It's hard to think of something better than an affordable five-minute hair treatment that also happens to give you the shine of a $300 gloss and blowout [1] session with your stylist. That's what you get with the Joico Defy Damage Protective Masque [2] ($22).

This new mask dispenses from its tube as a slippery semitransparent cream that smells clean and floral. As you massage it through wet hair, it slides down strands and detangles them from one another. I saturated my hair from its midlength to its ends and waited the full five minutes. (Side note: the brand mentions you can leave it in for as little as two minutes, but I want to repair the damage I'd done with my heat stylers, so I decided to leave it on for the maximum amount of time). Even still, I barely got through cleansing the rest of my body before it was time to wash it out. It took more time than expected to completely wash it out [3] (my thick, coarse hair felt as though it was holding onto the cream). I stepped out the shower and ran a gentle hair brush through it, before blow-drying and heat-styling it.

I'd been contemplating a haircut [4], but after this mask, I found that my hair wasn't as unhealthy as I thought it had been. Post-treatment, it was so soft and had a luster so bright, I completely shook the thought of a haircut... for now.