Ouai Detox Shampoo Review: I am in a deeply committed relationship with Hairstory’s New Wash. I love New Wash. New Wash is good to me. (Here’s my full review of New Wash.) Don’t take my word for it — take JVN’s!
Except when it isn’t. And it isn’t good to me in one very particular way: As much as it succeeds at keeping my fine, fragile, frankly needy af hair from tangling and breaking — in the shower, when I brush it, when I place it, ever so carefully, against a pillow — it also causes buildup. I rinsed. I rinsed for hours. I rinsed while the entirety of the Les Misérables soundtrack played in the background. I watched educational videos on YouTube. Rinsing: You wouldn’t think it would be that hard, and yet somehow, no matter how long I did it, I still had buildup.
Hairstory knows about this. Consider this recommendation/admission?? from the Hairstory website:
New Wash is leaving a thick residue on my scalp.
Similar to massaging New Wash through the scalp and hair to make sure it cleans well, use the same massage technique when rinsing to make sure it all comes out.
Well, sure, thanks so much for that!! We’ve already talked about the rinsing, and I assure you there was plenty of massaging to go along with it. Staying with New Wash means accepting a fine layer of sediment on my scalp, which is not a tenable situation, long term.
What to do!
I’ve never had much luck with clarifying shampoos in the past. When I worked at Edo in San Francisco, we were a Bumble & bumble salon, so I went home every once in a while with a discounted bottle of Sunday — but it just dried out my hair. I was only persuaded to give a clarifying shampoo another go because of my deep and abiding love for New Wash. It’s basically a Breaking the Waves situation.
Happily, I chose Ouai Detox shampoo as my clarifying agent of choice, and #spoiler, but, it’s amazing. Ouai’s Rose Hair & Body Oil is already my favorite-ly scented thing on the planet, but this comes close, undoubtedly because it has the Melrose Place fragrance, which is more or less the same as the Rose Hair & Body Oil (as Ouai says, “Like our Rose Hair & Body Oil, Melrose Place’s fragrance is infused with hints of a verified Instagram account, valet parking, bergamot, lychee, cedar-wood and white musk.”) And the fragrance is strong enough to mask Detox’s main clarifying agent: apple cider vinegar.
There’s no magic to it, and because it’s not New Wash, Ouai Detox shampoo is sufficiently not-complicated that Ouai didn’t need to produce an instructional video in how to scrape it off your scalp before stepping out of the shower. Here’s how it ended: I dried my hair. No residue! Sometimes, things are supposed to be simple.
This isn’t an everyday-type shampoo, or even weekly — I’m going to use it on as-needed basis. All that matters is that it’ll let me keep using New Wash, which is my heart’s true delight. If you’ve seen Breaking the Waves, you know what I mean.
