This Gooseberry Hair Oil Made My Ends Silky Soft After 1 Use

Squigs Beauty Gooseberry Delight Hair Oil

From

$34

$34 at Squigs

Whenever I'm asked about my top hair-care goals, I always answer: reduce frizz and add shine. I'm on a constant quest to make my frizz-prone waves soft, healthy, and liquid-hair-like. That's why I've recently started testing out different hair glosses and "lamellar" rinses, but I've always been tempted by the ritual of hair oiling and its many benefits, so I decided to give it a go with the Squigs Beauty Gooseberry Delight Hair Oil ($34).

Before getting my hands on a bottle of the Gooseberry Delight Hair Oil from POPSUGAR's own fashion editor Nikita Charuza, I'd seen quite a few videos talking about the ancient Ayurvedic beauty practice on TikTok. People who tried hair oiling, or some form of it like hair slugging, were in love with the shine-boosting results. Needless to say, I was excited to see what it would do to my hair.

Before jumping in, I expressed my concerns to Charuza that the oil may be a little too heavy for my fine hair type, but she assured me that it wouldn't weigh down my ends like some styling oils. With that, I gave her oil a try on my next hair-wash day.

On dry, recently brushed hair, I applied some of the Gooseberry Delight Hair Oil into the palms of my hands before massaging it into my roots. Immediately I noticed the light fruity scent, which made me even more excited to douse my head in it. I had preemptively changed into a dark-colored sweatshirt just in case things got messy, but it ended up not being an issue. Once my scalp was covered, I applied more oil to the ends of my hair and brushed it through with a wide-tooth comb. After my hair was covered in the oil, I pulled it up into a claw clip to keep it out of the way while it soaked in (another option is to put your hair in a braid or loose bun).

The instructions say to leave it on overnight if possible, but if you're in a rush (like me), a few hours will also do the trick. When I put in the oil, it had just turned 9 a.m., and I went about my day as usual with the product in my hair for the next few hours. Though I didn't have anywhere to go that day, I could see myself running errands with the oil in my hair — it just looked wet as if I had taken a shower.

After about six hours, I decided to rinse the oil out. In the shower, I shampooed twice just to ensure my hair was squeaky clean and didn't have any residue left in it. While rinsing, my hair already felt softer than it usually does. I finished by putting a bit of conditioner in my ends, rinsing that out, and putting my hair up in a wrap to dry.

When it came time to style it, I could tell it was silkier just by brushing it. It also still had a hint of that amazing gooseberry scent to it. Though I alternate between letting my hair air-dry and giving myself a blowout, I was too impatient to wait for it to dry on its own, so I used a blow-dry brush to speed up the wait time. The biggest difference I noticed after I finished styling my hair was how soft my ends were — they felt super hydrated and healthy, despite not being trimmed in five months. My hair also had a nice shine that caught the light. I did, however, still need to use a couple of styling products to fight frizz at my roots, but it was a slight improvement from before.

All in all, I loved the ritual of hair oiling, as well as how it made my hair look. I was expecting hair oiling to be more disruptive to my day because of how long it takes, but I almost forgot that the Squigs Beauty Gooseberry Delight Hair Oil was even in my hair. I'm definitely going to include this treatment in my monthly beauty maintenance routine.

Stars: ★★★★