Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo Makes My Hair Feel Bouncy and Clean—Even in Sweltering Summer Heat

4 min readIN MY 20S, I had some of the thickest, coarsest hair. People used to compare the coarseness of my hair to an actual horse’s tail. Sometimes I’d feel a piece of automatic pencil lead bounce down my forearm only to realize it was a stray strand of hair. But in the past few years, I’ve noticed that my hair has not only gotten thinner and finer, but limp.ProsUses derm-approved ingredients to strengthen fine hair Salon-quality latherSulfate-free formulaCreated by hairstylist Jen AtkinConsThe smell isn't as noticeable as I'd hopeI can no longer feel the heavy whip of my ends against my neck as I Sarah-Pidgeon-as Carolyn-Bessette-Kennedy my way around the office. Running with my hair in a ponytail no longer feels like training with a weighted vest on my follicles. I’m suddenly getting ads featuring hair dryers and baseball caps that use red light therapy for growth.Even seeing my hair on the floor of my apartment doesn’t hit the same. The downy, soft, sometimes gray hair on the ground that flies away with every door closing is so far from the coarse, black hair I’ve been kicking around my be-socked feet my whole life. My post-30s hair doesn’t even seem to have the same physics as the hair I had in my 20s.So when, twirling around our office chairs one afternoon, beauty editor Nicole Saunders, asked me if I had fine hair and wanted to test the Ouai’s Fine Hair Shampoo, I said “Sure,” because now, after 30+ years of being a thick hair girl, here I am, buying every “densifying” and “volumizing” hair product under the sun.SHOP OUAI FINE HAIR SHAMPOOWhat I LikeI Trust The Brand for Myself and My DogI’ve used Ouai dog shampoo on my 19-lb Frenchie for years. But like a true immigrant mother, I’ve never felt that I deserved to use $32 shampoo. It turns out, I really do have to put that oxygen mask on myself first, because I’m never going back to a life without this shampoo.Salon-Quality LatherOuaiOne of my pet peeves is a shampoo that doesn’t lather well. I simply don’t feel clean! This shampoo suds up in a rich, satisfying way that brings a luxurious touch to my mornings. It really makes my hair look and feel magical afterward.Ouai Elevates My BlowoutsKeeping my usual blow-drying routine with my beloved T3 Airebrush and keeping all techniques the same, I notice my hair has way more volume and bounce throughout the day. My hair has more lift at the roots—almost the way it used to, pre-30s. My bangs are banging again (physically, emotionally, and, of course, spiritually), and my hair no longer separates into the same three sad little strands it seemed to automatically separate into every 2 PM.It Keeps My Hair Clean With Just One WashAlso shocking to me: this shampoo doesn’t contain any sulfates. I usually love a shampoo with sulfates as I find the non-sulfate stuff to not feel as effective. But this formula doesn’t contain any sulfates, and I don’t have to sacrifice cleanliness. Even in New York’s latest sweltering-hot July days, I’ve felt like just one round of this shampoo is enough to leave me feeling squeaky clean.Dermatologists Trust This ShampooI’m not the only fan of Ouai Fine Hair Shampoo. WH’s beauty team named it one of the best shampoos for fine hair and the best overall volumizing shampoo. It’s made with hair strengthening ingredients, including biotin, keratin, and chia seed oil, said dermatologist Brendan Camp, MD. ICYDK: Biotin boosts the production of keratin, a protein that keeps hair strong and elastic. Similarly, chia seeds are high in protein and can increase volume.What I Don’t LikeMy absolute only qualm about the shampoo is the aroma. It smells good enough. But for $32, I’d expect to be actually blown away by the olfactory combo of “Mercer Street,” a signature fragrance that has top notes of Italian lemon and orange, middle notes of peony, iris, magnolia, and rose, and a base note of musk. To me, it only faintly smells of rose and musk. It’s apparently the same fragrance as their pet shampoo, but I swear the pet shampoo smells better. But honestly, that’s me really looking for a negative as I sit and twirl my hair all day.TL;DROuai is a great shampoo, and it gives me bouncier, fluffier, more bodacious hair. It’s a product I’ve used daily over the last month and FWIW, the scent has become more enjoyable with time. Though it’s still TBD on whether or not I’ll ever be able to feel my old horse-hair self again, I’ll continue using this one until the last drop.SHOP OUAI FINE HAIR SHAMPOOOther Fine Hair Shampoos We TrustSince Ouai is now my holy grail shampoo, I asked Saunders to share a few alternatives if you’re curious about other worthwhile options. She’s a fellow fine hair girly, though her mane is high-density, meaning she has lots of individual hairs.Paul Mitchell Extra-Body ShampooPanthenol pumps up your strands and help repair damaged hair. Meanwhile wheat-derived ingredients leave my hair feeling silky smooth like I just left the salon, says Saunders.Redken Volume Injection ShampooRedken's Volume Injection Shampoo has a milky consistency that doesn’t weigh down my fine hair. Instead, it gently cleanses away sweat and oil from my scalp while enhancing hair volume.Joico JoiFull Volumizing ShampooNow 16% OffJoico has a rich lather and creates lightweight body that’s ideal for primping my strands for blowouts. It’s also enriched with rice proteins to help strengthen my strands and bamboo extract for volume.Carina Hsieh, MPH, is the deputy features editor of Women’s Health. She has more than a decade’s worth of experience working in media and has covered everything from beauty, fashion, travel, lifestyle, pets, to health. She began her career as an intern in the fashion closet at Cosmopolitan where she worked her way up to Senior Sex & Relationships Editor. While covering women’s health there, she discovered her passion for health service journalism and took a break to get her Masters in Public Health. Post-grad school, she worked as a freelance writer and as The Daily Beast’s first Beauty, Health, and Wellness Reporter. Carina is an alum of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Yale School of Public Health. She and her French Bulldog, Bao Bao, split their time between Brooklyn and Connecticut. She enjoys reformer Pilates, (slow) running, and smelling the fancy toiletries in boutique fitness class locker rooms.Nicole Saunders is the beauty editor at Women's Health and has nine years of experience researching, writing, and editing lifestyle content. She specializes in breaking down complicated topics, like red light therapy for hair growth and LED face masks, into easy-to-understand guides. Saunders takes great pride in heavily researching and testing featured beauty products, such as strengthening shampoos and body washes for dry skin on our site. Previously, she was the beauty editor at Best Products where she tested quite literally thousands of launches for her quarterly column and the Best New Beauty Awards package. She also launched the beauty and wellness coverage at NBC News and contributed to CNN, Cosmopolitan, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and Harper's BAZAAR. You can follow her on Instagram to stay in the loop on her product testing adventures.