Hair Care

Best Drugstore Dupes for High-End Hair Products

We pit luxury hair products against their drugstore counterparts -- find out which are worth the splurge

by Amanda Montell | COMMENT

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When one hair product costs $5 at the drugstore, and another $75 at the salon, you can't help but wonder, what's the difference, really? Is that pricy conditioner actually transforming your strands like no cheapy ever could, or is it just a placebo effect?

As it turns out, sometimes there is a drastic difference between high- and low-end hair products. "Premium brands tend to have an edge when it comes to styling and finishing [products]," says cosmetic chemist Donald Frey. It's a much more even playing field for treatment products, like shampoos and hair masks, he says, where ingredients can be nearly identical.

Frey says to think about it like this: "The last thing you put on your hair is going to have the biggest effect on what you see. The further back you go in the process, the more that effect is going to get dampened by other products." In other words, you might want to splurge on a "final touch" styling product, like a texture spray, but can probably get away with saving on shampoo. (Though Frey cautions against skimping on hair color. "Never go cheap on a something that will affect your hair for multiple weeks," he says).

Mind blown? Ours too. So to put this theory to the test, we matched the following hair oils, masks, dry shampoos and more from our favorite high-end brands with similar drugstore products to settle the score. See which drugstore dupes produced luxury results.

Image via Imaxtree

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