Not even two years after shaking up the skin-care industry, The Inkey List [1] founders Colette Laxton and Mark Curry have set their sites on disrupting another beauty category: hair and scalp care.
The Inkey List Hair & Scalp Care Range [2] is comprised of eight products — three scalp treatments and five hair treatments — and is quite unlike most hair product ranges on the market. Housed in 50ml fully recyclable aluminium bottles (yes, even the pumps!), the oils, serums, and cream can be used in multiple ways — on wet hair, dry hair, or mixed in with your shampoo or conditioner — and all of them can be used on any hair type. "We were very, very conscious that these products were for all hair textures," Laxton tells POPSUGAR.
"With skin care, you have people with very different skin types and needs, but they still might use the same ingredients, just in a different way," explains Curry, who approached the hair and scalp formulas with the same mentality. "There are loads of different hair textures out there, but some of the issues are the same. Someone with natural hair and someone with straight hair can both experience dryness or lack of shine." That being said, Curry and Laxton don't deny that different hair textures do need different ingredients, or more or less of an ingredient, than others. "The best way to explain the range is that it's formulated for all, but there are a few serums and oils that may be best for certain hair types," says Curry.
While most hair-care products are marketed for a specific result (more volume! less frizz!) or hair texture (shampoo for curly hair, mask for damaged strands), Laxton and Curry approached the hair and scalp-care products the same way they do their skin care: pared down and formulated from an ingredient-first angle. "We took what we know and have built in skin care and tried to make it relevant in hair care," Curry says.
And the initial eight products feature probably the most recognisable — not to mention most important — ingredients you can use on your face, including vitamin C, caffeine, peptides, and hyaluronic and salicylic acids. "Our hope is that that, having used these ingredients in their skin care, people will easily understand the role of that ingredient for their hair; for example, they'll see the Hyaluronic Acid Hair Treatment and recognise it as hydrator," says Laxton. "We wanted to create an ingredient 'a-ha ingredient moment' for people," adds Curry. "So you probably know this ingredient, but did you know you can use it this way to benefit your hair?"
What also differentiates these treatments is that they have no added dyes or fragrances, which falls in line with The Inkey List skin care but makes it an outlier in the hair-care field. "It was actually a simple decision for us, of not adding fragrance, even though that's what hair care traditionally is about, because that's not who we are," says Curry. "We're about here's what an ingredient is, here's what it can do from you, and this is how you can play ingredients together." In addition to being fragrance-free, all of the hair and scalp treatments are free of silicones, sulphates, phthalates, SLS, mineral oil, nanoparticles, alcohol, and essential oils.
"We were really clear about making sure that we had the 'free-from' sorted in terms of silicones, fragrance, essential oils, alcohol, et cetera, following the same rules as our skin care — we didn't want to fluff it up," says Laxton. "We don't want to add stuff in that isn't actually benefiting you and the task that the product's doing." The products are also formulated to be both colour safe and safe for extensions [3], which means they don't contain any ingredients that could be corrosive to glues or other bonding agents.
But back to what's actually in these hair and scalp treatments. Keep reading to discover all eight formulations, including what's in them, how they work, and a few honest reviews from the POPSUGAR editors.
The Inkey List Salicylic Acid Exfoliating Scalp Treatment
The product in the range with the longest wait list? According to Laxton, that would be The Inkey List Salicylic Acid Exfoliating Scalp Treatment [4] (£12), which uses the beta-hydroxy acid to both manage oil production and break up dead skin cells sitting on the scalp that can cause flakiness.
Two of us on the POPSUGAR team with very different hair types tried the scalp treatment, and for all of you on the wait list, get ready, it's good. "After a few weeks of wearing synthetic braids, my scalp was very dry, flaky, and irritated (this usually happens with sensitive scalps)," says editorial assistant, Kara Kia, who has multitextured 3c/4a hair. "I used Inkey List Salicylic Acid Exfoliating Scalp Treatment as a pretreatment before washing and conditioning my hair, and the itchiness and flakes instantly disappeared."
My hair, on the other hand, is fine and straight, but my roots tend to get quite greasy. Using this as a preshampoo treatment absorbed a lot of that and left my roots lighter and even a little lifted. I'm definitely going to be making this a part of my routine from now on.
The Inkey List Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Treatment
The Inkey List Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Treatment [5] (£10) utilises the much-lauded moisturising ingredient [6] that helps plump, and soothe, your skin. In this case, however, it promises to do the same for your hair. In addition to HA, the serum also includes panthenol, hydrogenated castor oil, and betaine [7], an ingredient that also helps make strands softer and silkier.
I've been trying out the Hyaluronic Acid Treatment for a couple of weeks now and am a fan. I have lots and lots of fine hair that's highlighted and hasn't been cut since, oh, about October 2019 due to COVID. That means my ends are about as dry as a broomstick and in desperate need of some moisture, and this stuff has definitely helped. I use it two ways: first, on dry hair to smooth away frizz along my ends and hairline; and second, as a leave-in on freshly washed hair to help keep my hair soft as it air dries. My hair is so long now that I need about 3-4 pumps to coat it from roots to tips, and yes, I can actually use this very close to the roots because it's so lightweight. What I really like about it is how my hair air-dries when I use this — it ekes out soft, ropey waves that stay that way until I wash my hair again.
The Inkey List Shea Oil Nourishing Hair Treatment
Like all the products in the range, The Inkey List Shea Oil Nourishing Hair Treatment [8] (£10) can be used on any hair texture, but it was formulated specifically with natural and afro textures in mind. "The shea oil we use is interesting because it's not from a traditional source," says Curry, meaning it's not shea butter or shea butter extract. Instead, the product includes something called Lipex SheaLight, a naturally derived shea butter ester that is made using shea butter and ethanol from renewable sources [9] "that has a weightless, greaseless texture," says Curry.
"Shea oil works wonders for afro textures and tightly coiled hair, so I was superexcited to try this product," says Kara Kia, POPSUGAR editorial assistant. I have very multitextured 3c/4a hair, and I prefer not to use oils straight on my hair as it weights down my curls. For me, the best way to use the Shea Oil Nourishing Hair Treatment is to add it into your conditioner for a hydration boost, and it works wonderfully."
The Inkey List Amino Acid Anti-Gray Scalp Treatment
Me and my grays were skeptical about the claims of The Inkey List Amino Acid Anti-Gray Scalp Treatment [10] (£15), which promises to ward against the development of gray hairs. Turns out, I wasn't the only one. "When Mark first showed me I was like, 'Come on, there's no way,'" says Laxton. And while I haven't been trying it long enough to see results (clinical trials showed white hair reduction by as much as 56 percent when used regularly for four months), the technology behind the formula is quite interesting.
"We've called it 'amino acid' but you should almost think about [this treatment] like an antioxidant," explains Curry. "There's a group of cells under the skin that are responsible for the pigmenting of the hair as it grows through. The reason why whites and grays start to come through is that free radicals in that part of the scalp interfere with the cells that cause the pigmentation."
"The amino acid treatment really is just about controlling the level of free radicals in the scalp, so you get more pigmentation that comes through — because that's the only thing that's stopping it," Curry adds. "There's no other biological reason that you start getting white hairs." There is a caveat: this treatment is meant to stop those first white hairs we see. "Eventually, as you get older, you're going to go fully gray, and there's no stopping it," says Curry.
The Inkey List Chia Seed Curl Defining Hair Treatment
The Inkey List Chia Seed Curl Defining Hair Treatment [11] is all about keeping curls soft and defined. "Hair texture is governed by the shape of the follicle — that dictates what the protruding hair will be guided by," explains Curry. "So if you've got straight hair, the follicle is absolutely spherical, while the follicle of 4C curls is almost crescent shaped. What we wanted to do with the Chia Seed Treatment is to make sure that we were focusing on the shape of the curls and nothing else. The formula acts on the hydrogen bonds along the hair follicle to make sure that the actual shape of the curl is retained by adding more bonds," which the formula does thanks to the addition of an ingredient that actually mimics the cuticle of your hair, therefore protecting strands from external damage.
Kia also gave the Chia Seed Curl Defining Hair Treatment a go. "I've used no fewer than a dozen different dozen different curl defining creams [12], and, just like skin care, everyone's hair responds very differently. The Inkey List Chia Seed Curl Definer gave my coils decent definition, but it's a bit too lightweight for my tighter coil texture. It would be perfect for someone with a looser curl texture, perhaps type 3 curls. After actually reading how to use this product, it also recommends adding a 1-2 pumps to your shampoo or conditioner to make the formulation more curl-friendly, which I'm definitely trying next time."
The Inkey List Peptide Volumizing Treatment
Peptides help plump the skin by signalling skin cells to produce more collagen, which in turn firms the skin and smoothes out fine lines and wrinkles. In The Inkey List Peptide Volumizing Treatment [13] (£10), peptides are used similarly, plumping up the cortex (the centre bit) of each individual hair strand to create overall thicker, fuller-looking hair.
Because I haven't used a hair dryer since settling into lockdown, I've tried it just as a leave-in treatment for damp hair, and I did find my hair to be considerably bouncier once it air-dried. I'll be interested to see how it makes my hair look when I finally muster up the energy to pick up a blow dryer again.
The Inkey List Vitamin C Brightening Hair Treatment
Damaged hair — whether that's from overstyling or bleaching — tends to loose its natural shine and luminosity, and that's because the cuticle (i.e. the protective layer around each individual strand) is all messed up. The cuticle is made up of overlapping cells that point downwards — like fish scales or roof tiles. When those tiles lay smooth and flat, they refract light in a way that makes your hair shampoo-ad levels of shiny. When those tiles are damaged and pointing in all directions, then they don't refract light as well and hair ends up looking lacklustre.
The Inkey List Vitamin C Brightening Hair Treatment [14] (£10), which is silicone-free like all the products in the range, uses a combination of vitamin C and an active compound called Lustreplex to help flatten the cuticle. "It all has to do with the refraction of light, and when the cuticle is flattened, the light shining off of the hair will be much brighter," explains Curry.
The Inkey List Caffeine Stimulating Scalp Treatment
You often find caffeine in eye creams as the stimulant helps to constrict blood vessels and relieve water retention, helping tighten the skin and depuff the undereye area. In
The Inkey List Caffeine Stimulating Scalp Treatment [15] (£15), the one percent caffeine powder promises to jump-start the cells in sluggish hair follicles, resulting in a reduction in hair loss if used regularly for three months.