When all products promise "definition" "weightless" and "no frizz" it can be hard to work out which is best. If a $20 product does the same thing as a $50 one, why would you waste the extra money? I'm going to explain which budget products to avoid and when spending the extra money for salon-approved curl care actually is worthwhile
Copy and paste products
There are a lot of filler products out there. A standard product with some argan oil sprinkled in and the words "DEFINE CURLS" on the packaging. This doesn't mean anything. Many brands know nothing about curls (and don't care) but they don't want to miss out on curly customers, so they do anything to tick that box and get a sale out of you.
These are often times your big brands, grocery store and chemist options.
The alternative doesn't necessary have to be expensive though, and that's what a lot of people get wrong. They think if you want budget hair care you need to get it from a shopping centre. Not true at all.
In fact, shopping centre products often will cost you much more money in the long run. Here's how:
- most times they don't actually work so you're in an endless search which means constantly spending more money
- most are super heavy, requiring strong and multiple high quality effective detoxes to actually properly remove (and no, just because it says "detox" on the bottle it doesn't mean it actually does a good job)
- you need a lot of product per use which means you'll run out way quicker and need to buy more again
- in worse scenarios, they can even cause long term damage. There's a big one in all the grocery stores that's promoted as giving super silky and smooth hair. It doesn't. It causes so much damage and my heart drops whenever I have a client that uses this brand because it takes months to undo the damage from them
Salon products
Salon products are interesting. You're not always paying for quality. Sometimes you're just paying so the brand manager can have influencer parties...
Then with some salon products they go full on with planting trees, bottles from sugarcane, donating to charities and other amazing efforts. But in saying that, if you're watching your dollar then you can't afford to spend money on these sorts of products. Even if they are doing good in the world, you need to take care of yourself before you can thinking of others and that is totally ok.
That brings us to the type of product we use most in our salon and recommend to our curlies throughout Australia online. We love to find the right products that result in actual results and long term curl improvement while costing no more than it really needs to.
The best budget curly hair products
We charge a LOT less for curly cuts than most salons, so we get curlies from all walks of life which we love so much. Sometimes we have guests who don't have a lot of spending money but still want to look beautiful.
For these curlies, nothing compares to Fix My Curls. Even some of our team members who get everything for free still choose to use this brand!
There are some other budget friendly curl products that are much more viral, but Fix My Curls stands out as a quality option. Their products also contain nutrients like amino acids, proteins and fruit extracts to help improve your curls the more you use them.
They are absolutely worth a shot and you can get your entire routine sorted for under $90! They also have lots of different sizes to choose from so you can give it a go before fully committing.
The worst budget curly hair products
Honestly, most of them. The best way to know if you should steer clear is
1) is every second influencer and their neighbour's dog talking about it? (seriously, because this means it's just hype or they're paid to say that)
2) is it a big brand that actually knows nothing about what curls need?
3) are unskilled "professionals" recommending it?
Salon products that actually make sense in this economy
Back to the topic of salon products, we love to help curlies build routines from brands that will work for them and give them the best results not only hair-wise but also bank account-wise.
Here are 3 brands we use a lot in our salon that does exactly this:
Flora & Curl - a dream for lightweight definition and honestly so customisable based on your hair. If you have not much hair, just use less. If you have lots of hair, just use more. Either end of the spectrum will get immaculate results just by tweaking the amount of product used.
Cabela - miracle brand for hair that just loves to fall flat. Especially flat roots and curls that only look good for 20 minutes. Fine, or as we call them fairy-floss hair, curlies only use this.
Pretty Curly Girl - great for anyone with a bit more thirst and needing some more quench. Plenty of creams and gels in their range that you can mix and match with based on your goals.
Each of these brands are at a comfortable price point and pay in dividends in their results. They make you look beautiful when using them but also help to improve and strengthen your curls long term for even better hair.
And yes, a bottle of Flora & Curl Sweet Hibiscus Curl Volumizing Foam technically costs more than a bottle of foam from the supermarket, but a little goes a long way and this will last you way more uses. So in the end it works out the same, if not even cheaper.
If you're interstate and can't make it to our Gold Coast salon, then check out our YouTube channel. It's the next best thing for you :)
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