If You Have Fine Hair, This Conditioner Will Change Everything

For our 23rd annual Best Beauty Buys, we surveyed leading dermatologists, makeup artists, hairstylists, and manicurists to find out which products they can't get enough of. The votes are in: You'll want to clear a shelf for these 165 beauty game-changers.

The word conditioner may not have four letters, but it's been at the top of my bad list for years.

I was a college freshman when I first discovered that conditioner and my baby-fine strands were sworn enemies. Or perhaps the better term would be frenemies, since each formula I tried promised weightless hydration, but none could deliver.

So for years I skipped conditioner, or—if my hair really, really needed it—applied it only on my ends. My hair lacked the shine and bounce that comes from having super-hydrated strands, but hey, it was better than looking totally deflated.

But these days, I can have my cake and eat it, too. The ticket was switching to a foam formula, which by its nature is far lighter than any cream could ever claim to be. My blend of choice? Pantene Pro-V Foam Conditioner ($6; target.com), which comes in six different varieties.

My favorite, as you may have suspected, is the volumizing formula. I spray a golf-ball-sized amount in the palm of my hand before spreading it from root to tip. The end result is big, bouncy, healthy-looking hair similar to what you'd see in a shampoo (or, uh, conditioner) commercial. And that, my fellow fine-haired friends, is what earned this product a major win in our 2018 Best Beauty Buys Awards.