This £9 Shampoo Gave Me The “Glass Hair” Of My Dreams

Forget glass skin. I have always dreamed of having “glass hair” — a head of hair so smooth and glossy, it reflects the light like a mirror. Whenever someone with ultra shiny locks pops up on my FYP, I can’t help but engage in a bit of hair envy and sleuth around for their hair care routine. With the hashtag #glasshair garnering over 300 million TikTok views, I know I’m not alone. This is exactly how I came across L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss At-Home Glossing Set, £52.

I mean it when I say that this hair care system — which includes a shampoo, conditioner, a rinse-off gloss treatment and serum — is my current favourite affordable beauty discovery. My interest was piqued after watching Abbey Yung, a content creator and certified trichologist, review it on TikTok. She has by far the most lustrous head of hair I’ve ever seen on a person so I was ready to be sold on whatever she recommended. Within the collection, Yung highly rated L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss Lamination Treatment, £7.99, which “made her hair so soft and shiny” when she incorporated it into her existing hair care routine.

I gave the whole range a test on my dark brown hair, which had been looking a bit dull and lifeless after a travel-heavy first half of the year. I was particularly impressed by L'Oréal Glycolic Gloss Shampoo, £8.70 — so much so that I’m almost done with my bottle.

Read ahead to find out how exactly this budget-friendly buy gave me the shampoo commercial-worthy, glass hair of my dreams.

I personally enjoy a bit of variety in my beauty routine and have a fleet of shampoos on standby based on my needs. This one has become a firm favourite for when my hair is looking a bit flat and I’m sensing a bit of product buildup on my scalp. The star ingredient inside the shampoo is a 2% concentration “gloss complex” with glycolic acid, an ingredient derived from sugar cane.

If you know your skincare, you’re probably already familiar with glycolic acid. This is an alpha hydroxy acid (or AHA) often found in exfoliating products. “Glycolic acid helps to break down the glue that holds dead skin cells together, making it a very useful chemical — as opposed to physical — exfoliant,” says hairstylist Tom Smith. When used on your hair, glycolic acid can clear dead skin cells, excess oil and dirt from the hair and scalp.

L'Oréal Glycolic Gloss Shampoo is marketed as a sulphate-free shampoo. I asked consultant trichologist Eva Proudman FIT IAT for a bit more context. “Sulphates are essentially cleansers that make shampoos very effective at their job,” she says. “Some sulphates, such as sodium lauryl sulphate, have a small molecule that can penetrate into the epidermis and cortex of the hair, causing drying and dehydration, which is why the whole ‘sulphate-free movement’ came about.” At the end of the day, a well-formulated shampoo won’t dry out your hair — even if it contains sulphates. But a sulphate-free shampoo can be a good option for people with coloured hair as it is less likely to strip dye.

I find that this shampoo foams up extremely nicely, which impressed me as sulphate-free shampoos normally don’t lather all that well in my experience. (A weaker lather doesn’t mean that it doesn’t effectively clean your hair; it’s just my personal preference to cleanse with a bit more foam.)

After using the shampoo for a month, my hair looks softer and smoother overall, especially when I follow with L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss Conditioner, £8.70, featuring the same glycolic gloss complex at 11% concentration. After using both products together, my hair looks like it’s been coated in a shiny glaze that reflects the light from my roots to my ends, even on an overcast day. There’s less static, and my smoothened ends don’t get tangled as much.

There’s real science behind the glossing effects of glycolic acid in hair care. “Glycolic acid is a small molecule that can get between the cuticle scales (i.e. the outer protective layer of the hair),” explains Proudman. “It allows the scales to lie flat against each other and it is these flat, intact scales that cause the light to reflect better, making the hair look shinier and glossier.”

Besides a mirror-like shine, my scalp feels instantly cleaner and lighter every time I use this shampoo, but it doesn't feel stripped or itchy, which can happen with some glycolic acid products — especially in high concentrations and when used incorrectly. I do have one caveat, though. I prefer not to use the Glycolic Gloss Lamination Treatment, £7.99, alongside the shampoo and conditioner. Rather, I alternate between them to avoid potential irritation or sensitivity. That said, L'Oréal Elvive recommends concentrating this gloss treatment to the mid-lengths and ends — essentially, avoiding the scalp. This is because the gloss complex seems to boast a higher concentration of glycolic acid than the shampoo and conditioner. While countless TikTokers and hair experts have extolled its virtues, I get plenty of mileage from the shampoo and conditioner combo alone.

I’ve been returning to this powerful duo whenever I feel like my hair needs a bit of life. The difference after a month of regular use is super noticeable; I’ve been getting nonstop compliments on how healthy my hair looks, with one person even asking if I’d had some sort of keratin treatment done. It feels great knowing that my secret to enviable “glass hair” costs less than £9.