Dr Dray has reviewed more than 50 haircare products. She approved most of them and split the rest fairly evenly between mixed takes and outright skips. That puts her approval rate at 67% for haircare. She digs into ingredients and is quick to call out when a formula is riding hype instead of evidence. Only a couple of products earned her category winner stamp, and Kirkland Minoxidil is one of them.
What does Dr Dray recommend in haircare?
A few things keep coming up in Dr Dray's haircare takes. She likes anti-dandruff actives with a real track record, and she named Neutrogena T/Sal Shampoo as her top salicylic acid pick, praising it for being fragrance-free. She also rates tools that cut down on mechanical damage. She was enthusiastic about the Aquis Hair Turban for reducing dry time and frizz. The Tangle Teezer Hair Brush got some of her warmest words: she said once she found it, she had no reason to go back, and noted it works especially well for fine hair. She also found real value in bond-repair formulas for colour-treated or heat-damaged hair, calling out the K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask by name as something she had personally had good results with. Price is no barrier to a good take from her: she called the Dove Intensive Repair Hair Mask a discovery, saying it was quite good for smoothing and adding shine.
Dr Dray's hair care picks, in her words
"I finished the shampoo and conditioner of the Wavy line. Love these, I have wavy hair but I blow dry it straight. The scent is really nice, very tropical. [...] The conditioner has argan oil, shea butter and sunflower seed oil, it leaves the hair very manageable, soft, shiny, supple. The shampoo does a good job cleansing without making your hair brittle. I really like these."
"The Aquis ones are really good, I have like four or five of them I have on rotation. They help remove the water from the hair, cutting down on dry time, and it's really helped cut down on frizz for me for sure."
"I have continued to use [...] the Hatomugi Skin Conditioning Gel. I like this a lot. I think it's a pretty good value for how much you get in here. It's a very lightweight hydrating gel, [...] a good option for the summer months as a moisturizer because it's nice and lightweight."
"This is the classic Neutrogena T-Cell shampoo probably your grandfather used. It contains salicylic acid but no antifungal, no menthol, and no fragrance. [...] One small difference from the new version is the presence of sodium chloride, but that doesn't make a huge difference. It's just a subtle formulation tweak."
"I really really like these. These work really well for my hair. The shampoo is very mild. It's very gentle and it does not leave any kind of residue behind. It leaves the hair soft, manageable. It helps that it has niacinamide in the formula and the ceramides for scalp moisturization purposes. The conditioner works well for improving manageability, shine, reducing static, all of those things that the strands need after shampooing. The conditioner nicely addresses. I've repurchased this."
"I really like their hair oil. The Oribe Gold Lust Hair Oil is amazing."
How many haircare products has Dr Dray reviewed?
Dr Dray has reviewed 58 haircare products, for an approval rate of 67%. 39 approved, 10 mixed, and 9 skipped.
What has Dr Dray skipped in haircare?
Dr Dray is direct about ingredients that lean more on marketing than evidence. She called rosemary for hair growth not well established, saying the one study behind it, in her words, sucks. The Oribe Gold Lust Shampoo and Conditioner was a straightforward skip: too heavily scented and not manageable on her fine hair, though she noted it might suit colour-treated hair better. The Trader Joe's Shea Butter and Coconut Oil Hair Serum also left her cold. She said she could not tell it did anything on her hair type, and that on dry hair it just looked greasy.
"This is not as good as the Function of Beauty one. I can't tell that it does anything. I think it's more helpful if you've got frizzy hair, maybe it helps with that, maybe if you have curly hair it might help [...] tame the curl pattern, but for me it just doesn't do anything. If I put it on wet hair it makes my hair smell like coconut, which I like, but the following morning when my hair is completely dry it's like I don't even have anything on there."
"Unless you are deficient in something, which is rare, honestly they're unlikely to actually do anything. The studies on these things like Viviscal, they have limitations, the endpoints that they're measuring are not very consistent. It's got biotin, and [...] there's no evidence that biotin is helpful for hair growth in the absence of biotin deficiency, which is super rare."
"A prostag glandon analog you got to be careful with those they can cause discoloration of the skin around your eyes as well as change the color of your eye and they can cause unwanted hair growth"
"If you're going to buy Nair don't use their leg cream on your face don't use their leg cream in the bikini area"
What should you take from Dr Dray's picks?
Dr Dray's haircare record shows a dermatologist who trusts proven actives and smart tools over premium prices or trendy botanicals. What she actually reaches for: fragrance-free anti-dandruff shampoos, bond-repair treatments for damaged hair, and low-friction drying tools. And if hair loss is the concern, Kirkland Minoxidil is the product she called a category winner outright.
Watch Dr Dray say it
Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.
- Kirkland Signature MinoxidilNamed a winnerWatch at 18:30
- Aquis Hair TurbanNamed a winnerWatch at 9:41
- Trader Joe's Shea Butter and Coconut Oil Hair SerumSkipped itWatch at 18:25
- Viviscal Hair Growth SupplementSkipped itWatch at 2:58
- RevitaLash Advanced Eyelash ConditionerSkipped itWatch at 5:37
- Nair Hair Removal CreamSkipped itWatch at 8:46
- Dr. Groot Hair Growth ShampooSkipped itWatch at 7:55
- Necessaire ShampooSkipped itWatch at 0:35
- Nutrafol Hair Growth SupplementSkipped itWatch at 11:02
- Oribe Gold Lust ShampooSkipped itWatch at 13:06
- Head & Shoulders Classic Clean ShampooSkipped itWatch at 3:40
- Function of Beauty Wavy Hair Shampoo and ConditionerRated itWatch at 2:00
- Hatomugi Skin ConditionerRated itWatch at 1:49
- Neutrogena T/Sal Therapeutic ShampooRated itWatch at 7:14
- CeraVe Fragrance-Free Hydrating Hair Care Shampoo and ConditionerRated itWatch at 1:57
- Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair OilRated itWatch at 14:27
- Vichy Dercos Anti-Dandruff DS ShampooRated itWatch at 2:10
- L'Oreal EverPure Sulfate-Free Clarifying Shampoo and ConditionerRated itWatch at 15:15
- Dove 10-in-1 Bond Strength Peptide Complex Serum Hair MaskRated itWatch at 16:35
- The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA Scalp SerumRated itWatch at 13:53
- Dove Intensive Repair Shampoo and ConditionerRated itWatch at 7:05
- Head & Shoulders Clinical Strength Selenium Sulfide ShampooRated itWatch at 10:31
- Neutrogena T/Gel Salicylic Acid ShampooRated itWatch at 7:10
- Head & Shoulders Zinc Pyrithione Anti-Dandruff ShampooRated itWatch at 3:18
About this expert
See everything Dr Dray has reviewed
Related guides
This guide reflects what Dr Dray said across her videos about 58 products in haircare, aggregated by The Guru Index. Sponsored takes are excluded. The approval rate is the share of these products she approved. It is general information, not medical advice.