The 10 Best Hair Masks of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

Publish date: 2024-05-14

We’ll start with the bad news first: Regardless of how well you care for your hair, it’s probably endured some damage from daily wear and tear. Color-treating, heat-styling, using harsh chemical products, and even just daily washing are a few of the biggest damage-causing culprits that leave hair feeling dry and looking dull or frizzy, making it more vulnerable to future breakage. 

But it’s not all bad news: There’s a clear and easy way to repair your damaged hair — a hair mask. The best hair masks are solution-oriented, multitasking products that are formulated with a long list of nourishing and strengthening ingredients to provide impressive hydrating prowess and reverse much of the havoc wreaked on your strands, to give you the soft, shiny hair that dreams are made of.

From strengthening damaged hair strands to stimulating hair growth, there’s a hair mask for nearly every kind of concern. We researched the expansive range of hair masks out there and formed a list of the 30 most popular options to test and evaluate for ourselves. We slathered each of the 30 hair masks onto our strands and scalp for two weeks, taking note of the texture and consistency of each one. We also evaluated how the mask made our hair look and feel, in order to determine exactly which hair masks lived up to the hype. 

Best Overall

Olaplex No. 8 Moisture Mask

Olaplex No. 8 Bond Intense Moisture Mask

Sephora

Our Ratings

What We Love: A little product goes a long way with this hair mask, so you'll get great results without having to constantly buy a new bottle.

What We Don’t Love: Those with particularly dry hair may still need to use other hydrating products after this mask.

Olaplex is a giant in the hair mask space — and for very good reason. We tested their No. 8 Bond Intense Moisture Mask for two weeks and it earned our top marks for its ability to transform our dry, brittle strands into softer feeling and healthier looking hair with just two uses.

When we first saw the size of this bottle, we were worried we’d go through the whole thing in just a few uses. However, we were pleasantly surprised to see how little product we actually needed to get the job done — the recommended two pumps was more than enough to coat our hair.

The mask had a rather thick consistency when it came out, but as soon as it touched our hair, it became creamy and light. It spread easily from the middle of our hair to our ends, and we loved how even the coverage was, even on our kinky curls. 

We loved how easy and quick this mask was to use. It not only fit seamlessly into our shower routine, but it also transformed our post-shower hair routine. Before the mask, we had to rely on a leave-in conditioner and mousse to keep our curls bouncy and untangled. But after, we were able to significantly cut down on these other products. Our hair still needed a little post-shower hydration after the mask, but even without it, curls stayed very defined.

Active Ingredients: Ceramides, hyaluronic acid, bisaminopropyl digycol dimaleate｜Best for: Strengthening, hydrating｜Size: 3.30 oz

Best Luxury

Christophe Robin Regenerating Mask

Christophe Robin Regenerating Mask

Amazon

Our Ratings

What We Love: This hair mask has a great consistency that feels creamy yet lightweight, and it has a soft, lovely scent.

What We Don’t Love: Although this hair mask delivers impressive results after just one use, it won’t totally fix your split ends.

Most hair masks require a lengthy time commitment to see results, but Christophe Robin’s Regenerating Mask works its magic without the downtime. We applied the mask twice a week for just five minutes each time, using our scalp massager to run it through our ends, and our hair instantly felt softer. 

The creamy mask was a breeze to work into our hair, coating each strand from root to ends, and the subtle scent — which we suspect is a byproduct of the added prickly pear seed oil — smelled amazing. After rinsing it out, our locks felt extra clean and noticeably more moisturized, which really enhanced the overall look and feel of our hair. 

While our split-ends didn’t just disappear after one wash, they did feel much less dry and brittle, and we’re confident that with continued use, the mask will bring even more life to our hair.

Active Ingredients: Prickly pear seed oil, plant ceramides, inula flower extract｜Best for: Hydration, shine｜Size: 8.33 oz

Best for Damaged Hair

Shu Uemura Ultimate Reset Hair Mask

Shu Uemura Ultimate Reset Hair Mask

Sephora

What We Love: Thanks to the Japanese-sourced rice extract in this hair mask, it not only hydrates hair but also protects it from further damage.

What We Don’t Love: This hair mask requires a very thorough rinse-out to avoid feeling greasy.

This rich, creamy mask feels like a big, warm hug for damaged hair. It felt decadent and luxurious as soon as we put it on our fine hair, and left it feeling soft and buttery to the touch as soon as we rinsed it out. We will say that it took a little extra elbow grease to fully get it out — when we didn’t rinse the mask out well, it left our fine hair feeling a bit weighed down (though, that might not be the case for thicker hair). 

This mask features the ultra-hydrating and protective ingredient Japanese-sourced rice extract in its formula, so hair not only feels moisturized and healthy after using it, but it will also stay that way, even when facing heat, harsh chemicals or hair dye. We loved how glossy and touchable our hair looked after using this mask and even our hairstylist was impressed by our newly transformed hair.

Active Ingredients: Japanese-sourced rice extract｜Best for: Damaged hair｜Size: 6 oz

Best for Curly Hair

Pattern Treatment Mask

Pattern Treatment Mask

Sephora

Our Ratings

What We Love: This hair mask is great for detangling curly or coiled hair.

What We Don’t Love: The watery consistency doesn't feel substantial.

Pattern Beauty, founded by Tracee Ellis Ross, is a line of hair products designed to enhance curly and coily hair types, and our curls soaked up all the goodness from the brand's hair mask in record time to reveal smoother strands and bouncier ringlets.

Although this mask has a watery gel consistency — a noticeable departure from traditional creamy masks — that’s also what allows it to be hydrating without being oily. It felt soft and lightweight as soon as we scooped the mask into our hands and didn’t feel too heavy when we massaged it through our hair. 

When we washed the mask out, our curly hair was immediately untangled, and all we had to do was run our fingers through to loosen any tighter coils. It also added visible hydration and reversed some of the damage done from coloring our hair. But unlike other hair masks we’ve used, Pattern’s didn’t weigh our hair down or strip it of natural oils. 

After styling, the results improved even more. Our hair felt springy, light, and nourished, with considerably less frizz and fewer fly-aways. Even the baby hairs that typically stick straight up after we blowdry and straighten our hair stayed in place.

Active Ingredients: Moringa seed extract, rice protein, hibiscus｜Best for: Curly, color-treated hair｜Size: 15 oz

Best for Frizz

Fable & Mane HoliRoots Hair Mask

Fable & Mane HoliRoots Repairing Hair Mask

Sephora

Our Ratings

What We Love: Fable & Mane’s hair mask is designed to give deep hydration, so it’s ideal for smoothing flyaways, especially for thick, dry, and curly hair types.

What We Don’t Love: Some users find this mask’s scent to be overpowering.

This cult-favorite hair mask takes hydration to a whole new level. Created with curly and frizzy hair in mind, it harnesses intensely hydrating ingredients, like coconut cream and mango butter, to soothe any signs of dryness or breakage — and boy, did it deliver. 

We used the creamy mask on our thick hair once a week for a month and were blown away by the transformation of our straw-like strands into smooth, frizz-free hair. The mask had a great texture and consistency, albeit a very rich one, and it was undeniably hydrating. We especially loved how much it soothed our ends — the part of our hair that’s most prone to frizziness — and that it kept them free of flyaways, even several days after using the mask. 

While our ends remained smooth, the rest of our hair felt pretty heavy after a while and left a slick, greasy sensation that we had to remedy with dry shampoo. With that in mind, Fable & Mane’s hair mask should be applied from the mid-shaft to the ends, avoiding the roots completely, and it's best suited for those with especially thick, curly, or dry hair, who need extra moisture.

Key Ingredients: Coconut cream, mango butter, banana｜Best for: Curly, thick, dry hair｜Size: 8 oz

Best for Fine Hair

Sachajuan Hair Repair

Sachajuan Hair Repair

Dermstore

Our Ratings

What We Love: This hair mask is at once hydrating and lightweight, so it will give fine or oily hair a boost of vibrance without weighing it down.

What We Don’t Love: Although a little product is all you need to get results, the mask’s pump dispenses only a tiny bit at a time, so you need to do a few pumps to get enough.

Frankly, we were skeptical when we first saw Sachajuan’s Hair Repair. Unlike many other masks we’ve tried, which have a thick, creamy consistency, this was noticeably lighter, thinner and felt more water-based than oil-based. But as soon as we doused our hair with the mask, all our concerns were laid to rest. It not only felt amazing on our fine hair, but it also spread evenly and easily without causing any greasiness.

Hair masks can be a tricky journey for those of us with fine hair, as creamy hair masks usually make our hair feel heavy or look greasy by the end of the day, but thanks to this one's thinner formulation, it felt light as a feather without any of the usual weighed-down feeling. We immediately noticed a difference when it came to tangles and frizz, which all but disappeared after using the product, even after applying heat and styling. The mask kept our hair hydrated and light throughout the day, and we appreciated that it didn’t require us to wash our hair more frequently than normal.

Our only complaint was with the mask’s pump, which offered only a small bit of product at a time. 

Active Ingredients: Algae extract, castor oil, dimethicone｜Best for: Thin, fine, oily hair｜Size: 7.4 oz

Best for Dry Hair

dae Deep Conditioning Treatment

dae Deep Conditioning Hair Treatment

Sephora

Our Ratings

What We Loved: This deep conditioning mask is formulated with clean, good-for-you ingredients that won’t cause any buildup.

What We Don’t Love: The results aren’t exactly long-term, so you have to use this treatment regularly to see continued improvement.

We’d consider ourselves somewhat of a hair mask expert, having tried dozens throughout the years — but dae’s Deep Conditioning Hair Treatment is definitely one of the best we've come across. The velvety smooth consistency of this mask feels truly lovely and its creamy (but not too creamy) texture distributed evenly across our hair. 

Right after rinsing it out, we saw results immediately. Our parched, dehydrated hair felt significantly softer and silkier, in addition to looking flyaway-free and overall sleek. It even smelled great, too. Our only real complaint was that those smooth, nourishing effects weren’t very long-lasting, so we had to keep using the mask regularly to sustain results. 

Active Ingredients: Moringa leaf extract and coconut and jojoba seed oils｜Best for: Dry hair｜Size: 10 oz

Best for Bleached Hair

Davines Nounou Hair Mask

Davines Nounou Hair Mask

Amazon

What We Love: This mask makes hair feel instantly smooth and helps detangle tough knots.

What We Don’t Love: The mask contains silicones, which, over time, can leave hair dry and dull.

We’re all familiar with the havoc color can wreak on hair, but with the Davines NOUNOU Hair Mask, you can reduce the level of damage it can inflict onto hair. From the moment we put this mask on, it felt soothing and was creamy as can be without any clumps. It had a similar consistency to a really nourishing deep conditioner.

It nourished our hair and didn’t leave behind any greasy residue or excess product, the way so many hair masks often do. The mask made our hair more manageable post-shower, especially when it came to tangles. We noticed that there were fewer knots in our hair after using this mask, and the ones that we did have broke apart with minimal resistance. The mask also seemed to strengthen our ends and reverse some of the damage we experienced from heat styling. 

Active Ingredients: Fiaschetto tomato extract, jojoba seed oil｜Best for: Color-treated, dryness｜Size: 1.5 oz

Best Hydrating

Drunk Elephant Silkamino Moisturizing Masker

Drunk Elephant Silkamino Mega Moisturizing Masker

Sephora

Our Ratings

What We Love: Drunk Elephant’s mask is super hydrating with a lightweight, easy-to-use consistency.

What We Don’t Love: The results are so great, we wish we could use the mask daily.

The soft and airy consistency of this hair mask alone makes it an absolute all-star. Unlike other contenders, it’s lightweight and blended right into our hair. It almost felt lighter and airier than our usual conditioner. In fact, on days we really wanted the mask to soak in, we saturated our strands with the product, then wrapped our hair up in a clip, letting it settle in all day.  

Our incredibly long and thick hair had been through a lot this year, including eight weddings, regular heat styling, and many months without a trim, so to say our strands were dry and damaged is an understatement. The ends were especially dead and flakey, to say the least, so it was in need of a major rescue — and this Drunk Elephant mask was our savior. 

Our hair felt so touchable and refreshed that we seriously considered canceling our long-overdue haircut! It never felt greasy or weighed down and was instead light, bouncy, and easy to style. It was like we’d just had a professional conditioning treatment every time we used it, whether as a 30-minute, pre-shower pick-me-up, as a long-term, all-day mask, or as a two-hour set in. 

Active Ingredients: Hydrolyzed silk, silk amino acids, silk sericin｜Best For: Dry, damaged hair｜Size: 7 oz

Best Deep Conditioning

Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! Mask

Briogeo Don't Despair Repair Deep Conditioning Mask

Sephora

Our Ratings

What We Love: This mask is creamy but not too thick to hydrate hair without leaving an oily or greasy cast.

What We Don’t Love: This mask may be too lightweight for those with very thick or curly hair.

We loved the texture of Briogeo’s hair mask: Creamy, but not too heavy. Because of its Goldilocks consistency, it was easy to apply throughout our hair without much product falling to the shower floor, and we appreciated how painlessly we were able to integrate it into our haircare routine. After using the mask, our hair felt more hydrated and was noticeably easier to brush through. For anyone looking for a little extra help maintaining the overall health of their hair and keep it looking shiny, vibrant and tangle-free, this mask will do exactly that.

Active Ingredients: Rosehip oil, algae extract, B vitamins｜Best for: Maintenance｜Size: 8 oz

How We Tested

InStyle editors exhaustively researched hair masks, consulted hairstylists and experts for their professional recommendations and insights, and combed through countless customer reviews to create a list of the 30 buzziest hair masks currently available. We tested each hair mask over a four-week period to evaluate the benefits it provided. We considered each mask’s texture and consistency, whether it left any residue or greasiness, and how our hair looked and felt overall after each use. We ranked each hair mask according to our criteria, and these are the 10 highest-ranking hair masks we tested.

What to Keep in Mind

Formula

First and foremost, consider the formula. “You’re going to find many masks at the drugstore, but you can’t guarantee any of the ingredients are healthy and beneficial for your hair, so I suggest going with a product your stylist recommends,” says Sassy Medchill, owner of Goldie & Co. Salon in Frisco, Texas. “Go with masks with ceramides over keratin — it will not only replenish moisture, but it will keep moisture in the hair.”

She also suggests steering clear of any hair masks that contain coconut oil since it’s not water-soluble and will sit on hair, leaving a waxy coating.

Consistency

Consistency also makes a huge difference in a hair mask, but determining which consistency is best for you will depend on your hair. “Coarser, more damaged or dry hair can use a thicker and heavier formula, and finer hair types should stick to something lighter in texture, as to not weigh the hair down,” explains Juliana Ohlmeyer, a hairstylist at Flower Hair Studio in San Francisco. “Curly or more textured hair should look for a mask that adds more shine, as these textures can lose the natural sparkle and feel lifeless.” 

Together, the formula and consistency will shape the finish of a hair mask. Look for something that will leave hair feeling hydrated and smooth but not greasy or weighed down, as that defeats the purpose of using a mask. 

Your Questions, Answered

Do hair masks actually work?

“Using a hair mask is like taking a multivitamin for your hair,” Ohlmeyer says. They restore all of hair’s nutrients that are compromised by color, heat, and environmental damage. Hair masks pack a bigger punch than standard conditioner, when it comes to hydration, by closing the hair’s cuticles that are left open and disrupted by shampooing, color-treating, and styling. 

How do you apply a hair mask for dry, damaged hair?

“I like to completely shampoo the hair, towel dry it, and then apply a hair mask,” Medchill says. “If there’s too much water in the cuticle, the mask can’t do its job because it can’t get into the cuticle.” 

She suggests applying the mask from the ends up. And while most people tend to avoid the scalp when using a hair mask, Medchill says to go for it, unless your hair is fine, thin or prone to greasiness. “Scalp health is everything right now, so it’s ideal to use a mask on your scalp if you can,” she says.

Depending on the mask and your specific goals, you can also do a longer, deeper treatment, over the course of a few hours before your shower or even overnight. You can do this anywhere from once a month to once a week.

Is a hair mask the same as a deep conditioner?

Hair masks are targeted treatments that offer more hydration and repair than a deep conditioner.

“Conditioner is generally applied on just the ends to seal the hair and lightly moisturize the ends and reduce frizz and can be used every time you wash,” Ohlmeyer explains. “Hair masks are a higher concentration of moisture or protein and reparative qualities that should be used once a week. They are formulated to be more hydrating, more nourishing, and more restorative than conditioner.” 

Why Shop with Us

InStyle contributor Gabby Shacknai has been covering beauty and health for more than six years, writing for a long list of leading magazines and websites. While she appreciates every bit of surface-level beauty, she’s particularly interested in what’s below the surface—because hair can’t look beautiful unless it’s healthy. 

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