This Is the Only Clean Shampoo That Has Ever Worked for My Wavy Hair (And I’ve Tried Them All)

It’s easy to get cynical as a beauty editor. When every single brand promises life-altering properties at the bottom of their bottle of shampoo/conditioner/face serum/fill-in-the-blank-here, you start to wonder how often the magic ingredient is simply a masterful marketing plan. However, I’m here to tell you to keep the faith because there truly are products that not only work but will change the experience of washing your hair, taking care of your skin, caring for your bod. One such product that I recently came across? Crown Affair The Ritual Shampoo.

TIP

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Crown Affair The Ritual Shampoo — $36.00

What makes this shampoo really stand out is that it replaces traditional cleansing agents such as sodium laurel sulfate—which has a rep of being drying—with cleansing agents that are derived from coconuts. This soaping system allows the shampoo to give a really robust lathering so that you don’t have to use heaps of product to get your hair clean (this is something exceedingly rare for clean hair-care formulas). And because you don’t need heaps of product, you won’t find that hair has that weird residue on it after washing. It creates a nice, light wash experience that you’ll undoubtedly look forward to (I do).

In addition to a lathering system that isn’t too drying, The Ritual Shampoo also adds camellia seed oil and glycerin to its formula, which both work to keep hair hydrated and conditioned. The glycerin acts as a humectant, meaning that it pulls moisture from the environment around it and helps it travel deeper into hair. Meanwhile, the camellia seed oil acts as a lightweight hydrating ingredient to keep hair hydrated—but not weighed down with conditioning ingredients.

When I lather up for the first time, I’m surprised by how frothy and airy the lather is. It feels almost like I’ve taken a mousse between my hands. The experience only gets better from there as the shampoo starts to get more bubbly and luxurious, and the ever-so-subtle clean scent wafts around my shower steam. I follow the shampoo with The Ritual Conditioner ($38), and out of the shower, I find that my hair has the perfect amount of slip. Not only does it detangle easily, but my waves dry without any flyaways or frizz—which is exceedingly difficult for my hair, BTW.

Other five-star reviewers (there are many of them) agree with me. One writes: “I can’t get enough of this shampoo! I have the worst scalp on the planet and have struggled to find a clean cleansing shampoo that doesn’t make my scalp flake immediately after use.” And other chimes in that “I finally understand what my hair is capable of because of this shampoo.”

Potential reached. Cynicism destroyed.

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