Help me choose

Most people arrive here knowing the symptom rather than the product. Hair that will not hold a curl, colour that has gone brassy, ends that snap. This is the page for working backwards from the problem, and the treatments on it split three ways.

Protein rebuilds hair that is structurally damaged. Moisture softens hair that is dry but intact. Pigment corrects colour that has drifted warm. Using the wrong one is not dangerous, but it will not do much, and protein on hair that only needed moisture can leave it feeling stiff and straw-like. If you are not sure which you have, the wet strand test on the dry and damaged hair page settles it in ten seconds.

If the ends are dry and rough

Colour Care Mask is the weekly deep treatment, ten minutes on the ends rather than the roots. Coloured hair takes product in quickly and lets it go quickly, which is why one deep treatment never holds and a weekly habit does. It carries milk protein and coconut oil. It is on back-order, and the dispatch date is on its product page.

Moisture & More Whipped Cream is the everyday version of the same idea: a weightless leave-in foam carrying hyaluronic acid, for dry hair that heavier products flatten. It goes in at every wash, which is what makes it work.

INSTA.LOTION is the one for a bad day rather than a routine. An instant conditioning lotion for hair that is rough and tangled now and has no ten minutes to spare. It is on back-order, and the dispatch date is on its product page.

If you want one step that covers the most ground

Incredible Milk 12 Effects is one spray on damp hair that detangles, controls frizz and protects from heat, so it replaces three steps most people were never going to do separately. Twelve effects is the brand's own count; the useful shortlist is those three plus shine and softness. It carries murumuru butter with mango, papaya and raspberry extracts.

Flower Fragrance Incredible Milk is the same idea in the vegan edition, built on soy protein rather than milk protein, wrapped in a floral scent that stays in the hair rather than disappearing at the rinse.

If you use heat

Thermo Protector is the only step on this page that prevents damage instead of treating it, and the most skipped bottle in most bathrooms. It carries hydrolysed silk and meadowfoam, and the spray is ultra-fine on purpose, because a heavy protector leaves hair sticky and a protector that feels sticky gets left in the cupboard.

If you are detangling wet hair

Leave In Conditioner is the everyday detangling spray, with milk protein and honey extract. Hair is at its most fragile wet, and combing without slip is where most day-to-day breakage actually happens. Whipped Cream Leave-in Foam does the same job in foam form for fine hair that sprays and creams weigh down, and Curl Passion Leave-in Conditioner is the one for curls and waves, where the job is holding the pattern rather than smoothing it out.

If the colour has drifted warm

Toning is a different job from conditioning, and a treatment that tones is depositing pigment rather than repairing anything. Silver Shine Whipped Cream is violet-pigmented, for grey, white and cool blonde hair that drifts yellow between washes. Icy Blonde Toning Spray knocks warmth out of light and platinum blonde without water and without a second wash. Both sit alongside a toning shampoo rather than replacing one, and the colour care page has the shampoos.

What is the difference between a hair mask and a conditioner?

Time and strength. A conditioner works in the minute it is on the hair and then gets rinsed. A mask is built to sit for ten minutes and carries more of the conditioning agents, so it reaches hair that has gone porous and will not hold what a conditioner gives it. A mask does not replace a conditioner, it is the weekly step on top of one.

How often should you use a hair mask?

Once a week for most hair. Porous hair takes product in fast and lets it go fast, so it is the habit that compounds, not the single treatment. Twice a week is worth trying on bleached or heavily coloured lengths. More than that on fine hair and it goes limp.

Do hair masks actually work?

Yes, within a limit worth knowing before you buy. A mask makes hair softer, smoother and easier to comb, and holds moisture in lengths that were losing it. What it cannot do is rebuild a split end or reverse heat damage. Nothing does. Give a weekly habit six weeks before you judge it.

Do I need protein or moisture?

Take one wet hair and stretch it gently. Hair that stretches and springs back wants moisture. Hair that stretches and stays stretched, or snaps, wants protein. Guessing from how your hair feels when it is dry is the usual way people end up with the wrong bottle. The dry and damaged hair page is where the protein side of the range lives.

Can you leave a hair mask on overnight?

There is little point. A rinse-out mask has done what it is going to do inside about fifteen minutes, and leaving it longer mostly leaves hair flat and needing another wash. If you want something working overnight, a leave-in is the product built to stay put.

What is a leave-in treatment?

A treatment you do not rinse. It goes on damp hair and stays through the drying, which is when hair loses moisture fastest and when frizz forms, so it works at the moment that matters rather than in the shower. That is why a leave-in usually changes how hair looks more than a rinse-out does.

Would you rather be told which one?

A qualified hairdresser we work with will write you a personalised routine, free, with any order. Send your hair details through Ask an Expert, or take the Hair Quiz if you would rather answer questions than write.