A Comprehensive List of the Best Hair Products for Men

In the not-too-distant past, your hairdresser would have told you that, to get your hands on a decent shampoo, you need to spend more than £20.

But times have changed, and a host of experts are now transforming the humble high-street shelves, adding a host of affordable yet genuinely good bottles to the mix.

Revered stylist Adam Reed is the one leading the charge: his Arkive line combines skin-kind ingredients with genuinely nice smells (the man is a true fragrance head) and, perplexingly, price tags that seriously belie the formulas inside.

The All Day Everyday shampoo is the collection's crowd-pleaser: no industry jargon, no false promises: just a properly good shampoo that'll clean both scalp and strand.

Nothing that comes out of a bottle will multiply the number of hairs on your head – but a good thickening shampoo can make what God gave you appear more abundant. Patricks' SH1 offering combines gentle cleansing agents with circulation-boosting plant extracts to volumise thinning hair.

You'll find family-owned, B-Corp certified haircare line Davines on the shelves of many an industry insider.

Every product features ingredients sourced from Italy's Slow Food Presidia: a collective of farmers that go against the demands of the supermarkets to produce crops that keep soil biodiversity alive. Many of those crops end up in Davines' formulas, such as the Fiaschetto tomato in this Nounou (us either) Hair Mask.

Not just a sustainable show-off, this creamy deep treatment has an evangelical following for the way it repairs dry ends. Use it once a week for smoother, more manageable lengths.

If you've succumbed to the full bleach job, your hair is probably not best pleased right now.

The perfect antidote to a DIY peroxide experiment, this quinoa protein-infused mask will fix strands that stretch and tangle like chewing gum, meaning you can probably avoid buzzing the lot off.

Stay away from those miracle-touting products lurking in the depths of Amazon: nothing will re-grow lost hair.

Aveda’s Thickening Tonic, however, will make what you’ve got look fuller and thicker. Spray it onto wet hair, and watch the 97% natural mist physically swell each strand.

Sam McKnight has also joined the scrum of hairdressers pivoting into product – and, unsurprisingly, his offering cuts through the noise.

This clay is everything you'd expect from a session stylist of his calibre: it's heavy-holding yet light in texture, matt without veering into chalky territory, and allows you to mess and re-mess a choppy cut as the day goes on.

Hair pomades come in varying degrees of hold and shine: this one sits at the extreme end of both. It's infused with nice-sounding organic extracts that will nourish each strand (including scalp-soothing horsetail), yet delivers heavy-duty hold that'll see you through the longest of days.

If you’re growing out your hair, a low-hold styling product is the key to looking more like Brad Pitt and less like a Nineties guitar teacher. Malin + Goetz’s Styling Cream is a reliable choice: it’s lightweight, non-sticky, and will tame flyaways without making your ends feel crispy. Such is its cult following, it's very rarely in stock – so head to the checkout now.

For extra volume with hold and a matte finish, opt for a sea-salt spray. This one can be sprizted liberally through just-washed hair to create effortless mussed-up texture.

Coarser curls require something a little heavier, like Moroccanoil’s defining cream. Formulated with the brand’s signature argan oil, it’ll deliver moisture and shine to thirsty hair.

If the mere mention of hair gel brings the greasy ghost of Ross Geller to mind, stay with us. This one is perfect for slicked-back styles, making hair look simultaneously thicker and smoother.

If you're after volume and body without the crunch, Daimon Barber's conditioning spray is the answer. It's formulated with oils, rather than salt, so works to condition as it imparts height and movement.