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I'm on record as believing that there is nothing worse than washing your hair. (I know you're thinking, That's gross. But, hey, I never even liked washing my face until I discovered this one magical cleansing balm. I'm a mess! But I'm working on it.)
Anyway, this just means that if I am recommending a shampoo or conditioner, it's because I really like it, actually use it, and think it's worth singling out amongst the many, many, many hair care brands out there. Because if there's anywhere in the beauty industry where the tyranny of choice is particularly tyrannical, it's hair care, a subset of beauty that is flooded by products promising to do very similar, if not identical, things for your hair, which can all essentially be reduced to one thing: make it clean.
But, there are plenty of shampoos and conditioners out there that clean your hair—and maybe also make it shiny or moisturize it or give it volume or define its curls or make it smell nice—and then, like, that's it. For many people, that might even be enough. However, something I've found in my long, reluctant time washing my hair, is that many of the shampoos that clean my hair also, basically, fuck up my skin. I've had breakouts and rashes and redness from experimenting with different shampoos and conditioners; they were the kind of mysterious skin ailments that led me to excise everything else from my skin-care routine before landing on the solution that your hair is attached to your skin and touches your face and so... yeah, if there are skin irritants on your hair, they will, in fact, affect your actual skin.
As obvious as this seems, it's still really rare for hair care to be treated like skin care, and to be free of comedogenic ingredients that can clog pores and cause breakouts. That's why I was so excited to try SEEN's line of shampoo and conditioner (there's also a great blowout balm, but I don't blow-dry my hair that much, so I don't use it often). It works in the way you'd want these products to: my hair is clean and detangled and soft when using them in tandem. More than that, though, my scalp and the tops of my ears are never itchy, my face is less red post-shower, my pores are clear, and I've had no errant breakouts at all.
I will never be someone who loves washing her hair (it's so time-consuming and it takes forever to dry), but at least, now, when I do wash it, I know that I don't need to worry about all the pesky side effects that once came with this basic grooming ritual. And I can be assured that my skin will be as clean as my hair—providing, you know, that I remember to wash that too.
SEEN, shampoo and conditioner bundle, $50, available at SEEN.
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