Brand Reviews

How we review a brand

A brand review on this site answers one question: what kind of hair is this range actually formulated for? Not whether the brand is good — that is not a meaningful question — but who it suits and who should spend their money elsewhere.

We have not personally used these ranges, and we say so on every page. What we do instead is read the formulations and the manufacturer's own positioning, work out what problem the range is built around, and check that against what people are actually buying it for. A moisture-first range will disappoint someone whose real problem is protein loss, however well made it is, and that mismatch is the most common reason a well-reviewed product disappoints an individual buyer.

What we check

• What the range is built around. Moisture, protein, volume, scalp, color. Almost every line has one organizing idea and it is usually stated on the manufacturer's own pages.
• Who that suits. Translated into strand thickness and porosity rather than marketing segments, because those are what decide the outcome — see the porosity test.
• Whether it is sulfate-free, silicone-free or neither, cited to the manufacturer, because that determines whether it fits a curly routine or a color routine.
• What it costs relative to what it does. Where a drugstore product does the same job, we say so. Buyer first.
• Whether it is actually still sold. A review of a discontinued line is worse than no review.

What we do not do

We do not publish star ratings or scores. We have no first-party rating data — no testing panel, no lab, no long-term trial — and a number would imply a measurement nobody took. Instead each pick gets a role: the drugstore option, the one for high porosity, the gentlest of the set. That is a claim we can actually stand behind.

We also do not review brands we cannot verify are currently trading and currently sold. Two brand reviews at launch is fewer than most sites carry, and it is fewer on purpose.

Where the money comes from

Links to products are affiliate links and we earn a commission if you buy through them, at no cost to you. No brand has paid for inclusion, placement or a favorable word, and we name drugstore products as the better buy on plenty of pages where a salon brand would pay us more. The full disclosure is here and the editorial policy spells out what "best" means on this site.

Reviews versus shortlists

A brand review is the right page when you already have a brand in mind and want to know whether it fits your hair. If you have a problem rather than a brand in mind, the shortlists are the better route — they compare across brands for one specific problem, which is how we think most people should actually shop. Start from dryness and damage, frizz and curls, oily roots, color or thinning.