For soft, manageable, beautiful strands, it's important to choose the best leave-in conditioner for your hair type. A good leave-in conditioner can help detangle strands, reduce fly-aways, tame frizz and keep curls soft and smooth; a leave-in conditioner that's too heavy can weigh it down or leave it looking greasy.

The best shampoos won't make your hair feel dry, brittle or unhealthy. Instead, a great shampoo has the power to transform your hair and even make your hairstyles look better, no matter if you have straight hair, curly hair or somewhere in between. We scoured the shampoo reviews in our database to find the very best shampoos — here, the ones our readers swear give them the soft, shiny, manageable hair of their dreams.

We all love getting pampered at the salon, but when we're trying to save a few bucks, only the best at-home hair color products will do. We don't want a disaster on our hands that ends up costing even more than if we'd just gone to the salon in the first place, right?

Let's be honest, ladies — every single time we flip it mid-conversation, shyly tuck it behind our ears or peek through it when it falls before our faces like a curtain, we know exactly what we're doing: making the stone cold heart of every onlooker melt like butter on the sidewalk in the middle of July. Whether you're rocking a face-framing pixie or waist-length layers, gorgeous, healthy hair is a gal's greatest accessory. But ironically, we often damage it in the process of getting it to that gorgeous state.

The best color protecting shampoo will do exactly what the name implies: Preserve your freshly done, beautiful hair color and keep it (and your hard-earned money) from being washed down the drain. After all, it makes no sense to spend a fortune on coloring your hair at a salon only to use hair care products that strip the color at home. So stocking up on proper hair care products post-treatment is an absolute must.

When it comes to finding the best hairsprays, you want the ones that keep your 'do in place without making it look like a helmet, right? Luckily, the light, flexible formulas of today's best hairsprays bear little resemblance to the hair-stiffening hairsprays of yesteryear.

There are four things you should look for in a curling iron: One, does it get hot enough to adequately curl your hair? Two, is it the right size barrel for the curls you want to create (smaller barrels mean tighter curls, looser barrels mean bigger curls)? Three, is it easy to hold and use? And four, is it a high enough quality iron to last you a long time?

Let's be real: Who wants to ruin a good blowout? In an effort to make our blowouts last, we resort to dry shampoos, dry conditioners and whatever else it takes to keep hair looking (and smelling) fresh. But a girl's gotta shower and all that heat and humidity can make a silky blowout look frizzy in no time flat. Which is why having a good shower cap is a must. Yes, your grandma's favorite shower accessory is back. And with brands like Kitsch and Drybar joining the movement, shower caps are not only functional but pretty darned cute too. (So cute, in fact, many double as a beach turban or protection from the rain.) Most importantly, they deliver on their promise to maintain our beautifully blown-out hair.

Dandruff. It's one of those beauty ailments that no one really talks about, but it's one that almost all of us will experience at some point in our lives. And since we're no strangers to dishing on the ugly side of beauty (we've tackled ingrown toenails and gross ingredients in skin cream), we're going to get into the nitty-gritty (flaky-scaly?) of what causes dandruff and how TotalBeauty.com users address theirs with the 13 best dandruff shampoos.

Sure, stylists have access to the best of the best when it comes to hair products and tools. And yes, often times that means their kits are loaded with luxurious (AKA pricey) goodies. But that doesn't mean they don't love a good drugstore deal as much as the rest of us. Since they're not limited by budget, you can feel confident knowing that any cheapies they are using have to be good. We asked top hairstylists to share the bargain buys they can't get enough of. Check out their nine drugstore hair product picks here—with prices like these, we say go ahead and buy them all.

I have a dirty little secret: I sometimes go a full week without washing my hair. Now, before you go and call me gross, hear me out. I have super-thick, coarse, curly hair, and it gets seriously dry. Shampooing frequently just dries it out even more, so I like to wait as long as possible before I have to do it again. That's especially the case when I blow-dry my hair. It takes a whole lot of effort to smooth out my curly hair, so you better believe I'm going to do everything in my power to limit the number of times I have to style it each week (don't worry, I still hop in the tub every day to clean my body!).

Have you decided that your lackluster hair is a lost cause? Well, you might want to rethink that conclusion. The best shine spray or serum can be your first line of defense in the war on dull hair — just ask any hairstylist or beauty salon owner. Whether you're a curly-haired gal dealing with frizz or a straight-haired chick looking to minimize static, a shine serum can help smooth strands and even treat common hair problems. Above all, they create serious shine.

Once upon a time, the biggest challenge we faced once we pulled ourselves out of bed was to coiffe our hair so perfectly it looked almost professionally done. But that was then. Those days of perfect, blown-out hairstyles worn to work day in and day out are gone. Now it's all about achieving the rolled-out-of-bed, perfectly imperfect hairstyles that scream "I woke up like this." Where the goal was once to be smooth and frizz-free, now it's all about letting your frizz work for you, amping up the texture and looking just messy enough that it's considered a seriously trendy fashion statement. Sounds easy enough, right?

There's a misconception that you have to spend a fortune for the best hair care products -- so not true. Yes, there's something glamorous about wearing Chanel lipstick and picking up some Kérastase hair care products while you're finishing up at the salon, but there are cheap hair products under $10 that yield shockingly similar -- if not better -- results.

We love hair gel because it's such a versatile product. Use it on straight hair to add dimension and shine. Apply hair gel to your natural curls to boost volume and keep frizz in check. But if you choose the wrong hair gel, you'll be stuck with a crunchy, greasy mess that smells like alcohol or bad perfume to boot. We're here to eliminate the trial-and-error process for you. Click through for the 11 best hair gels that our readers say are the answer to all of your hair styling woes.

Hair dryers are like bottles of wine — some cost $15, some cost $500, and it's often unclear whether or not you're truly getting what you pay for. Some hair dryers can leave your hair damaged and frizzy — not exactly what you set out to achieve when doing your blowout. And that's where this list of the best hair dryers comes in.

You're well acquainted with hair serum and leave-in conditioner, but what about dry oil finishing spray for hair? This miracle product is applied in a fine, even mist as the last step in your hairstyling routine, and noticeably amps up luminosity, nixes frizz, protects and nourishes hair.

If you want soft, shiny, manageable hair, it all starts with finding the best conditioner for your hair type. Our readers have tried the top hair conditioners on the market for dry hair, frizzy hair, curly hair and more -- and they're here to tell us which ones they deem the best conditioners.

Summer is an invitation for a more lackadaisical approach to hair. (Hallelujah!) It means letting bangs grow out, letting hair air-dry, getting beachy waves from actually going to the beach and covering up unwashed summer hair with floppy hats. But with the season also comes certain summer hair hazards, like chlorine, UV rays, salt water and humidity -- all of which can lead to pool-hair, fried scalps and frizzy, dried-out, damaged strands.

Here'a a scenario you might be familiar with: You just walked out of the salon with freshly dyed hair. It's vibrant, it's shiny, it's beautiful and you love it. But then, day after day, your pricey, gorgeous hair color starts swirling down the drain. Not pretty. So what's a girl to do? One word: condition. Okay, let's make it three words: color-protecting conditioner.