Haircare

Three things, and only three. A shampoo that suits your scalp, a conditioner that suits your lengths, and one treatment for whatever is actually bothering you.

Those are two different jobs, which is why the pair are rarely from the same problem. Your scalp might be oily while your ends are dry, and that is normal rather than a contradiction. Shampoo the scalp, condition from the mid-lengths down, and leave the roots alone.

Add styling products and oils once that base is working. Most people buy those first and wonder why nothing improves.

Choose for your scalp first and your hair type second.

• Coloured hair: Color Wow Color Security Shampoo or the Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Diamond range
• Damaged or over-processed: K18 Peptide Prep pH Maintenance Shampoo or Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Reconstruction
• Dry: Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Moisture
• Fine or flat: Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Volume or Caudalie Density and Volume Shampoo
• Oily or congested scalp: Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Scalp Rebalance or Act+Acre Cold Processed Hair Cleanse
• Flaking and itch: DSD de Luxe 2.1 Antidandruff Shampoo
• Product build-up: Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Detox Clarifying Shampoo or K18 Peptide Prep Detox Shampoo, used occasionally rather than weekly

A clarifying shampoo every few weeks resets everything else. Using one every wash will strip hair and leave the scalp producing more oil, not less.

A treatment that works on the inside of the hair rather than coating the outside. Bleaching, colouring and heat break down the structure within the strand, and a bond builder is built to work on that damage rather than smooth over it. K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask is the one most people mean.

It is not a conditioner and does not replace one. A conditioner makes hair feel soft today. A bond builder is about strength, and the difference shows up in how hair behaves over weeks rather than straight out of the shower.

Worth it if you bleach, colour or heat style regularly, or if your hair snaps and feels stretchy when wet. If your hair is virgin and you air dry, you do not need one.

Nothing repairs a split end. Once the strand has split the only fix is cutting it off, and any product claiming otherwise is gluing it shut until the next wash.

If your scalp is comfortable, no. Shampoo is doing enough. If it is itchy, flaking, oily within a day or tight after washing, then yes, and treating it properly usually fixes more than changing shampoo does.

• Oily: Act+Acre 4% Niacinamide Oily Scalp Serum or Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Scalp Rebalance
• Irritated or reactive: Act+Acre Microbiome Cooling Scalp Serum or Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Scalp Relief
• Build-up: Act+Acre Cold Pressed Scalp Detox or DSD de Luxe 1.3 Dixidox de Luxe Peeling
• General condition and density: Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Scalp Renew or Act+Acre Stem Cell Scalp Serum

Scalp products go on a clean scalp and stay there, so apply them in sections after washing and do not rinse them out. Give it eight weeks before deciding whether anything has changed.

This needs an honest answer rather than a hopeful one.

Scalp serums and density shampoos can improve the condition of the scalp, reduce breakage and make hair look fuller. Caudalie Anti-Hair Loss Serum, Obagi Nu-Cil BioStim Scalp Serum and the DSD de Luxe EXOGROW range sit in this part of the shop. What none of them do is treat medical hair loss, and no cosmetic product sold without a prescription will.

See a GP rather than buying anything if the loss is sudden, patchy, coming out in clumps, or accompanied by a change in how you feel generally. Thyroid problems, low iron, illness, medication and stress all cause hair loss and all of them are treatable once identified. Pattern hair loss also has prescription options that work far better than anything on this page, and the earlier it is treated the more there is to keep.

Buy these to look after the hair you have. Get the cause looked at separately.

As often as your scalp needs, which is the part most advice gets wrong by aiming the answer at the ends.

Fine or oily hair often needs washing daily or every other day, and there is nothing wrong with that. Thick, coarse, curly or very dry hair is usually fine twice a week. Leaving an oily scalp unwashed to train it does not work, and an itchy or flaking scalp almost always wants washing more, not less.

If you are washing often, use a gentler shampoo rather than washing less. Dry shampoo between washes is for the look of the roots, not for the scalp, so do not let it stand in for washing for days at a time.