Conditioners

After shampooing opens the hair cuticle to remove oil and dirt, conditioner closes it back up. Plus, it smooths, softens, detangles, reduces frizz, adds shine, and makes your hair a whole lot more manageable. It also helps with breakage during styling. Skipping it is kind of the hair equivalent of washing your face and not moisturizing.

In most cases, yes. Shampoo removes natural oils along with dirt and buildup, and conditioner replaces what's been stripped and rebalances the cuticle. The one scenario where you might dial it back: very fine hair that's getting weighed down. But in that case, use our Fine Hair Conditioner. It’s specifically formulated to hydrate without heaviness, and applying only from mid-lengths to ends helps a lot.

Use your hair's natural thickness as the guide. Our Fine Hair Conditioner is lightweight and volumizing, so it’s good for hair that goes flat or greasy fast. Our Medium Hair Conditioner suits most hair types (normal, slightly wavy, color-treated). And our Thick Hair Conditioner is rich and intensely nourishing, best for dense, coarser, or naturally dry hair. Still not sure? Take our quiz, and you’ll know if you need a conditioner for fine hair, dry hair, oily hair or other.

Our conditioners work in 1-3 minutes (just enough time to sing along whatever song is on). For extra dry or damaged hair, leave it a little longer. If you want a deeper treatment, the Treatment Masques are designed to stay on for 5 minutes and can be used weekly in place of conditioner for a serious moisture reset.

Generally, no. Mid-lengths to ends is where hair needs the most hydration, and putting conditioner directly on your scalp can cause buildup, make roots greasy faster, and weigh hair down at the root. If your scalp itself is dry or irritated, OUAI Scalp Serum is the tool for that job.

Yes, and it's actually one of the best tools for it. Frizz is largely caused by a rough, open cuticle grabbing moisture from the air inconsistently. Conditioner smooths the cuticle down and seals it. For extra frizz control beyond the shower, our Leave In Conditioner and Hair Oil both work to keep the cuticle smooth and flyaways under control throughout the day.

A conditioner is your daily maintenance, and a mask is your weekly intensive. Conditioner works quickly and addresses everyday softness and detangling. A Treatment Masque has a higher concentration of nourishing and repairing ingredients, and it’s designed to stay on a bit longer to really penetrate the hair. Use both: swap your conditioner for a masque once a week when your hair needs more love.

Whether it’s our deep conditioner for dry hair or our best conditioner for curly hair, every OUAI conditioner is color-safe and sulfate-free. That's important because sulfates are what strip color fastest. Using a good conditioner regularly on color-treated hair actually helps the color last longer, as hydrated, smooth hair holds color better than dry, porous hair does.