Jen Atkin's Five-Minute Ouai Hair Mask, and the Masks That Sit Next to It

Jen Atkin's Five-Minute Ouai Hair Mask, and the Masks That Sit Next to It

Hairstylist Jen Atkin built the Ouai hair mask around a five-minute shower step, and it has grown into a small family of treatments. Here is that family, plus the dry-hair, gloss and repair masks I would keep beside it.

I used to think a hair mask was a Sunday project: a towel turban, a podcast, forty minutes of pretending to relax. Jen Atkin, the celebrity hairstylist behind Ouai, built the brand's first mask around the opposite idea. The Treatment Mask was part of the original 2016 lineup, an editor at Harper's Bazaar called it her favorite of the range, and Atkin describes it as a five-minute hair makeover. It first came as a box of single-use sachets, then moved into a tube in 2019 because fans asked for something they could use all the time. That listening habit is what I like about the whole Ouai hair mask story. The name is casual French for yes, chosen as a conversation starter, and when Procter and Gamble agreed to buy the brand in December 2021 Atkin stayed on as founder and chief creative officer. Since then the mask has split by hair type, one for fine to medium hair and one for thick hair, and earlier this year a Bond Repair Balm arrived that the brand says took three years to make and works in three minutes. The first grid is all Ouai, four shower treatments that each ask for a few minutes and nothing like a turban.

Twelve boxes on a pale gray page, one for each product in the first three grids of this edit, each with its brand and name printed below: Ouai Treatment Mask for Fine and Medium Hair, Ouai Treatment Mask for Thick Hair, Ouai Bond Repair Balm Hair Mask for Damaged Hair, Ouai Hair Gloss In-Shower Shine Treatment, Living Proof Moisture Rescue Hair Barrier Mask, Kérastase Nutritive Ultra-Hydrating Mask, Act+Acre Restorative Deep Conditioning Hair Mask, Fable & Mane Shine Hydrating Hair Mask, Kérastase Gloss Absolu High-Shine Anti-Frizz Mask, amika Hydro Rush Intense Moisture Hair Mask, K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask and Oribe Gold Lust Transformative Hair Mask.
Ouai hair mask

Four Ouai Shower Treatments

Dry Hair, Other Houses

Living Proof is the most science-minded name on this shelf. It began in 2005 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when MIT biotech scientists led by Dr. Bob Langer teamed up with hairstylists, and the Moisture Rescue mask is built on what the brand calls Smart Barrier HairTech, a set of lipids meant to replace what daily wear wears away. Kérastase is older and very Parisian: it launched in 1964, introduced its first treatment mask in 1979 and the Nutritive range in 1984, and this Nutritive mask pairs plant-based proteins with niacinamide for medium to thick hair that runs very dry. Fable & Mane came from siblings Akash and Nikita Mehta as a homage to their grandmother's hair oiling, and its Shine mask smells of chai and leans on black tea ferments for gloss. Act+Acre's Restorative mask is the plain-spoken one, with castor oil, glycerin and shea butter for dry, damaged ends. If you want a hair mask for dry hair that you will actually reach for weekly, match it to thickness first: Kérastase for medium to thick, Fable & Mane for fine, Living Proof for any.

Four Masks From Other Brands

Shine, Repair, and One Habit to Drop

The last four are about shine and repair. Kérastase's Gloss Absolu mask pairs hyaluronic acid, glycolic acid and wild rose oil, and the brand says it keeps frizz down for up to four days on medium to thick hair. amika was founded in Brooklyn in 2007, and its name is Esperanto for friend; the Hydro Rush mask is whipped, silicone-free and built on squalane and hyaluronic acid, with a claim of up to five days of hydration. Oribe's Gold Lust mask comes from a house that Daniel Kaner and the late Oribe Canales started in 2008, and it leans on baobab oil plus a complex of biotin, plant collagen, caffeine and niacinamide. K18 is the odd one out. Suveen Sahib spent about ten years of research on the peptide behind it, and it is the one leave-in hair mask here, so it goes on after shampoo and stays there. What I would skip is the reflex to rinse. Waiting and then rinsing out is the habit to drop with K18, since the brand says it works in four minutes with no extra steps.

Four Masks, Four Finishes

A Five-Minute Calendar

Atkin's own habit is the one I borrowed. She has said she puts a mask on before a workout, because the salt in sweat can dry out strands and the heat helps the mask work. On gym days I do exactly that, and I keep the in-shower gloss for the days I want color to look fresh, which the brand says lasts up to three washes. Pick one mask for repair and one for shine, rotate by what your hair is asking for, and let the shower decide the rest. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Say Yes to Ouai Hair Oil and The Best Hair Mask For Damaged Hair.

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