Shampoo for wavy hair

Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo has the best record for wavy hair: 16 of 18 shoppers said it left their waves soft, defined or full, though that is a smaller group than for any other shampoo here. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have wavy hair. Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo comes next at 30 of 38, and the other five shampoos sit close together behind it.

  • 306 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Jan 2016 to Aug 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it leave waves soft and defined? What shoppers said
  1. Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo 18 said either way
  2. Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo 38 said either way
  3. Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo 36 said either way
  4. OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo 26 said either way
  5. Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo 39 said either way
  6. OUAI Detox Clarifying Shampoo 25 said either way
  7. OUAI Thick Hair Shampoo 27 said either way

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

Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo Best record Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo 16 of 18 say it left their waves soft, defined or full See price & reviews on Amazon
What stands out

After the first two, the other five shampoos are hard to tell apart. The share of shoppers with wavy hair who said each one worked runs from 69% for Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo to 73% for OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo.

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 Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo

Moroccanoil

Moisture Repair Shampoo

16/18 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

It has the highest share here (89%), but from 18 shoppers with wavy hair, fewer than any other shampoo on this page. Of its 23 reviews, 26% praise the scent and 26% say hair feels soft, while 9% call it drying.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 26%
  • Leaves hair soft 26%
  • Good value 9%

What buyers complain about

  • Drying or stripping 9%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 16 of 18
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light9 of 11
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 4
  • Medium-tan to tan3 of 3
2 Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo

Pureology

Strength Cure Shampoo

Best for a nice scent

30/38 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

Praise centers on scent (54% of its 50 reviews) and softness (34%). 30 of 38 shoppers with wavy hair said it worked, though 12% of its reviews say it weighs fine hair down.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 54%
  • Leaves hair soft 34%
  • Doesn't strip curls 12%
  • Good value 12%
  • Hair stays clean longer 6%

What buyers complain about

  • Hair gets greasy fast 8%
  • Too expensive 8%
  • Bad or strong scent 4%
  • No difference 4%
  • Build-up 4%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 13 of 17
  • Sephora 17 of 21
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light13 of 15
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 5
3 Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo

Olaplex

No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo

26/36 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

Of its 57 reviews, 25% say hair feels soft and 14% call it good value, but 12% call it drying. 26 of 36 shoppers with wavy hair said it left their waves soft, defined or full.

What buyers praise

  • Leaves hair soft 25%
  • Nice scent 18%
  • Good value 14%
  • Hair looks fuller 12%
  • Gentle on scalp 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Drying or stripping 12%
  • Hair gets greasy fast 7%
  • Too expensive 7%
  • No difference 4%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 13 of 17
  • Sephora 13 of 19
  • Brand site 2 of 2 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Combination5 of 7
  • Normal3 of 5
  • Dry3 of 3
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light7 of 10
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 5
4 OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo

OUAI

Fine Hair Shampoo

19/26 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

19 of 26 shoppers with wavy hair said it worked even though it is named for fine hair. Scent splits opinion, with 36% of its reviews praising it and others finding it bad or too strong, while 14% call the shampoo drying.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 36%
  • Doesn't strip curls 17%
  • Leaves hair soft 14%
  • Hair stays clean longer 11%
  • Hair looks fuller 11%

What buyers complain about

  • Drying or stripping 14%
  • Bad or strong scent 11%
  • Hair gets greasy fast 6%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 11 of 13
  • Sephora 8 of 13
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light3 of 6
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 4
See price & reviews on Amazon

Share of 36 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

5 Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo

Verb

Ghost Weightless Shampoo

27/39 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

More shoppers with wavy hair weighed in on this shampoo than on any other here (39), and its 69% is the lowest share, though just a few points below four others. Of its 54 reviews, 24% praise the scent, 22% say hair feels soft and 15% call it drying.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 24%
  • Leaves hair soft 22%
  • Hair looks fuller 9%
  • Doesn't strip curls 7%
  • Hair stays clean longer 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Drying or stripping 15%
  • Hair gets greasy fast 9%
  • Tangles hair 9%
  • Dries or strips hair 4%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 10 of 17
  • Sephora 17 of 22
  • Brand site 3 of 3 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Combination11 of 14
  • Oily2 of 3
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light11 of 14
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 5
6 OUAI Detox Clarifying Shampoo

OUAI

Detox Clarifying Shampoo

18/25 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

18 of 25 shoppers with wavy hair said this clarifying shampoo worked. Of its 49 reviews, 22% praise the scent, 14% say hair feels soft and 14% call it good value, while 12% call it drying.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 22%
  • Leaves hair soft 14%
  • Good value 14%
  • Doesn't strip curls 10%
  • Hair stays clean longer 4%

What buyers complain about

  • Drying or stripping 12%
  • Hair gets greasy fast 4%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 7 of 11
  • Sephora 11 of 14
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light4 of 4
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 4
See price & reviews on Amazon

Share of 49 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

7

OUAI

Thick Hair Shampoo

19/27 say it left their waves soft, defined or full

19 of 27 shoppers with wavy hair said this thick-hair shampoo worked for their waves. Of its 37 reviews, 27% praise the scent and 11% call it drying, while some find the scent bad or too strong.

What buyers praise

  • Nice scent 27%
  • Good value 16%
  • Leaves hair soft 16%
  • Doesn't strip curls 11%

What buyers complain about

  • Bad or strong scent 14%
  • Drying or stripping 11%
  • Hair gets greasy fast 5%
  • No difference 5%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 8 of 9
  • Sephora 11 of 18
  • Brand site 1 of 1 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry4 of 6
  • Combination4 of 5
  • Oily2 of 3
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light9 of 12
  • Light-medium to medium2 of 3

Share of 37 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

Where these numbers come from

The 7 products ranked here carry 34,106 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for frizzy or flat waves and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Jan 2016 and Aug 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. Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo Sephora (23 reviews counted)
  2. Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (50 reviews counted)
  3. Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (57 reviews counted)
  4. OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (36 reviews counted)
  5. Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (54 reviews counted)
  6. OUAI Detox Clarifying Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (49 reviews counted)
  7. OUAI Thick Hair Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (37 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which shampoo works for wavy hair?

Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo has the best record (16 of 18), followed by Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo (30 of 38) and Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo (26 of 36). Each record counts just shoppers who said they have wavy hair, and the leader rests on a smaller group than any other shampoo here.

Which shampoo for wavy hair is sold on Amazon?

Four of the seven are sold on Amazon by an official seller: Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo (16 of 18), Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo (30 of 38), Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo (26 of 36) and Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo (27 of 39). All three OUAI shampoos here are sold there by a third-party seller. The leader, Moroccanoil Moisture Repair Shampoo, is also the best pick sold on Amazon.

Can shampoo dry out wavy hair?

Some reviews say so. 15% of Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo reviews call it drying, as do 14% of OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo reviews and 12% of Olaplex No. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo reviews. Pureology Strength Cure Shampoo draws other complaints, with fine hair weighed down (12%) and greasy hair (8%).

Do shampoos for fine or thick hair work on waves?

Often. Three of the seven shampoos here are aimed at fine or thick hair, and their records among shoppers with wavy hair are 19 of 26 for OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo, 27 of 39 for Verb Ghost Weightless Shampoo and 19 of 27 for OUAI Thick Hair Shampoo.

Related problems

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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.