What Order to Apply Hair Products: First to Last

The order to apply hair products is shampoo, conditioner or mask, leave-in, heat protectant, a styling product such as mousse or cream, and finally a drop of oil on the ends. Line your bottles up in exactly this order in the bathroom today and leave out whatever you don't use: a gap shifts nothing, and every other product keeps its place. You check whether the order works once your hair is dry. The lengths should feel soft with a bit of grip, the roots should have lift, and nothing should feel sticky.

Behind it sits one rule that lets you place any product this list leaves out. Anything you rinse out comes before anything that stays in. Water-based goes before oily, light before heavy. A protectant goes on before whatever it protects against. And anything that sets, like hairspray, belongs at the end, because every layer on top of it softens the hold again.

The six steps in a table: what, where, how much

The amounts are for shoulder-length hair of medium thickness. For chin-length hair use about half, for chest-length hair about double.

Only the first two steps belong to every wash. Heat protectant becomes a must as soon as a hot tool follows; everything else you add as your hair needs it.

From the basin to the hairdryer, step by step

Step 1 — Shampoo. Wet your hair through with lukewarm water, lather a walnut-sized amount in your hands and massage it into the scalp with your fingertips. The lather cleans the lengths as you rinse. If there is a lot of styling product in your hair or your roots are oily, wash a second time with half the amount.

Step 2 — Conditioner or mask. Squeeze the water out of the lengths with your hands, otherwise it dilutes the conditioner. Conditioner goes on from ear level through the lengths and ends and stays in for two to three minutes. Use that time to detangle with a wide-tooth comb, working up from the ends. Once or twice a week a mask takes the place of the conditioner, usually with five to ten minutes on the hair, depending on the pack.

Step 3 — Leave-in. A leave-in is a conditioning product that stays in your hair. Squeeze your hair out in the towel, rub a pea-sized amount between your palms and work it in from ear level down. For stressed or bleached lengths, the Bond IQ™ Peptide Therapy Leave-In Cream is one option. If you use a scalp serum, it goes on before the leave-in: drop it onto the scalp parting by parting and massage it in with your fingertips.

Step 4 — Heat protectant. You only need this step if a hairdryer, straightener or curling wand follows. Spray the protectant from 15 to 20 cm away, section by section, and comb through once so it reaches every strand. Before a straightener or curling wand, check the label: your heat protectant for hair should be rated for the temperature you set on the tool.

Step 5 — Styling. Mousse goes at the roots, cream and gel through the lengths. From here on you use only your fingers, because a comb flattens the mousse at the roots again. Then blow-dry on a medium setting from about 15 cm away, or let your hair air-dry.

Step 6 — Oil. Rub one or two drops, of the REJUVENIQE® oil for example, between your palms and press them into the dry ends. If the ends look stringy rather than soft afterwards, that was too much, and one drop will do next time. If you use hair oil as a pre-wash treatment, it comes right at the start instead, before the shampoo and in a much larger amount.

Shampoo or conditioner first? Your order questions answered

Shampoo or conditioner first?

Shampoo first, then conditioner. Shampoo lifts oil and product residue off the scalp and hair, and the conditioner then lays its film over the clean strand. The other way round, the shampoo would wash the conditioner straight back out.

Very fine hair that goes flat with any conditioner has one exception: reverse washing. Conditioner goes on the ends first, stays for two minutes and is rinsed out, and only then do you shampoo the roots. If your ends feel rough afterwards, your hair is too dry for this method. With fine hair, volume also comes from blow-drying: dry the roots first and against the direction of growth, the lengths last.

Mask before or after shampoo?

After the shampoo, in place of the conditioner. Mask and conditioner on the same day is too much for most lengths. If your ends feel limp rather than soft after the mask, use half next time. An oil-based treatment belongs before the shampoo. It stays on dry lengths for at least half an hour, and you usually need two rounds of shampoo to get it out again.

Serum before or after oil?

Serum goes first. It is usually thinner than oil and has to reach the hair before a film of oil settles over it. A silicone-based shine serum, on the other hand, does the job of the oil, so you use one or the other. A scalp serum comes before every product that stays in anyway, because it has to go directly onto the scalp.

Heat protectant before or after leave-in?

Leave-in first, then heat protectant. You spray the protectant and comb it through, so it spreads evenly over whatever is already in the hair. A cream you scrunch in afterwards would push it together in patches. If your leave-in itself says it protects against heat, that one product is enough.

Heat protectant or mousse first?

Heat protectant first, then mousse. You comb the protectant through so it covers all the lengths evenly. The mousse you leave uncombed, otherwise the roots lose their lift. Some mousses contain a heat protectant themselves. If the can says so, you can skip the spray.

Oil before or after styling?

As a finishing shine, oil goes on after styling, one drop on dry hair. With very dry, thick curls it can also come before the cream to seal in the moisture of the leave-in. That is the LOC method from the next section.

Curls and waves: LOC or LCO

Curls dry out faster than straight hair, because sebum from the roots travels down a coiled strand less easily. That is why, with curly and wavy hair, you apply conditioning in several layers to soaking-wet hair. The letters stand for the three layers: L for liquid, meaning water or a water-based leave-in, O for oil and C for cream. Your hair decides which order suits it.

Try one method for three washes. If your curls are dry and frizzy on day two with LCO, switch to LOC. If they hang limp and feel greasy with LOC, switch to LCO or leave the oil out entirely. For the cream, the Curl Perfection™ Curl-Defining Cream is one option. If you need more hold, finish either version with a gel. Scrunch it into the curls from below, let them air-dry or use a diffuser, and only break up the firm cast once everything is completely dry.

What changes with hair type and goal

The six steps stay the same. What changes with your hair is which step matters most and which one drops out.

If two columns fit you at once, say fine and bleached hair, the free hair analysis sorts your answers about lengths, roots and styling and suggests a routine.

Studio One™ follows the same sequence: heat protectant spray first, then the blow-dry cream through the lengths or The Moxie™ at the roots, and the finish last. Amounts and combinations for the individual MONAT styling products and their order are set out product by product in a separate article.

Between washes: the morning order

On days without a wash, shampoo, conditioner and mask drop out. The same logic applies to everything else, just on dry hair.

1. Dry shampoo at the roots, sprayed in narrow strips from about 20 cm away; wait two minutes, then brush it out. When you use dry shampoo the right way, it lands only on the dry roots and never in the lengths. A conditioning one like The Champ™ Conditioning Dry Shampoo can also go on the evening before.
2. Refresh the lengths: dampen curls with water or the Curl Perfection™ Refresh Spray and scrunch, and give smooth lengths a touch of leave-in on the ends.
3. Heat protectant as soon as a straightener or curling wand follows, then let it dry. If the iron hisses on your hair, leftover moisture is boiling off inside the strand, and that can roughen it from within.
4. Finish with one drop of oil on the dry ends.

Order mistakes and how to fix them

• Oil before leave-in → The leave-in beads up on the film of oil. Oil always comes afterwards.
• Heat protectant only after blow-drying → It goes on before any heat, even a quick blast over the fringe.
• Conditioner and mask on the same day → On mask day, the mask replaces the conditioner.
• Conditioner right up to the roots → From ear level only, so the roots stay light.
• Scalp serum in the lengths → It only works where you apply it, so put it on the scalp, parting by parting.
• Four leave-in products on fine hair → Three at most. If the lengths feel sticky once dry, drop the oil first.
• Straightener on heat protectant that is still damp → Let it dry completely first, then straighten.

Quick questions

Do I need to wait between steps?

No, a few seconds to spread each product is enough. The only wait is before the straightener, because your hair has to be completely dry first.

Do I still need conditioner after a 2-in-1 shampoo?

Not always. For short, easy hair the 2-in-1 is usually enough. From shoulder length or with dry lengths its conditioning share is often too low, so add a conditioner from ear level as step 2.

Does a scalp scrub go before or after shampoo?

Before, on the wet scalp, then rinse and wash. Some scrubs lather on their own and replace the first wash; the pack will say so. For most scalps a scalp scrub once a week or less often is plenty.

Does hairspray go before or after oil?

Hairspray goes on last of all. Put the oil on the ends first, because on set hair you would have to loosen the shape with your hands again to spread it.

Does the order apply to short hair too?

Yes. The amounts halve, and short hair often skips oil completely, because the ends are young and hardly dry out yet.

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The free hair analysis asks one by one which of the six steps your hair needs and which you can drop.