We purchased the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner for our writer to put to the test. Keep reading for our full, hands-on product review.
While my hair has a lot of problems, it’s fair to say I create the majority of them for myself. I color my hair at home and swim in a chlorinated pool almost every day. This means my naturally fairly fine and soft hair is faced with a fair amount of damage—most of which I can counteract with a well-rounded haircare routine.
But sometimes, you don’t want to be doing the very most. Sometimes, a wash-and-go is all you can really face. And for days like this, you just want a shampoo and conditioner that does it all. Is that so much to ask?
Well, not according to Ouai. The brand’s Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner are perfect for these low-maintenance hair moments. Both products are designed to cleanse and condition hair without adding any excess heaviness. So I decided to test them out for myself.
Make no mistake though—these products are anything but lightweight. With biotin, keratin, and gentle plant oils, they manage to nourish and strengthen hair without leaving it falling flat.
Read on for my full, hands-on review.
What We Like
- Sleek, chic packaging
- Expensive scent
- Lightweight, yet hydrating
- Improves hair condition over time
What We Don’t Like
- Not hydrating enough for me to use every single wash
- Fairly pricey
The Bottom Line
For anyone who wants to clean and hydrate hair without weighing it down, this duo is a great option. The pair work perfectly together to cleanse, volumize, and condition to give fine and flat hair types a boost.
The Facts
- Best For: Fine and oily hair types
- Can Be Used For: Straight, wavy, curly, and coily hair types
- Cruelty Free? Yes
- Price: $32 for each, or $64 for the pair.
- About The Brand: The baby of legendary celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkins, Ouai is the ultimate in cool girl haircare. The brand offers a range of hair and body products to nourish and style hair for an effortlessly beautiful look.
- About My Hair: Long, color treated, and straight
My hair is naturally surprisingly low maintenance. It’s fine, but I have a lot of it, both in terms of number of strands and in length. However, I colour my hair at home, plus swim in chlorinated water most days, which has caused some damage.
Left to its own devices, my hair is quite naturally oily, but because of my self-inflicted damage, I tend to err towards more hydrating and reparative hair products. But these heavier and more intense shampoos and conditioners can leave things feeling a little weighed down – especially when combined with the sheer amount of hair I have.
I’m looking for products that can properly clean and condition my hair, while allowing it to air dry for a low-maintenance haircare routine. While the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner aren’t hydrating enough for me to use every single time I wash my hair, I was impressed by both the user experience and the bouncy, smooth, and shiny finish they gave my sometimes lacklustre hair.
The Fine Hair Shampoo Feel: Thick, gel-like, and luxurious
The shampoo comes out of the bottle feeling thick and substantial. You don’t need too much of the product, as it lathers up into a luxuriously creamy foam. The dense feel of the product makes it extremely satisfying to use, as it grips onto each individual hair strand to give you a proper clean. This deeply cleansing feel is particularly impressive when you consider that this is a sulphate free formula!
The Fine Hair Conditioner Feel: Lightweight, silky, and delicious
Ouai’s Fine Hair Conditioner is packed with hydrating yet lightweight ingredients like chia seed oil to add moisture, biotin to encourage growth, and hydrolyzed keratin to strengthen and smooth.
It’s creamy and soft, and in spite of its lightweight texture, it doesn’t feel thin or watery at all—which is a personal pet peeve of mine when it comes to conditioning products for finer hair. It’s easy to comb through wet hair for even distribution, and rinses out easily. One washed out, hair feels sleek, softened, and highly manageable.
The Results: Refreshed, clean, and bouncy
After washing with the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner, my hair felt clean and soft but without any extra weight. To treat my hair’s damage, I applied an oil (the Gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil) though the ends of my hair, then allowed it to air dry.
It came out bouncy, smooth, and super shiny, while smelling absolutely amazing. My hair lasted a little longer before needing another wash, too, which was a nice added bonus.
The Scent
Ouai’s signature scent permeates most of the brand’s line, and the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner are no exception. Both of the products are strongly fragrant, which for me, is a bonus, but it may be a drawback for those with sensitive noses.
Both products are fragranced with the Ouai Mercer Street scent, which features notes of otes of Italian lemon, Turkish rose, jasmine sambac, iris, lily, and white musk. It’s designed to be reminiscent of summertime in the city, which I can absolutely see.
I found the shampoo to have a sweeter and more gourmand aroma, with a strong elderflower vibe, while the conditioner was a more traditional white floral bouquet. The scent also lingers on the hair for a day or so after washing.
The Ingredients: High Quality
Not only are the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner designed to take care of fine hair wash by wash, but the products also help to boost hair condition over time. Ingredients like biotin, keratin, glycerin, and plant oils all help to improve the makeup of hair’s individual strands.
This can help to maximise the appearance of hair thickness over time, as well as giving a weightless and bouncy texture to your locks after every use.
The Value: Luxe
The pricepoint of the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner is fairly high, but I do believe that you get what you pay for. After use one I was convinced that these products were well formulated for fine hair, but after using the products for a little longer, I noticed the feel of my hair on a more strand-by-strand level was improving. My hair feels strong yet soft, and hydrated, yet bouncy and full of volume.
Finding a shampoo and conditioner that properly cleans and softens fine hair, which neither add excess weight nor leave hair feeling dry and unmanageable is not easy. Not only do these products manage to do just that, but they also have a cumulatively improving impact on the condition of fine hair, making them a worthwhile investment for anyone wanting more volumised (yet deeply healthy-feeling) locks.
Similar Products: Shampoos and Conditioners for Fine Hair Types
The Living Proof Full Shampoo is another great option for adding volume to fine or thinning hair. It uses peptides and amino acids to add volume to the hair at the individual strand level, giving your mane a plumping boost over time.
The Briogeo Volumizing Conditioner is a wonderful conditioning product for hair that gets weighed down easily. It fortifies hair with biotin, ginseng, and maltodextrin, adding strength to your strands while giving you some serious lift.
The Final Verdict
For anyone with fine or flat hair, I’d say you’ll struggle to find better shampoo and conditioner options than the Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Fine Hair Conditioner. Even those with more of a normal hair type can benefit from the deeply cleansing, weightlessly hydrated, and gently reparative qualities of this stunning set.
The Specifications
- Brand: Ouai
- Product Name: Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo and Ouai Fine Hair Conditioner
- Price: $32 each
- Size: 20 oz. each