The Glow Standard · Hair · Shampoo
Best shampoo in Australia, 2026.
Five shampoos worn daily for four weeks across coloured, fine and over-styled hair. Bond chemistry takes the top seat. The salon luxury earned its $62.
The verdict · Olaplex No.4 at $49 #1 (9.0/10) · Kérastase Elixir Ultime premium runner-up · Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! clean-formulation pick · 5 brands · average 8.74/10 · Read the Olaplex review →
The picks · June 2026
The five shampoos that survived.
Ranked by Glow Score, descending. Four-week daily-wear panel across three hair types — coloured, fine, over-styled. Each link goes to the brand profile; retailer links go through our /out/ wrapper.
Olaplex
No.4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo
Best overall · The colour-desk default
The bond-repair wash that built the category. Sulphate-free, colour-safe, the cleanest rinse-out in the test. Daily on bleached hair without the strip — the shampoo the colour desk reaches for after a balayage refresh.
Kérastase
Elixir Ultime Le Bain
Best premium · Salon shine premium
The salon-grade luxe wash — five precious oils, glossy slip, the scent that signals you spent. Cleanses thoroughly with a measurable shine premium across dry-blowdry tests. The $62 you spend when the hair is the outfit.
Briogeo
Don't Despair, Repair!
Best clean formulation · MECCA-stocked
The clean-formulation pick from MECCA — rosehip, algae, B5. Reads gentle on dry mids and ends, restores slip without a coating film. The buy when colour is intact and the brief is repair-on-repeat.
Living Proof
Perfect Hair Day Shampoo
Best fine hair · Volume that holds
The fine-hair pick — the patented Healthy Hair Molecule lifts surface oil without flattening the root. The panel hit a five-day wash extension on cotton-fine hair. The buy when the brief is volume that holds past lunch.
Olaplex
No.4D Clarifying
Best clarifier · Bond-safe reset
The chelating wash — built for mineral buildup, swim chlorine, product residue. Once-weekly rotation alongside the No.4 daily. Strips without stripping; bond-safe. The reset button for over-styled hair.
Also tested · The shortlist
Three brands worth a line.
Tested, scored, didn't make the photographic ranking — but earn an honest mention. Each link goes through to the retailer.
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Pureology Hydrate · 8.4
The salon-shelf colour-care default — sulphate-free, AntifadeComplex, heavier slip than Olaplex. The trade-up for thick coloured hair when slip beats lift in the brief.
Adore Beauty → -
Davines OI · 8.3
The Italian salon-grade pick — roucou oil, recyclable packaging, the cult-followed scent profile. The lift if formula provenance matters more than the MECCA receipt.
Davines → -
Aveda Botanical Repair · 8.2
Plant-derived bond builder, 95% naturally-derived, the Aveda signature scent. The natural-formulation alternative to Olaplex No.4 — holds the cleanest ingredient list in the field.
Aveda →
The ranking · At a glance
Five shampoos, one screen.
| Rank | Product | Best for | Price | Glow Score | Sulphate-free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Olaplex No.4 Bond Maintenance ShampooOlaplex · Daily bond shampoo | Best overall · Colour-desk default | AU$49MECCA | 9.0 / 10 | Yes |
| 02 | Kérastase Elixir Ultime Le BainKérastase · Salon-luxe wash | Best premium · Salon shine premium | AU$62Adore Beauty | 8.9 / 10 | Yes |
| 03 | Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! ShampooBriogeo · Clean-formulation wash | Best clean formulation | AU$48MECCA | 8.7 / 10 | Yes |
| 04 | Living Proof Perfect Hair Day ShampooLiving Proof · Fine-hair wash | Best fine hair · Volume that holds | AU$44MECCA | 8.6 / 10 | Yes |
| 05 | Olaplex No.4D Clarifying ShampooOlaplex · Weekly chelating wash | Best clarifier · Bond-safe reset | AU$49MECCA | 8.5 / 10 | Yes |
The method · In five axes
Formula, finish, slip, shine, value.
Every Glow ranking runs the same five-axis rubric. Weights are published. The Standard, edition .
The Glow Standard scores every shampoo against five axes — formula (30%), finish (25%), slip (15%), shine (15%), value (15%) — with weights set by what daily panellists actually optimise for. Formula carries the most weight because a shampoo touches the scalp and the cortex; a wrong surfactant pulls colour faster than the colourist meant.
Finish is the second axis: how the hair reads at the towel-off, the air-dry and the blowdry stages. Slip and shine are tracked separately — the patent oils that win on shine sometimes lose on grip for fine roots. Value pulls the salon-only formula and the MECCA receipt onto the same chart by modelling per-millilitre cost against the panel result at week three.
Full method at The Glow Standard. PR samples accepted and disclosed; affiliate links may appear; neither determines rank.
The range · Axis by axis
The five winners, compared.
On formula.
Olaplex No.4 wins the formula axis on its patented bond chemistry — not a slogan, a registered molecule that re-bridges disulphide bonds broken by lift. Kérastase Elixir Ultime takes second on a five-oil cocktail dialled for shine over repair. Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! holds the cleanest ingredient list. Living Proof carries the Healthy Hair Molecule moat for fine hair; Olaplex No.4D rotates in weekly as the chelating reset.
On finish.
Olaplex No.4 reads as clean strength — the cortex feels rebuilt at week two. Kérastase reads as polish; the shine premium at blowdry is the highest in the test. Briogeo reads as softness; Living Proof reads as lift. The No.4D Clarifying reads as squeak — the right finish for the weekly reset, not the daily wash.
On slip and shine.
Kérastase leads on shine; Olaplex leads on slip during the conditioner pass. The two are the standard pairing for coloured hair at salon counters — bond chemistry plus oil polish, and the desk's hair colourist uses both in rotation.
On value.
Living Proof at $44 is the price floor in this field; Briogeo at $48 and Olaplex at $49 sit a step above. Kérastase at $62 buys the shine premium and the salon scent profile — the only premium price the Standard cleared this cycle. The stripped-list brands — Pureology, Davines, Aveda — sit between $40 and $58 and earned honest mentions without earning a photograph.
The verdict
If you only buy one.
The best shampoo in Australia is Olaplex No.4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo at $49 from MECCA. Kérastase Elixir Ultime Le Bain runs second at $62 from Adore Beauty. Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! is the clean-formulation alternative at $48. All five tested over four weeks by Hannah Brooks across coloured, fine and over-styled hair.
The method · In full
Four weeks, three hair types.
Every shampoo in this ranking ran a four-week daily-wear panel in-house with the Glow hair desk. Three hair types — bleached and coloured Type 2A, cotton-fine Type 1B, over-styled and heat-trained Type 2C — were measured at the towel-off, the air-dry and the blowdry stage. The towel-off axis is where most shampoos lose — the wrong surfactant load reads as squeak.
Each formula was paired with its matched conditioner where possible and a neutral conditioner control on the alternate wash. Colour fade was measured against a Day 0 swatch under daylight and salon-warm light. Style hold was tracked from the blowdry through to Day 3.
Olaplex at $49 was judged on the same five-axis rubric as Kérastase at $62. A salon-only formula does not get a category-winning seat unless it earns a stockist that an Australian buyer can actually walk into — Adore Beauty, MECCA, the major salon counters.
PR samples are accepted and disclosed. They carry no influence on rank or inclusion. Affiliate links may appear and never determine placement. Retailer links on this page are tagged rel="nofollow sponsored noopener" and routed through our /out/ wrapper. Full method at The Glow Standard.
The questions · Asked most
Shampoo, answered.
What is the best shampoo in Australia?
Olaplex No.4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo at AU$49 from MECCA. Glow Score 9.0/10 — #1 in The Glow's 2026 Shampoo Index. Sulphate-free, colour-safe, the bond-repair wash the colour desk runs daily. Kérastase Elixir Ultime Le Bain (8.9) is the premium runner-up at $62.
Is Olaplex No.4 worth it?
Yes at AU$49 for coloured, lightened or chemically-treated hair. The bond-repair chemistry is the real category-defining ingredient — patented and not the same as a generic repair shampoo. On virgin hair the case thins; Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! at $48 is a credible swap.
Which shampoo is best for coloured hair?
Olaplex No.4 (Glow 9.0) — sulphate-free, bond-safe, daily wash for balayage, bleach and global colour. Kérastase Elixir Ultime Le Bain (8.9) is the salon-luxury swap. Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! (8.7) is the clean-formulation alternative.
What is the best shampoo for fine hair?
Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Shampoo at AU$44 from MECCA. Glow Score 8.6/10. The patented Healthy Hair Molecule lifts surface oil without flattening the root — the panel hit a five-day wash extension on cotton-fine hair.
How often should I clarify my hair?
Once a week if you swim, train hard, or layer styling product daily. Once a fortnight if your routine is one cream and a serum. Olaplex No.4D Clarifying (Glow 8.5) is the bond-safe pick that strips mineral buildup without stripping colour.
Sulphate-free shampoo — does it matter?
For coloured, dry, curly or coily hair, yes — sulphate surfactants pull pigment and natural lipids faster than the colour was meant to fade. For oily roots and fine hair, a low-sulphate or chelating shampoo once a week is the better lever. All four ranked shampoos in this index are sulphate-free.
Olaplex vs Kérastase — which shampoo is better?
Olaplex No.4 (Glow 9.0) wins on chemistry — the bond-repair patent is the moat. Kérastase Elixir Ultime (8.9) wins on sensorial — five oils, salon scent, the highest shine premium in the test. Olaplex is the daily; Kérastase is the wash before the event.
Where to buy these shampoos in Australia?
MECCA stocks Olaplex, Briogeo and Living Proof nationally. Adore Beauty carries Kérastase. Salons stock the full Kérastase range. The five winners sit between $44 and $62 — no chemist-shelf entries cleared the rubric this cycle.
The field note · On shampoo
Why bond chemistry beats luxury oil.
For a decade the shampoo top seat belonged to the salon-luxury brands — Kérastase, Pureology, Davines. Five oils, recyclable packaging, the back-of-bottle ingredient lists nobody could read but everybody respected. Then Olaplex showed up with a patent.
The patent matters because shampoo is the one product in a hair routine that has to be both functional and chemically forgiving. The cortex is exposed during the surfactant pass. A wash that strips lipids faster than the cuticle can recover is a wash that asks the conditioner to do twice the work. Olaplex No.4 is the first shampoo where the wash itself is part of the repair — the bond-bridging happens on the way down the drain. That is the moat. Kérastase Elixir Ultime is the closest competitor on shine but not on chemistry, which is why it sits second at $62 and not first at any price.
The three brands stripped to the list — Pureology, Davines, Aveda — all cleared the rubric. They lost on photographic ranking because none of them carry the patented chemistry that Olaplex earned its 9.0 with, and none of them carry the sensorial premium Kérastase earned its 8.9 with. They are honest competent shampoos, the right buy if Olaplex is sold out or if a clean ingredient list ranks above patent chemistry in your house. Five winners, three honourable mentions, average Glow Score 8.74 — the strongest the shampoo index has run since we built it.