This $9 Hair Serum Will Tame All Your Unruly Frizz

Meet the super-smooth, available-everywhere, easy-on-the-wallet hair tamer you sure as hell could have used in high school (and should definitely stock in your Dopp today).
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John Frieda Frizz Ease Extra Strength 6 Effects+ serum**

Fun fact about me: I won the best hair superlative at my high school…twice. I absolutely did not deserve to win—or even be considered for the honor (if you want to call it that). In both 10th and 12th grade, when superlatives voting was set to take place, my “friends” would stand up in the middle of class and remind our peers about the infamously untamed, dry, frizzy, tangled forest of curls that I had sported just a few years earlier in middle school. It did not matter to the voters that the monstrosity on top of my head, into which people often inserted pencils without me knowing, had long since been replaced by a No. 2 buzz cut. This led to an interesting juxtaposition in the yearbook’s superlatives photos when I awkwardly posed next to the prettiest girls in school, each of whom had long, flowy hair.

I did not re-embrace the curls until my early 20s, and it took until my mid-20s to invest in regular haircut appointments (shoutout to my barber Chris and his monthly membership plan), as well as my one, singular hair product: the John Frieda Frizz Ease Extra Strength Serum.

I've tried a number of pastes and gels, but most of those products aren't made for my hair, which requires more of a moisturizer of sorts. To be fair, I'm not entirely sure that the John Frieda serum is actively making my hair healthier, but it certainly helps project that appearance, which is not for nothing if you are Team Style over Substance. A couple pumps of the serum, warmed up in my hands and worked in from the tippy tops of my curls, leaves them springy, soft, and frizz-less—but not so shiny that you can see your reflection when you look at me. My curls are coaxed into cooperating, and are also given the freedom to branch out, within reason. Except for the most humid summer months, when I occasionally do a second dab before a night out, the serum lasts for the whole day. It doesn’t smell like much, so it won’t offset the scent of your shampoo or conditioner. And when I say low cost, I mean $9 at pretty much every drugstore, which is exactly how much I’m willing to invest in hair products on a monthly-ish basis.

Yes, there are other hair serums out there. They are fancier, with unpronounceable ingredients that are supposedly representative of higher quality. Hogwash, I say. This bottle is a perfect low-cost, low-commitment option for anyone (me) who wants to spend no more than a handful of seconds running their fingers through their hair post-shower. Had I used it during my teenage years—and maybe gotten a haircut once in a blue moon—I could've very well avoided the eternal embarrassment of two truly undeserving superlative photos.


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John Frieda Frizz Ease Extra Strength 6 Effects+ serum