One Brand Review: DAE Hair
I’ve been using DAE hair products for the past few weeks (or months…I’m not sure at this point, 2020 has been a wild ride), and even included some of their products in my Winter Beauty Favorites post. The line was founded by the blogger behind Barefoot Blonde, who is basically the definition of #hairgoals. While they were previously only available directly from their site, now they’ve officially launched at Sephora too! I received the entire line in PR but all thoughts are my own ✌️
Overall aesthetic, scent, & packaging
First off, the packaging is so cute. Naturally I am very much here for the warm, pinky, coral aesthetic. Each product comes with 10 fl oz, which is on the generous side as many comparably priced haircare products come with 8 oz of product. The bottles are plastic and come sealed, with two options— a pump or a disc top cap. I actually ended up preferring the cap over the pump. Because the products are on the thicker side, I found myself taking forever to pump, wait for the pump to spring back up, and then pump again, rinse and repeat. If each pump let out more product or if the pump sprang up more quickly, I could see myself preferring it. But as of now, the disc top cap works fine! Like I mentioned, the bottles are plastic but they have enough give in them that it’s relatively easy to squeeze out the product.
All three products have a similar sweet, fruity scent. I am personally a fan of the scent, but I know they won’t be for everyone. The scent lingers on my hair for a day or so before fading.
DAE Daily Shampoo
$24.00 for 10 fl oz via Sephora
I’ve come to realize I can be a little picky with shampoo. Thanks to my bff dandruff, I have a sensitive AF scalp. But at the same time, I also get oily roots rather quickly and also have dry ends. That means I need a shampoo that will properly cleanse my roots WITHOUT drying out or irritating my scalp. Additionally, it can dry out my ends. Nor can it ruin my curl pattern.
This does it all! It does a good job at cleansing my hair and roots, without drying out my roots or irritating my dandruff. My hair feels clean but doesn’t have that dry, straw-like feeling. It’s also worked really nicely with my curl pattern! Previously to this, I was using up the Briogeo Banana + Coconut shampoo (PR) which I absolutely haaated. It was drying and made my hair flat and straight. After a few washes with this DAE shampoo, my waves were back!!
Formula wise, it’s SLS-free but does contain some other foaming surfactants. It lathers up well and rinses out easily. I would say I use an average amount of shampoo each wash.
DAE Daily Conditioner
$24.00 for 10 fl oz via Sephora
Unlike shampoos, I think I’m a little bit more lax with my expectations for conditioners. I want them to soften and hydrate my hair, without making them feel heavy or sticky. After I rinse out conditioner, I want my hair to feel soft and tangle free when I run my fingers through it. This pretty much checks all the boxes for me. When used alongside the shampoo, these work really nicely to emphasize the natural curl pattern of my hair. My waves have nice definition without too much frizz.
It’s free of silicones, but does contain other conditioning agents to help smooth out your hair without weighing it down (I should note, I don’t mind silicone in my haircare but I know some avoid it so I wanted to point that out.) I can usually tell a conditioner is working for me when my ends feel soft, and I’m happy to report this conditioner makes my ends feel soft.
I noticed on the Sephora page it contains an ingredient that can help with flaky scalp. I have a pretty severe case of dandruff sooo unsurprisingly, I didn’t see this have any effect on my dandruff. But perhaps it’ll work better for people with more normal scalps/ mild dandruff.
DAE Deep Conditioning Treatment
$28.00 for 10 fl oz via Sephora
This is the product I’ve tried out the least, but even after 3 uses I feel confident it saying this is my least favorite product of theirs. It’s not a bad product by any means, but nothing about it blew me out of the water. It has a thick texture that takes a little bit of work to spread out, so I find myself using up a decent amount of product every time I use it.
When I use a deep conditioning treatment, I want it to make my hair extra soft and silky and smooth. I want it to give me that fresh, healthy feel. I would say this treatment does make my hair soft and feel strong, but not really much more so than a regular conditioner. While I like the aesthetic and scent of the treatment, it’s not something I see myself running out to repurchase.
