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What Is the Best Drugstore Shampoo?

 

For thin hair, curls, dandruff, and more.

Shampoo sets the foundation for your styling routine, so starting off with a quality formula is key to a great hair day. The drugstore shampoo world has changed significantly over the past decade to provide a wide range of formulas that promote a healthy scalp, and help address hair concerns like damage, dryness, and dandruff. Today, there’s an option for every hair type and texture, with formulas rivaling their more-expensive salon and department store counterparts. 

Not only do these options from Herbal Essences, Pantene, Kristin Ess, L’Oreal, and more play an important role in getting your hair and scalp clean of product buildup, oil, and dead skin, but they also offer salon-level benefits at a lower price point. (Think, $10 per bottle.) 

To narrow down the best drugstore shampoos, we did extensive research on the shelves of our local drugstores, explored TIkTok recommendations, and chatted with Leigh Hardges, hairstylist at Maxine Salon in Chicago, and Jennifer Korab, a colorist and hair extension specialist at Renaissance Salon + Spa in New Jersey.

Best Overall

Herbal Essences Rose Hips Smooth Shampoo

 

What Stands Out

• The signature Herbal Essences aroma is always a treat, and so is the end result: smooth, soft, and shiny hair for a variety of hair types.

What Could Be Improved

• If you’re sensitive to fragrance, you may want to skip this one.

You just can’t beat the classics. Herbal Essences’ Smooth Shampoo is instantly recognizable thanks to its retro-chic pink bottle reminiscent of the ‘90s original. It also features that iconic, floral Herbal Essences aroma, which will appeal to anyone who loves a little nostalgia in their beauty routine.

The shampoo formula itself is pretty impressive too, making it easy to understand why it’s such a popular product. Rose hips, jojoba, and vitamin E soften, smooth, and add shine to your hair without weighing it down, and the formula is free of silicones and mineral oils. Smooth Shampoo is recommended for a variety of hair types, from fine hair to color-treated hair, so it’s a safe bet for almost anyone using your shower. 

The shampoo comes in two sizes, with the larger size featuring a convenient pump top for easy in-shower application. To top it all off, Herbal Essences is Korab’s personal favorite drugstore hair care line because of its plant-based ingredients, good scent, and the brand's focus on sustainability.

Key Ingredients: Vitamin E, rose hips, jojoba oil | Hair Types: Fine, flat, straight, colored, oily | Size: 13.5 or 29.2 ounces

Best Volumizing

OGX Thick & Full + Biotin & Collagen Shampoo

What Stands Out

• This is a great formula for reinforcing strands, reducing breakage, and finally tackling frizz.

What Could Be Improved

• The scent may be too strong for sensitive noses.

This volumizing shampoo doesn’t just boost body for extra oomph—though, it definitely does that. It’s also a multitasking formula that packs in the benefits for healthier hair, addressing thinness, damage, and even frizz. It repairs damaged hair with a combination of collagen and biotin—two nutrients that help strengthen hair—to reinforce strands and reduce breakage.

Thick & Full + Biotin & Collagen Volumizing Shampoo promises to give you more than 72 hours of body and fullness without weighing hair down. The formula is also infused with OGX’s Lipi Pro Shield technology, which helps reduce the lipid and protein loss that can lead to frizz. It has a fairly strong scent for some, but is otherwise a great option for normal and thin hair types.

Key Ingredients: Collagen, biotin | Hair Types: Normal, thin | Size: 13 ounces

Best for Color-Treated Hair

Pantene Illuminating Sulfate Free Biotin Shampoo

What Stands Out

• This gentle shampoo is free of sulfates, parabens, mineral oil, dyes, silicones, and phthalates.

What Could Be Improved

• It may weigh down finer hair types.

Hair color services can be really, really expensive, and you definitely don’t want your investment running down the drain. Pantene’s Illuminating Color Care Shampoo protects color-treated hair in a few different ways. For starters, it’s sulfate-free, which means it gently cleanses hair without stripping away moisture and color. 

Illuminating Color Care Shampoo is formulated with biotin, which is known to help strengthen hair and especially important for chemically-treated, colored hair, too. But what’s really notable about this drugstore shampoo is what it’s formulated without: dyes, (again) sulfates, parabens, silicones, and phthalates. It cleanses without heavy ingredients to preserve and protect your color—it’s as simple as that. 

It’s recommended for all hair types, from straight to coily, though it may weigh down finer hair. The crisp citrus scent rivals even the most expensive brands.

Key Ingredients: Biotin | Hair Types: Straight, wavy, curly, coily, color-treated | Size: 9.6 ounces

Best for Oily Hair

Kristin Ess Clarifying Shampoo

What Stands Out

• The fresh floral scent and fluffy, sudsy lather make your hair feel super-clean and refreshed.

What Could Be Improved

• It can be drying, so make sure to use conditioner post-wash.

If you have oily hair, you probably need to wash your hair more frequently—which means you need a shampoo that makes showering feel less like a chore and more like a visit to the salon. Enter, Kristin Ess’s Deep Clean Clarifying Shampoo. Not only does it deeply cleanse hair and your scalp, but it also looks great on your shower shelf and smells like a blend of apple, pink pepper, gardenia, and palo santo.

The fluffy, sudsy lather makes your hair feel extra-clean, and leaves it feeling fresh and full of body. Even if your hair is the opposite of oily, the shampoo is a great way to hit refresh on occasion and wash away buildup, mineral deposits, and silicones from day-to-day styling. 

Because this is an intense, clarifying shampoo, definitely follow with a nourishing conditioner or hair mask. Another perk of this translucent pink shampoo is that it’s both vegan and cruelty free. 

Key Ingredients: None specified | Hair Types: Oily, normal (for clarifying) | Size: 10 ounces

Best for Dry Hair

Dove Scalp + Hair Therapy Hydrating Shampoo

What Stands Out

• This gentle shampoo cleanses your scalp and doesn’t strip away the moisture from your strands.

What Could Be Improved

• Because it’s a sulfate-free formula, it doesn’t lather like sulfated shampoos.

Dove’s hydrating shampoo for dry hair doesn’t just condition and nourish dry, brittle hair, but it also gently cleanses the skin of your scalp—a bonus, especially if your scalp is feeling dry and tight.

When you have dry hair, you want a product that’ll cleanse away the dirt, product, and leftover dry shampoo (we don’t judge!) from your day, but you don’t want to wash out all of the moisture from your thirsty strands. Dove’s shampoo is formulated without sulfates, which can strip away precious moisture and oils from dry hair, leading to frizz. 

It also keeps the shampoo step simple, gentle, and hydrating. That said, you’ll likely notice that this shampoo doesn’t lather like sulfated shampoos. 

Key Ingredients: Vitamins B3 & E, peptides, zinc | Hair Types: Dry | Size: 9.25 ounces

Best for Frizzy Hair

John Frieda Frizz Ease Beyond Smooth Shampoo

What Stands Out

• It doesn’t leave hair feeling greasy or heavy.

What Could Be Improved

• We didn’t find anything major to improve.

It’s a fine balance to find a shampoo that calms frizz without weighing hair down or making it feeling greasy and heavy, but this one finds the balance. John Frieda has been at the forefront of frizz protection for decades, ever since their Frizz Ease serum hit shelves in the early ‘90s, and the Beyond Smooth Frizz Immunity Shampoo goes even deeper by stopping frizz before it starts.

Wavy and curly hair types often deal with frizz, but it can also be a sign of underlying damage. This formula creates an immunity against frizz by working inside the hair fiber to soften and smooth it with every use. Coconut oil helps repair and replenish damaged strands so your hair feels softer and more manageable, even in humidity. 

Whether you wear your hair naturally or straighten it, this anti-frizz shampoo will keep your hair smoother, longer. Pair it with the conditioner and primer to reduce frizz up to 90%.

Key Ingredients: Frizz Immunity Complex, coconut oil | Hair Types: Frizzy, medium-to-thick, wavy, curly | Size: 8.45 ounces

Best for Curly Hair

HASK Beauty Curl Care Shampoo

What Stands Out

• This hydrating, strengthening curl shampoo is cruelty-free and vegan.

What Could Be Improved

• The thick formula may make dispensing difficult.

HASK may not be as instantly recognizable as some other drugstore brands, but that doesn’t mean you should overlook this curl-care shampoo. “HASK has been saving our hair woes for years, and you probably didn’t even realize it,” Hardges says, adding that the company has been around since 1946. 

She’s a fan of its clean sulfate-, paraben-, phthalate-, and silicone-free formulas, especially the Curl Care Shampoo. “It features a curl-activating complex to hydrate, protect, and define curls while keeping frizz at bay,” she says.

Curly hair can be especially prone to breakage and frizz, so Curl Care Shampoo features a blend of coconut oil, argan oil, and vitamin E to moisturize and strengthen thirsty curls and define your curl pattern. The fruity, coconut scent is an added bonus on top of the hydrated, happy, bouncy curls.

Key Ingredients: Coconut oil, argan oil, vitamin E oil | Hair Types: Curly | Size: 12 ounces

Best for Coily Hair

Mielle Organics Pomegranate & Honey Shampoo

What Stands Out

• It’s deeply nourishing but still lightweight, and makes detangling easy.

What Could Be Improved

• The shampoo is a bit thick for the pump dispenser.

Moisture is essential for type 4 or coily hair, which can be dry and prone to breakage. Hardges’s top pick for coily hair is Mielle Organics’ Pomegranate & Honey Moisturizing and Detangling Shampoo, which she likes for its “slip and detangling” abilities. 

The rich, silky, sulfate-free shampoo smells dreamy and helps pre-detangle thick hair, lavishing it with nourishing ingredients like babassu oil and honey, which Hardges says is “known for sealing moisture in the hair.”

This shampoo gently but effectively cleanses hair with a luscious, sulfate-free lather that doesn’t strip away needed moisture, adding lots of slip to make finger-combing a breeze and setting the foundation for the rest of your wash-day routine. 

Key Ingredients: Pomegranate, babassu oil, honey | Hair Types: Coily, type 4 | Size: 12 or 32 ounces

Best for Damaged Hair

L’Oréal Paris Sulfate-Free Repair Shampoo

 

What Stands Out

• This high-tech formula helps repair hair, not just smooth it over, and can also preserve color vibrancy.

What Could Be Improved

• You get the best results with the three-step system, which adds to the price tag.

L’Oreal is always at the cutting edge of hair care. The company owns drugstore and high-end brands, and their drugstore formulas are generally trustworthy, reliable picks for all hair types. The sulfate-free EverPure line is one of their most popular franchises, with formulas for many hair concerns, and their Bond Repair line takes damaged hair care to the next level.

If you’re not familiar, bond-repair products don’t just smooth over damage—they get to work fixing it by mending the keratin bonds of your hair, which can break due to heat styling, chemical treatments, or bleach. EverPure Sulfate Free Bond Repair Shampoo is part of a three-product routine that repairs hair with just one use. 

The key ingredient is citric acid, which penetrates the hair to rebuild bonds. Even if you don’t use the full, three-step system of shampoo, conditioner, and concentrate, this is a gentle and effective daily shampoo to strengthen and treat damaged hair and preserve color vibrancy, too.

Key Ingredients: Citric acid | Hair Types: Damaged, bleached, color-treated | Size: 6.8 ounces

Best for Dandruff

Nizoral Anti-Dandruff Shampoo

 

What Stands Out

• The clinically proven formula is safe for chemically treated hair and treats the source of dandruff.

What Could Be Improved

• It has a higher price point than other dandruff shampoos.

Dealing with persistent dandruff and want to say goodbye to those annoying white flakes forever? It’s time to call in a professional: Nizoral’s Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. It doesn’t just relieve itching and flaking—it actually kills the fungus that causes dandruff so you can stop it right at the source. 

Yes, the packaging is super clinical and even sterile, but in this case, that’s a good thing. The shampoo is clinically proven to work, thanks to the antifungal ingredient ketoconazole. (It’s also the only over-the-counter shampoo with ketoconazole available.) 

To fight those flakes, Nizoral suggests incorporating the shampoo into your routine twice a week, even on chemically processed hair. The shampoo has a clean, fresh scent and feels soothing and moisturizing on your hair and scalp. 

Key Ingredients: Ketoconazole | Hair Types: Itchy, flaky, dandruff-prone | Size: 7 or 14  ounces

Final Verdict

If you’re looking for a reliable day-to-day drugstore shampoo that will work for everyone in your household, we like the tried-and-true classic Herbal Essences Rose Hips Smooth Shampoo, which features a beloved aroma and modernized cruelty-free formula. For another great option, Hardges recommends Mielle Organics’s Pomegranate & Honey Moisturizing and Detangling Shampoo for type 4 coily hair, and if you’re dealing with dandruff, we recommend Nizoral’s Anti-Dandruff Shampoo.

How to Shop for Drugstore Shampoo Like a Pro

Consider Your Hair Type

Thankfully, the drugstore hair care world has become a lot more inclusive in recent years, and there really is a product for every hair type and texture. 

Thin or fine hair types should look for a lightweight, volumizing shampoo to add body and bounce. 
Curly and coily hair types will love added moisture and hydration to help detangle and define. 

Many popular drugstore hair care lines offer products for nearly every hair type, while others specialize in a specific area, like curl care.

Consider Your Hair Concerns

When shopping for a drugstore shampoo, Hardges’s best advice is to pay very close attention to the label, which will help you hone in on a formula that works for your specific hair concerns.

If you’ve got damaged hair, she recommends looking for words like “strengthening” or “fortifying” on the bottle, as those products will contain helpful ingredients like protein and amino acids. 

For dry hair, “hydration” and “moisturizing” are key, and for oily hair, look for “clarifying” formulas, which will give you that fresh-start feeling. Anything that says “smoothing” helps lock down frizz.

Take a Look at the Ingredients

Ingredients are the first thing Hardges looks at when checking out a new product or brand. “I really focus on those first five ingredients, which are key as ingredients are listed in order of concentration by volume,” she explains, adding that she prefers sulfate- and paraben-free formulas.

Sulfates are a polarizing ingredient in the beauty world, but you don’t necessarily have to stay away from them. In shampoo, they’re used as the cleansing agent that gives you that big, fluffy, shampoo-commercial lather. On a label, you will see sodium lauryl sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate, and sodium laureth sulfate. They efficiently remove dirt, oil, and buildup but can also wash away necessary moisture. 

If you have dry, coarse, or color-treated hair or a sensitive scalp, sulfates may be too drying for you. However, if you enjoy really light, clean-feeling hair, and you have oily or normal hair, you may prefer a sulfated shampoo.

Questions You Might Ask

What are some of the best drugstore hair brands?

There are so many drugstore hair care brands on the shelves, which can be really intimidating to navigate if you’re a hair newbie. Some of the big brand names include L’Oreal Paris, Clairol, Garnier, Mielle, Pantene, Dove, and Tresemmé. When in doubt, start with a brand name you recognize. A few pro hairstylists have their own lines, like Kristin Ess, John Frieda, and Paul Mitchell.

Korab often recommends products from OGX, Pantene, Herbal Essences, Garnier, Tresemmé, and L’Oreal Paris to clients for their “effectiveness, affordability, and variety.” For example, “OGX offers sulfate-free shampoos with natural ingredients, making them suitable for various hair types and needs,” she says. 

“Tresemmé provides salon-quality products at affordable prices, targeting specific styling needs. Garnier Fructis strengthens and smooths hair with its fortifying formulas enriched with active fruit proteins. L'Oréal Paris Elvive offers a wide range of shampoos that address issues like color protection, damage repair, and volume,” she adds.

Are expensive shampoos better than drugstore shampoos?

This all depends on what you’re looking for. Generally, a more expensive shampoo may have higher-quality ingredients that explain the price tag. “It’s more about the purity of ingredients that lead to a more concentrated formula,” she says. You’re also likely paying more for packaging, research and development, and marketing.

When is it a good idea to splurge on shampoo?

Sometimes the splurge is worth it, especially if you have very damaged or chemically processed hair. “Those services inadvertently damage the hair, so investing in solid products that counteract those damages has value,” Hardges explains. 

More expensive “prestige” shampoos, like the kind you buy at the department store or salon, may have a higher concentration of rich, nourishing ingredients or naturally derived ingredients versus a drugstore pick. “Splurging on shampoo is worthwhile for specific hair concerns like color-treated or damaged hair, persistent scalp issues, or the need for high-quality ingredients,” Korab says. “It's beneficial for managing unique hair textures, improving long-term hair health, and enjoying luxurious fragrances and a pampering experience.”

If you have relatively healthy hair, however, you can definitely get by with a less-expensive formula. Feeling totally lost? Ask your hairstylist for their honest recommendation of when to splurge and when to save.

Take Our Word For It

This article was written by Kara Nesvig, a beauty writer whose first-ever drugstore shampoo was a bottle of Pantene that she insisted her mom buy at the tender age of 6-years-old. Even though her hair care preferences have changed a lot in the years since, there’s always a bottle of classic Herbal Essences in her shower. 

In addition to extensive research for the best drugstore shampoos based on ingredients, hair types, and hair concerns, she tapped Leigh Hardges, a hairstylist at Maxine Salon in Chicago, and Jennifer Korab, a colorist and hair extension specialist at Renaissance Salon + Spa in New Jersey, for more insights.