The Best Wavy Hair Products to Simplify Your Styling Routine (2024)

Like all textures, wavy hair comes with its own set of challenges. For example, you might be dealing with dual textures where your hair in front is less wavy than in back. Wavy hair is also highly susceptible to humidity or inclement weather. According to Bradley Leake, a celebrity stylist based in Santa Monica, California, this is one of the variables that can make styling wavy hair a struggle. Poofy, frizzy hair is hard to smooth down no matter what anti-frizz serum you use, and bangs can feel impossible to maintain.

Since wavy hair tends to be finer than other textures and tangles more easily, hairstylist Raven Hurtado at Maxine Salon in Chicago recommends investing in a reliable volumizing shampoo, like the BondiBoost HG Shampoo, as well as a detangler, such as the Oribe Priming Lotion. More details on both of those products below.

Thanks to a slew of effective ingredients, Kérastase's hair oil surges your dry, wavy hair with much-needed moisture without a greasy feel. Leake loves that it’s made with marula and argan oils to soften, hydrate, and boost hair elasticity. There’s also camellia oil, a fast-absorbing emollient that imparts a beautiful, glass-like shine.

I also love two-in-one beauty products like this one because they save time and money. Since marula and argan oils are both antioxidant-rich ingredients, they help protect your hair from heat styling and the sun’s harsh rays.

Leake says: “One pump goes a long way when applied to damp hair and helps with routine styling maintenance. It has an incredibly smooth finish and spreads beautifully throughout the hair.”

Plus, thanks to a combo of violet leaves, freesia, mandarin, musk extract, and santal wood, this hair oil has an intoxicating woody-meets-floral fragrance.

More: Beyoncé Uses This $26 Amazon Product for Shiny-AF Hair

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Wavy hair tends to be finer, meaning this volumizing shampoo will be your new beauty BFF. This vegan shampoo—made with several clean ingredients, such as squalane, peppermint leaf extract, and jojoba ester—also contains several expert-loved ingredients, including olive oil and aloe vera.

Most importantly, Hurtado has tried and tested it, and she praises its very gentle and lightweight formula. “It helps to volumize and adds shine to enhance your waves,” she says. “Plus, it has biotin to support healthy hair growth.”

Hurtado especially likes pairing it with the Bondi Boost Thickening Therapy Hair mask that will leave your waves hydrated, silky, and soft with bounce that will last.

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Chacon loves this wavy hair shampoo because it hydrates without weighing down your mane. Notably, Urban Moisture combines moringa and red algae extracts to cleanse, moisturize, and smooth strands. “These ingredients also help protect your hair against harmful pollutants and encourage hair cell regeneration,” she says.

And if you enjoy earthy scents, this is the frizz-fighting wavy hair product for you. It’s like perfume for your hair, boasting top notes of botanicals; middle notes of camellia, white freesia, and heliotrope; and a warm base note of powdery musk. Reviewers say the scent lingers on their hair, but never in an over-the-top, trying-too-hard kind of way.

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“The Shea Butter Mask is my end-all, be-all for waves,” Englert says of this ultra-hydrating deep conditioner. She likes to leave the mask on for 5 minutes, rinse, squeeze the excess water out, and then apply more as a leave-in conditioner. “It helps set the wet hair with a smoother cuticle prep ready for styling with a diffuser or air dry,” she adds.

Another pro tip: Add extra volume to your wavy hair by rinsing your hair upside down in the shower to give the roots a bit of extra lift and to encourage that natural wave from root to ends.

Beyond nourishing shea butter, this deep conditioner contains monoi oil, botanical extracts, ceramides, and vitamin B-5 to help soften, smooth, and strengthen wavy hair.

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Wavy hair tangles easily, so using this sulfate-free leave-in conditioner will act as both a moisturizing treatment and a styling product.

“While this leave-in conditioner detangles, it also hydrates and moisturizes, and it gives you smooth waves,” Hurtado says. “I’ve had clients use this product, and it works amazing, but also, this product can be heavy if you use too much of it, work with a small amount and build as you need to.”

Pro tip: Apply it from the ends first, then work your way up to avoid weighing down your hair.

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Achieving a tousled, undone look is easier thanks to Chacon’s recommendation of this product, which she considers it a handy wave-enhancing spray. “It will help you achieve the texture of a more natural wave with a polished and matte finish,” she says.

She's not the only fan—more than 1,100 Amazon shoppers left glowing 5-star reviews. Notably, one reviewer spent 15 years searching for the best hair product for wavy hair, and once they discovered this spray, it met all of their expectations and more.

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Hairstylist Samantha Gradilone of Fabio Scalia Salon says that, because wavy hair is prone to dryness, a boar bristle brush is one of the best investments you can make.

“The boar bristle brush provides great tension to grab on and pull hair sections evenly, distributing the natural oils from the root to the ends—the result is a more natural shine, a reduction in frizziness, and a much smoother blowout,” she says.

Naturally, she’s a fan of her salon's in-house brushes, but you can only purchase them IRL in NYC. Enter this simple but incredibly effective option.

The brush boasts super soft natural boar bristles that won't snag wavy hair, no matter the length or texture. A bonus: Each order comes with a mini wooden comb to help distribute styling products and hair masks.

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