If you miss the salon scalp massage, this $8 scrubber delivers shower after shower

Of all of life’s simple pleasures, a professional hair wash ranks at the top of the list. Closing your eyes while someone dissolves tension off of your scalp while simultaneously giving it a deep clean has got to be one of the highest circles of heaven, and I will fight anyone who disagrees. Achieving this type of nirvana has traditionally been reserved for the salon, but I recently found the next best thing that makes it possible right in your own shower.

The MAXSOFT Scalp Care Brush ($8) will give you a professional-grade, ahh-inducing head massage for less than the cost of a Zoom Pilates class. It’s a flat, plastic brush that will instantly turn your favorite shampoo into the best scalp scrub experience of your life. 

I’ve never been a fan of traditional sugar or salt scrubs—they generally tangle my strands and clog my shower drain—but as a lifelong dry shampoo lover (and a beauty editor), I know how important it is to treat your scalp to regular exfoliation. The process sloughs off dead skin, gets rid of product buildup (ahem, the last six weeks worth of dry shampoo), and keeps excess oil at bay. Plus, it stimulates blood flow, and feels really freaking good.

MAXSOFT Scalp Care Brush, $8

At the recommendation of a fellow editor, I ordered the MAXSOFT Brush, and it only took one experience with it for me to understand why people say the scalp is one of the most underrated erogenous zones. I used it to apply my Drunk Elephant Cocomino Glossing Shampoo ($25), which created a glorious frothy lather, and moved the brush in small circles around my scalp. Unlike my usual scrubs, it didn’t knot up my roots, but it did work to dislodge the grease and gunk that was hanging out around them.

I’ve since been using it every other wash (so, once a week), and it’s turned my usual meh shampoo routine into a stress-reducing self-care ritual. Plus, I’ve found that my hair doesn’t get nearly as greasy between lathers, which I’m counting as a major win.

Until professional hair washes are a thing again, this little device is the only slice of heaven I need.

Watch what happened when Ella Dove got a professional-grade treatment (which she called “the grossest thing she’s ever seen”):

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