Ten of the best shampoos | Beauty

I used to mask my horror when people told me they washed their hair with “any old thing”. These days, I am more relaxed. Not because it’s less alarming, but because this pedestrian approach is so prevalent, and part of me gets it. Hair washing is, let’s be honest, a perfunctory necessity. And we achieve this with an equally perfunctory commodity, aka soap. But really, if you care a jot about the stuff that sprouts from your hair follicles, what you wash your hair with is important. Because washing your hair is so much more than cleaning. It can make the difference between hair that feels and looks more brusque than a bad temper and hair that brims with health and hydration, even in the depths of winter. A good shampoo is about reducing breakage, promoting scalp health and stimulating growth (Barbara Sturm, Augustinus Bader), maintaining colour (Kérastase), fighting pollution (Christophe Robin) creating body and volume (Philip Kingsley), and springy coils as opposed to frizzy ones (Pattern, Charlotte Mensah, Living Proof). Every so often, if you can’t be bothered to…