This $50 shampoo is the cheapest hair product on the market

I know what you’re thinking – Coles and Woollies sell shampoo for under $4 a bottle. In what universe is fifty bucks a bargain, Al?

WELL. Let me explain. This is no ordinary fancy shampoo.

This is ‘Olaplex’, which is highly, highly concentrated, to the point where you’ll genuinely only need to use approximately half a pea-sized blob to get a good lather up.

Seriously, think about a small amount of shampoo, and then halve that, and then halve that again. It’s hard to fully convey just how small a quantity of this product you’ll need per wash, even if you’re a double washer (I’m not, sorry stylists).

Any more than a teensy, tiny smidge of product, and you’ll be rinsing your hair for days trying to get it all out.

I started my bottle in the first week of February and now, three months later, it’s roughly 1/3 of the way down – mostly because I keep forgetting just how little I need to squeeze out, and I end up using too much.

This means that, if I were really being careful and using it correctly, I could easily see one single bottle of Olaplex shampoo lasting close to a year. They’re not big bottles, either – just 250mL a pop. It’s that concentrated.

Which has awesome knock-on effects – the smaller bottles use less plastic. And fewer bottles means even less plastic, and less fossil fuels used to transport the shampoo.

The conditioner is similarly condensed, so much so that it’s best to store it upside down because it’s too thick to pour out otherwise.

The third piece of the Olaplex home-haircare puzzle is their ‘Hair Perfector’ (RRP$49.95) which works to rebuild the bonds of damaged hair. And unlike the usual waffle and nonsense you’ll get from companies that make hair products, this stuff is legit.

I have naturally fine, thin hair that gets damaged very easily by blow drying and straightening, but this stuff has enabled me to heat style my hair every day without getting those horrible flyaway, dead-looking ends that always seem to crop up after a few months of consistent hairdryer use.

So, there you have it. For what you get, Olaplex is amazingly good value. Apparently the old saying, that you get what you pay for, is true.