Photo Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Joe McKendry, Retailers
Welcome to How I choose my tips — a more or less regular newsletter series in which we ask Strategist staff what they use every day, what products they test for their articles, and what questions their friends and family are constantly asking them. Think of it as a glimpse into the ever-buzzing mind of a Strategist writer. Today we’re talking to beauty and skincare writer Rachel Griffiths.
To put it simply, my hair has been abused. I have subjected it to e-girl highlights, a Nostalgia for the future Half-and-half bleach, every crazy color imaginable, and tons of my current bright cherry red. All of this experimentation takes its toll, and when I was just starting out as a beauty writer, my hair was literally breaking off. For me, finding the very best hair products is as much a personal as it is a professional endeavor.
In addition – and this is not intentional – I have the type of hair that requires care products. It is colored, thin, And it’s dry (I know, that’s a problem). Plus, I have bangs that fight with my middle part on a daily basis. My goals are simple: I want products that let me wait longer between washes, styling, and expensive hair appointments. Right now, my solution is a good, moisturizing leave-in conditioner. When I returned from a dusty festival earlier this summer, none of my usual masks or oils could stop my hair ends from looking like straw after a single day of washing. The key to nursing them back to health was a dab of Monday’s moisturizing leave-in. Of all the ones I’ve tested, it’s my favorite product, and (best of all) I got it for under $10; finding a drugstore gem will forever be my favorite part of the job.
Surprisingly, shaving is what got me into writing about men’s grooming. My girlfriends are always asking about new products or the best copycat products (which you can read all about in The Strategist Beauty Brief), but I really felt like some of the men in my life didn’t know where to start. My roommate, for example, had just resigned himself to the fact that every time he shaved his neck, he’d get an itchy rash. I said, “You do realize there are creams and trimmers specifically designed to prevent that?” Since then, he’s been one of my go-to testers when it comes to sensitive skin care—and that rash? Nowhere to be seen.
I used to be very laissez-faire about sulfates, which is crazy considering I have dry, color-treated hair. Sulfates aren’t bad at all—if you have oilier hair, they can actually solve a lot of problems—but for hair like mine, they’re just too harsh. I notice the difference immediately when I test a product with sulfates. Luckily, I’ve tested so many wonderful (and wonderfully lathering) sulfate-free options that if you want to avoid them, I can recommend the right one for you.
There’s no limit! I reach for the $10 bottles on my shelf just as often as I reach for the products that cost four times as much. But that doesn’t mean you should throw away your Olaplex. Many drugstore products are full of things your hair doesn’t need and lack some of those luxurious ingredients (glycerin, vitamins, proteins, oats) that strengthen your hair. That being said, there’s always an option around the $10 mark that I recommend for someone on a budget. You can definitely build an effective hair routine for around $50 if you know where to look (and luckily, I do).
I’m currently on a major anti-frizz product hunt. Since ColorWow exploded on Tiktok, I’ve been trying to figure out if their Dream Coat is really the best product to make hair look shiny and not static at all. I have a few more options to try, but for now, the answer is yes.
K18 Dry Shampoo. In many ways, I still have the mentality of a penniless college student, so I can’t really believe I voluntarily spent nearly $50 on a dry shampoo. But it works so well! I exercise a lot, and since I found a dry shampoo that I can use after running that doesn’t leave a buildup, I can only wash my hair once or twice a week. Great news for keeping my red red, great news for keeping my bouncy blow-dries looking fresh, and great news for my tendency to be a little lazy.
The Dyson AirWrap, and sadly… it’s worth every penny in my eyes. I bought it with my first paycheck as a grown woman. I was still living with my parents so didn’t have to pay rent, which meant I didn’t think about it as much as I think most people do. But I absolutely love it. I think some people get frustrated when it doesn’t work the way they want it to right out of the box. And I can understand why you feel like, “I already spent $600, so why do I have to spend more on products to make it work?” But it’s still just a tool, and finding the right products is key to getting the most out of any hair tool. My trick is to apply some Sachajuan hair mousse to second or third day hair (when dry) before using the AirWrap cylinders to get long-lasting curls. I don’t even travel without it – when you have a pony like mine, it becomes indispensable.
I would add Dyson straighteners to my collection, which would be a big part of it. Then I would invest in Olaplex 3, 4, and 5 – when I’m in a hair crisis, they’re always my first line of defense. Next, I add my top tier products like Malin+Goetz’s moisturizing shampoo, Verb Ghost conditioner, and Ouai’s leave-in conditioner. I’ve also rated everything I’ve ever tried from Drybar very highly, so I’d add their Liquid Glass blowout cream, Hot Toddy’s heat protectant, and the detangler that I know keeps my bangs in check.
If I were to look at it from a grooming perspective, I would definitely get a Philips Norelco beard trimmer and the Wahl Peanut clipper. This clipper gets rave reviews from everyone I ask to test it, from my roommate who uses it to shave his beard to my boyfriend who finally gave up his Hector Bellerin mullet and shaved his head (of course, those are the only two acceptable hairstyles for the modern man).
I’m British and Filter by Love Island favourite Molly-Mae is one of the biggest self-tanning brands here. All my friends who buy it love it – it even weaned my makeup artist friend off her addiction to a spray tan treatment before Glastonbury. Once I’ve used up the many products I already have to try, this is next on my list. I’m also totally into mermaid waves this summer and have been thinking about trying the Drybar Mixologist Styler. (If you want to know the truth, the only thing that puts me off is whether I’ll actually bother to perm my hair once the novelty has worn off.)
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