Shower Joy: Haircare Dupes for Expensive Fragrances

There’s nothing as deflating as heading into your morning shower, half asleep, only to be jarred awake by the smell of aggressively scented, ordinary shampoo. We need beauty in those early hours to gently coax ourselves into the ‘what fresh hell awaits us today’ world.

These three haircare products above are excellent and their fragrances are “inspired by” best-selling perfumes. Do I like them more because they smell so good? Yes I do.

Left to right: Unbreak My Blonde Leave-in Treatment from Matrix, Chatters,ca $24.50, softens and strengthens straw-like, bleached blonde hair, all the while evoking Bvlgari’s classic Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert, ($130, Holt Renfrew), the smell of the early ‘90s. Endless copied since its launch in 1992, Bvulgari’s mix of seemingly disparate notes like bergamot, coriander, orange blossom jasmine and rose on a woody and green tea base still smells new.

Bounce.Me Curl shampoo from DesignMe, $27, (centre) is note-for-note Bobbi Brown’s Beach, $105, Sephora, another classic, this one an homage to 70s sunscreens like Coppertone and Bain de Soleil. Remember that metal Bain de Soleil tube of orange ‘gelée’? Nothing was more glamorous. Bounce.Me transforms even the most egregiously fuzzy steel wool hair into soft waves and defined curls. (I always adored the Beach scent and never forgave Bobbi Brown for discontinuing their Beach-scented ‘sandbar' soaps, with their thick crowns of sand for handy exfoliation. They were probably massively injurious to skin, but I loved them.)

From the singular white flowers and sandalwood scent to its suede-finished, parchment coloured bottles, Authentic Beauty Concept’s line for damaged hair both looks and smells like Donna Karan iconic Cashmere Mist deodorant (the Bay, $39). It makes sense given that - fun fact - Cashmere Mist stick deodorant, has been the #1 best selling prestige body product in the US since 1996. ABC’s replenish line (conditioner, above) provides much needed moisture to restore winter-battered hair. And the sueded bottles are especially nice to grip with soapy hands when you are still asleep during that morning shower.

For screen-capping:

Hey, Small Spender: Monday Haircare

Finding stylishly packaged beauty products at the grocery store (and at a low price) is such a double win. Especially when you are spending a mortgage payment to get everything else on your list.

I swear that some personal care brands take a perverse delight in punishing us with ugly packaging and cheap fragrance when we choose their less expensive items, so all hail Monday Haircare for setting that business model on fire. Monday’s shampoos and conditioners are loaded with coconut oil, Shea butter and panthenol (vitamin b) for $7.47 for 350 ml. at Walmart. (Coming soon to Shoppers Drug Mart as well.)

Monday was created by former PR exec, New Zealand-based Jaimee Lupton, who clearly understands what people want from beauty products: the contents, the photo-friendly, Insta-bait bottles and how much (or how little) they want to pay. She uses the expression “extortionate pricing” when discussing beauty products in general, and honestly, she’s not wrong.

Monday has four shampoo and conditioner duos (all SLS-, paraben- and cruelty-free): Gentle, Moisture, Smooth and Volume, each with the same creamy, clean-soap scent. And while it may not replace your fanciest luxe haircare (you will have to pry the Leonor Greyl from my cold, dead hands) Monday is definitely something you‘ll be happy to see in your shower (and will look at home in your guest bath instead of some joyless, ugly “value” brand.)

Hey, Small Spender: The Best Hair De-frizzer Is Only $10

Typology Jojoba Oil is beautiful, versatile and cheap.

One ingredient found in most hair-smoothing lotions is jojoba oil. The oil that most closely resembles your scalp’s own sebum, it does an aces job of naturally smoothing down the outer layer of your hair to create shine. When we’re older, our oil production decreases just as our hair is getting thinner and drier and more in need of this life-giving, shine-enhancing oil. And if you have curly hair, all those bends and turns make it even harder for the natural oils to make their way down to your (oh look, now they’re frizzy) ends.

A few drops (two? three?) of jojoba oil warmed in your hands and raked through your hair (paying special attention to ends) creates an instant and surprising amount of natural shine, and handily subdues flyaways, for a more elegant, less crazy cat lady look. As someone with frizz-prone grey, I fear that my default setting is now crazy cat lady.

A 60 ml (two ounce) bottle of jojoba oil is roughly $10 at the health food store and lasts forever. But if you’re like me and ugly packaging upsets your fragile equilibrium, this three ounce, minimalist beauty from France’s Typology brand is worth the 9.90 euro price.

Jojoba oil is also a stellar cuticle protector during these unprecedented ‘gel sanitizer is ruinous to our hands’ times. A couple of drops onto your fingertips after hand washing and before hand lotion will keep your cuticles from cracking.

And as someone who hits the self-tanner bottle pretty hard in the winter, I put jojoba oil on my fingers before ‘tanning’ (that makes me sound so Jersey Shore) to prevent the tint grabbing onto any dry skin and turning my fingertips yellowish-brown, making me look like a two-pack-a day smoker. (And that alone is totally worth 10 euros.)