Conditioner for thick hair

Pureology Hydrate Conditioner has the best record for thick hair: 31 of 31 shoppers said it softened and detangled their hair and controlled frizz. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have thick hair. Pureology makes three of the five conditioners here and takes the first three places, with Pureology Strength Cure Conditioner at 21 of 23 and Pureology Nanoworks Gold Conditioner at 14 of 15, while OUAI Medium Hair Conditioner has the weakest record here at 9 of 13.

  • 212 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Oct 2020 to Sep 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it soften thick hair and tame frizz? What shoppers said
  1. Pureology Hydrate Conditioner 31 said either way
  2. Pureology Strength Cure Conditioner 23 said either way
  3. Pureology Nanoworks Gold Conditioner 15 said either way
  4. Olaplex No. 5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner 25 said either way
  5. OUAI Medium Hair Conditioner 13 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for dry, tangled or frizzy hair. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

Pureology Hydrate Conditioner Best record Pureology Hydrate Conditioner 31 of 31 say it softened and detangled thick hair and controlled frizz See price & reviews on Amazon
What stands out

Price comes up for all five conditioners. 24% of Nanoworks Gold reviews, 13% of OUAI reviews and 12% of Olaplex reviews say it costs too much, and Pureology's Strength Cure and Hydrate draw the same complaint at 7% and 5%.

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1 Pureology Hydrate Conditioner

Pureology

Hydrate Conditioner

Best for a moisturizing feel

31/31 say it softened and detangled thick hair and controlled frizz

All 31 shoppers with thick hair who gave a verdict said it worked, and no other conditioner here has more of them behind it. Of its 59 reviews, 44% call it moisturizing and 44% praise the scent, though some find the scent bad or too strong. A few say it weighs hair down (5%) or costs too much (5%).

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 44%
  • Moisturizing 44%
  • Soft hair 32%
  • Detangles 14%
  • Adds shine 12%

What buyers complain about

  • Bad or strong scent 14%
  • Weighs hair down 5%
  • Too expensive 5%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 17 of 17
  • Sephora 14 of 14
2 Pureology Strength Cure Conditioner

Pureology

Strength Cure Conditioner

21/23 say it softened and detangled thick hair and controlled frizz

Scent and softness stand out: 49% of its 45 reviews praise the scent and 42% say hair felt soft. 21 of 23 shoppers with thick hair said it worked. Complaints are scattered: build-up (9%), price (7%) and not being moisturizing enough (7%).

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 49%
  • Soft hair 42%
  • Moisturizing 33%
  • Doesn't weigh hair down 20%
  • Adds shine 11%

What buyers complain about

  • Build-up 9%
  • Too expensive 7%
  • Bad or strong scent 4%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 7 of 8
  • Sephora 14 of 15
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light7 of 7
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 5
3 Pureology Nanoworks Gold Conditioner

Pureology

Nanoworks Gold Conditioner

14/15 say it softened and detangled thick hair and controlled frizz

Just 15 shoppers with thick hair weighed in, fewer than for the other two Pureology conditioners, and 14 of 15 said it worked. Of its 34 reviews, 35% say hair felt soft and 18% say it adds shine, but 24% say it costs too much.

What buyers praise

  • Soft hair 35%
  • Nice scent 26%
  • Moisturizing 21%
  • Adds shine 18%
  • Tames frizz 12%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 24%
  • Bad or strong scent 18%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 2 of 2
  • Sephora 12 of 13
  • Brand site 2 of 2 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Combination6 of 6
  • Normal3 of 3
  • Dry2 of 3
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light6 of 6
  • Light-medium to medium5 of 5
4 Olaplex No. 5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner

Olaplex

No. 5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner

18/25 say it softened and detangled thick hair and controlled frizz

Shoppers with thick hair were less sure of this one than of the Pureology conditioners, with 18 of 25 saying it worked. Of its 59 reviews, 32% say hair felt soft, but 12% say it costs too much, 7% call it greasy and 7% say it weighs hair down.

What buyers praise

  • Soft hair 32%
  • Moisturizing 19%
  • Doesn't weigh hair down 14%
  • Adds shine 14%
  • Detangles 14%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 12%
  • Weighs hair down 7%
  • Greasy 7%
  • Build-up 3%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 9 of 9
  • Sephora 9 of 16
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Combination3 of 8
  • Dry3 of 4
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light5 of 7
  • Light-medium to medium2 of 5
5 OUAI Medium Hair Conditioner

OUAI

Medium Hair Conditioner

9/13 say it softened and detangled thick hair and controlled frizz

This is the weakest record here at 9 of 13, and it rests on a small group of shoppers with thick hair. Of its 15 reviews, 47% praise the scent, but 27% say it isn't moisturizing enough and 13% say it costs too much.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 47%
  • Moisturizing 33%
  • Detangles 20%
  • Doesn't weigh hair down 20%
  • Soft hair 20%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 13%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 9 of 13
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Combination4 of 6
  • Dry2 of 3
See price & reviews on Amazon

Share of 15 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

Where these numbers come from

The 5 products ranked here carry 21,637 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for dry, tangled or frizzy hair and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Oct 2020 and Sep 2026.

A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.

Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.

Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.

Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.

Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.

An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. Pureology Hydrate Conditioner Ulta and Sephora (59 reviews counted)
  2. Pureology Strength Cure Conditioner Ulta and Sephora (45 reviews counted)
  3. Pureology Nanoworks Gold Conditioner Ulta and Sephora (34 reviews counted)
  4. Olaplex No. 5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner Ulta and Sephora (59 reviews counted)
  5. OUAI Medium Hair Conditioner Sephora (15 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which conditioner works for thick hair?

Pureology Hydrate Conditioner has the best record (31 of 31), followed by Pureology Strength Cure Conditioner (21 of 23) and Pureology Nanoworks Gold Conditioner (14 of 15). More shoppers with thick hair weighed in on Pureology Hydrate Conditioner than on any other conditioner here (31 shoppers).

Is Olaplex No. 5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner good for thick hair?

Often, but less reliably than the Pureology picks. 18 of 25 shoppers with thick hair said it worked and 7 said it didn't. Of its 59 reviews, 32% say hair felt soft, while 12% say it costs too much and 7% call it greasy.

Can a conditioner weigh down thick hair?

A few reviews say so: it comes up in 7% of Olaplex reviews and 5% of Pureology Hydrate reviews. In 20% of Pureology Strength Cure reviews, shoppers say it doesn't weigh hair down. Check the label for how much to use, then adjust to your hair.

Do these conditioners smell good?

Scent is a matter of taste. Pureology Strength Cure reviews praise it at 49%, against 44% for Pureology Hydrate and 47% for OUAI, and some reviews of the three Pureology conditioners also find the scent bad or too strong. If scent matters to you, smell a sample first.

Related problems

Conditioner Conditioner for frizz Top pick: Pureology Hydrate Conditioner 267 buyer reports Hair oil Hair oil for thick hair Top pick: Verb Ghost Weightless Hair Oil 108 buyer reports Hair mask Hair mask for damaged hair Top pick: Moroccanoil Intense Hydrating Mask 246 buyer reports Detangling brush Detangling brush that doesn't pull Top pick: Wet Brush Original Detangler 301 buyer reports

HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the "See price & reviews on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.