patented bond-repairing ingredient – bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate – the weightless nourishing mask sets out to give tired strands a makeover in just five minutes. It also introduces a new innovation from Olaplex: its biomimetic cuticle technology. In a nutshell, this adds a protective layer to the cuticle shaft, aiming to hydrate and prevent damage for up to five washes. It’s not an exaggeration to say I could feel the mask getting to work straight away and, as I rinsed away the product, my wet hair was noticeably softer and smoother. This was also true of the hair once blow dried, as while I saw a bit of oily build-up around my roots, there was no denying the mask had a positive effect on my heat damaged strands. My dried hair appeared free from breakage, full of volume and silky to the touch. As for future uses, I’ll be more vigilant to only apply it to my mid-lengths and ends, instead of my already grease-prone scalp.
Garnier’s banana hair food mask has long been touted as one of the best affordable treatments for dry and brittle strands. While not everyone will gel with its artificial banana scent, the formula promises to nourish most hair types, from fine and straight to coarse and curly. It combines vitamins C, E and F to help with shine, moisture and strength, while shea butter prevents damage and salicylic acid exfoliates the scalp. Unlike most hair masks, it didn’t take forever to rinse out, and the speedy three-minute treatment made it something you’d actually want to use on repeat. It gave my locks
