What if You Only Ever Needed ONE Hair Product Ever? New Wash Review

If there’s a shampoo, conditioner, serum or treatment made for hair that I haven’t tried yet, I would be surprised.

I have thick, shoulder-length blonde hair (created by foils more than nature) that gets horrendously, horrendously tangled when it’s washed. I have to use a large amount of $$ conditioners and then carefully and slowly tease out the tangles in the shower before rinsing. And that’s after the rinse-wash, rinse-wash shampooing. Then when I’m done I add a de-tangler, heat protector and serum before I start the de-tangling all over again.

And all of this takes time not to mention a lot of products. I actually plan out my “hair-wash” days in advance and I dread the whole tedious procedure.

And then….

I was scrolling through Facebook and saw something about a product called New Wash from Hair Story which boasted about a wash/condition/detangle/repair product in ONE bottle. Huh? Nah. Surely not. Pretty sure back in the 80’s a few companies tried to trick us with their combination shampoo-conditioners which did. not. work. Still, I read on and was impressed to learn that the founder and creator of Bumble and Bumble (who later sold the company) is the one to come up with this product. That information made me sit up straighter and read with a little more interest!

So here’s the thing: 80% of shampoos contain surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate which are popular because (a) they’re cheap and (b) they create nice, foamy lather which people assume is essential in order to get squeaky clean. And it’s great for taking stains out of clothes or grease off of dishes, but it also strips the natural, good oils from your scalp, while cleaning away the dirt. And THAT is why we need to replace all of those good oils with conditioners, masks, and serums.

It’s your scalp where sebum develops and builds up and pretty much beyond your roots your hair doesn’t really get that “dirty”. New Wash is an all-in-one product that promises to clean your hair, condition it at the same time, leave it tangle free and in the best condition of its’ life.

The instructions for use are: wet hair thoroughly (well, yeah), apply around 8 pumps to your hands and rub onto your scalp and massage and massage and then massage again – all over your scalp. Then rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse using your hands as squeegees. If you have particularly oily hair, it’s recommended you do this process twice. The company does warn that you need to get used to it, and it could take time for your hair and scalp to transition, so to persevere until you eventually see the results they promise.

Reviews online are mixed with a lot of people saying they don’t like it, that it leaves a film in their hair and they just didn’t feel like their hair was clean. Others swear by it and say their hair has never been healthier and that they love it and will never try anything else again.

So, curiosity got the better of me and I bought some. And it’s not super cheap. AU$55.45 for a 236ml bottle. Still, if I subtract the amount of other products I wasn’t going to be using from that price, I’m ahead, but more importantly I wanted to see if this would transform my constantly dry ends.

FYI: This is not a sponsored post and I was not gifted the product.

Day One

It arrived within the week and I was excited to try it. It had been several days since I last washed my hair so I was ready to use it immediately. The product is quite thick and seems more like a cream than anything shampoo-y and I felt like I was adding conditioner to my scalp rather than anything to “clean” it. I massaged and massaged and combed it through to the ends (I read in one of the reviews to try that) and I could not believe that the comb went through my hair so easily given my usual nightmare of dealing with tangles.

And then I rinsed, rinsed and rinsed again and it felt super soft like I had used a really good conditioner.

I refrained from any of my after-shampoo products (heat treatment, serum, de-tangler) and again, had no problem re-combing my hair.

Onto the drying: it seemed to dry slightly quicker than normal (or was that my hopeful imagination?) and I didn’t seem to have any of this film some of the negative nellies were mentioning. My ends always go pretty frizzy when I blow dry which requires the use of a straightener or resorting to tying it up but today the ends seemed borderline acceptable with no further work so I left them alone.

Day Five

It was another four days before I decided it needed to be washed again. Or did it? I had never gone more than 3 days without washing it so I felt I HAD to even though it still looked OK in the mirror, no shiny roots, no lank-ness. This time I decided to do it twice just for the hell of it and I got the vague feeling of that film that I’d read about and thought crap, I’m going to be one of the ones who ends up hating this product. I blow dried it and again, the ends looked better then they did the first time. And then I waited (and expected) some pretty lank hair over the next few days and was super pleased and excited that it didn’t happen.

My hair just seemed better behaved. It sat better. Even after I’d been out in the wind, it just kind of returned to where it should be. It looked shiny. It looked healthy. It needed way less work.

Day Nine

So washed it for the 3rd time on the weekend and I am so pleased that I immediately got back online and ordered more before I ran out (apparently returning to ‘normal’ shampoo and conditioners can un-do all the good work you’re aiming for). There is even an option to have a regular supply sent out so I opted for every 8 weeks which I can change or cancel if I need to.

Efforts to try and talk my daughter and daughter-in-law into trying this have been fruitless. They both immediately said they loved the suds of a normal shampoo and could not do without conditioner. Meh, more for me. Suit yourselves. I’m a convert. If nothing else, it has simplified my life, cleared out a shelf full of products in the shower and my hair looks great. Good job Hair Story.