The product: Garnier Fructis Hair Treats review — shampoo, conditioner, and dry shampoo

What makes quarantine shampoo any different from regular shampoo? 
Objectively, nothing. But I’m convinced that the world just feels a little more desperate now: we all share a fledgeling craving for something new to settle our brains. There’s a wild, visceral, gut-deep need to have something, anything be different, even if it’s delivered as a Garnier Fructis Hair Treats review. (There’s a fresh, new flavour for every day of the week!)

Most of my days in quarantine are good. I shower in the mid-morning and have brunch with my cat, then put on makeup and a dress shirt to go for a walk. An hour or two later, I’m home to take the cat out; she screams at the side door and bolts for the grass like her life depends on it. I sit, and scroll, and she chews, and chews, and chews. I paint in the afternoons, and work in the evenings. 

Some days are more middling. I wake up late, and it’s too cold for a walk; everything tastes bland. It’s too dark to take photos, so I read, or take lecture notes, and I’m crawling with the effort of being awake by 7. I try to work once the dinner dishes have all been put away, but it never happens. The cat bites softly at my ankles every time I walk into the living room and forget what I walked in for.

Garnier Fructis Hair Treats review: A mood

Some days in quarantine, as in normal life, just plain-out suck. I get nothing done: I can’t cook, I can’t read, I can’t hold my pen steady. My morning shower becomes a languid bath, and my porous hair feels rubbery and saturated before I even find the energy to to shampoo it. My joints pop and seize, with scalding fissures that seem to run the circuit of my body every time I move.

On these days, I squeeze a little Garnier Fructis into my bathwater.

It’s the lazy man’s bubble bath: not as dense as a rich, foamy bath soap, but cheap and always on hand. Each Hair Treats scent smells lively and vibrant, with a very “Garnier” feel — like, you can tell that it’s $5-10, but it was a really good $5-10. Garnier Fructis products always smell clean and fruity, and they make me think of being fifteen and in high school again.

(For just $10, you too could re-experience your first slow dance with that girl from Chemistry class!)

The Hair Treats shampoos and conditioners

I’ve kept my eye on Garnier ever since Pure Clean — to this day, still the only silicone-free 2-in-1 I’ve had the pleasure of using. They knew early on that being silicone-free was a huge “get” for the consumer, and they’ve continued to develop the niche since then.

While Pure Clean was just an okay products, these Hair Treats are awesome. I’m usually a Kerastase Aura Botanica person, and while I love that Aura Botanica products smell expensive, these… might be better? It’s easy to see what’s in these products, and they work like a proper treat.

I’ve been using Garnier Fructis Nourishing Treat Shampoo and Conditioner in the bath while working on this review, and Garnier Fructis Hydrating Treat Shampoo and Conditioner in the shower. (I prefer the clean scent of Hydrating Treat, which always scores me a “mmm, you hair smells really good” from my partner, but the coconutty Nourishing Treat is perfect for mixing it up.) Both leave my hair clean and super-soft—softer than normal—and I’ve noticed that Hydrating Treat consistently gives me better 2nd-day hair than most shampoos. My scalp doesn’t seem more hydrated when I get out of the shower, but it’s less greasy on day 2, which is a sure indicator that it’s more hydrated regardless.

Garnier Hair Treats review: The dry shampoos

While I loved the Hair Treat shampoos and conditioners, I was a little less keen on the line’s Garnier Fructis Invisible Dry Shampoos.

I tried out two scents, both of which smelled fantastic: Mint Mojito and Yuzu Fizz. The clean scent of Mint Mojito nabbed me instantly, but both really do manage to smell like a cocktail — which is a feat for a drugstore brand.

Even when applied liberally, however, I just… didn’t feel like these made my hair look less greasy. My experience with them has been odd; they seem to contain super-super-super fine dry shampoo particles, which I can feel in my lungs as soon as I spray them. The particles hang in the hair for a good 15 minutes afterwards, creating a dusty film that makes me cough.

On the one hand, that means that they’re invisible. Like, seriously invisible, even on my dark roots. But on the other, they just seem TOO finely-milled. I have to use a ton of product to get any oil absorption at all, and though they’re tall canisters, they actually contain less product than most drugstore dry shampoos — I ran out in under three weeks. (Each one contains 126g of dry shampoo; Batiste contains 200mL, and easily lasts me four months.)

But maybe I’m going about this whole thing wrong. I think they’d work like a treat if I put my mask on first.

The Garnier Hair Treats review verdict?

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly line of silicone-free hair products, this one is great. Skip their rice starch dry shampoos and stock up on their shampoos and conditioners, which smell great and are easy to find. (It can be HARD to track down a ‘cone-free product line for under $30, so I’m pretty thrilled that these exist!)

If your scalp is anything like mine, the aloe-infused Hydrating Treat shampoo will leave you with hair that doesn’t need to be dry-shampooed anyways. My tip? These are cheap, so buy a couple different scents to break up the monotony of living under quarantine. It’s better than baking yourself to an early death.

Availability: $6.95 CAD and up at major drugstores and mass market retailers.

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Disclaimer: These products were submitted by PR for editorial consideration only. I’ve been looking for a ‘cone-free haircare line for a while, so I actually put in a request for these! I was recommending La Coupe up until now, but their natural line seems to have been discontinued — which is fine by me, because these smell way better.