Can't afford Redken any more - now what?

[IHeartKingThistle]

I looooove Redken colour shampoo and conditioner but it is eye wateringly expensive. Tell me what you love that costs slightly less please!

Following!

Redken is a L'Oreal brand. If you step down a brand within L'Oreal the composition is often v similar - but less aspirational and less nice packaging.

Maybe L'Oreal Elvive?

I second the L'oreal Elvive suggestion, I like the Dream Lengths one (orange bottle).

Tigi Bedhead is great too, you can get a shampoo and conditioner set on Amazon for about £15 and the bottles are massive.

Ooh ok thank you, will check those out! Any more suggestions?

L’Oréal Elvive is good but also try Le Petit Olivier Pomegranate which is similar to Le Petit Marsellais which is very good.

I get Le Petit Olivier in independent chemists.

Pomegranate is for coloured hair.

I saw bedhead in b&m yesterday....big bottles...think they were about £7?

Elive is dreadful.

But L’Oreal Absolut Repair is v good. I buy shampoo, conditioner + masque on eBay in big size pump pots for economy.

I also buy John Freida if I run out. That’s really not bad.

I really like the Elvive More Than shampoo which comes in a tube - it's the same consistency as mask conditioner. I alternate between this and Kerastase to make it more affordable.

I agree, Elvive is horrible. I do like their oil but that’s it.

I’ve gone back to Absolut repair after Kerastase seems to have shot up in price too. It’ll do, it’s not as good but better than any supermarket shelf stuff

I used to buy Kerastase too. I really miss their hair masque in particular.

My hairdresser told me that pantene and the like would strip the colour out of my hair and encouraged me to use other, really expensive products like Redken. How are we supposed to know which are the unacceptable or damaging ingredients so we can judge for ourselves? Anyone know??

Matrix colour obsession shampoo and conditioner (purple bottle).

@IHeartKingThistle

Can o ask which Redken range you use?

And no elvive nor Pantene is anywhere near the quality of Redken.

Buy big bottles of redken colour on ebay, 30 for 1000ml, also found in tk maxx sometimes.

The best shampoo I ever had was a Pantene one for coloured hair, it cost about a quid and was amazing! They discontinued it 😡

Following with interest, currently using Redken but it keeps going up.

Following. I use redkin right now but it's expensive and I want a cheaper alternative for protecting coloured damaged hair

So far sounds like - mixed reviews on Elvive
Bedhead - maybe ok?
Trying to find redkin on eBay for cheaper...

Have a read of this. I have vibrant coloured hair and it’s fine.

Does your shampoo strip colour?
When formulating our shampoo, we learned a lot in the process. “colour-lock Shampoo” is basically shampoo that is SLS-free and is not alkaline. Alkaline hair products open up the hair cuticle and leach colour out as well as make the hair feel squeaky (aka “clean”). Our Milk Shampoo is already SLS-free and a pH that is slightly acidic for the reasons mentioned above, so it’s “colour lock shampoo” by nature, although we don’t think it’s an accurate description. “Damaged hair” shampoos are also usually just lower in sulphates so we’ve got that covered already.

https://moogooskincare.co.uk/products/natural-milk-shampoo

It has suddenly hiked up in price, I have recently come back to it after abandoning it the first time for thinking it was too expensive and was shocked! How about getting it when it is in the 20% off premium brands in Boots? Appreciate that may still be too expensive though.

I think Kerastase is owned by L'Oreal too.

Some of the OGX products are good for price too.

Yeah Kerastase is L’Oreal. We would order both absolut repair and Kerastase from L’Oréal direct when I was a hairdresser. The absolut etc were a more affordable range for clients who couldn’t afford Kerastase

I don’t know how it compares to Redken directly but I get L’Oreal Professional from Amazon - smells amazing and is a noticeable step up from Elvive etc but often on offer for £7/8 a bottle which I find a good price. It’s not as good as some other stuff I’ve used but I’m really happy with the price point and quality.

Sure but they’re not the same products/ingredients. It’s common for massive brands own many subsidiary brands.

If anyone has a blue light card, Look Fantastic is 22% off, works out at around £15 a bottle