Our Beauty Lab Experts Swear by This $2 Shampoo to Clean Greasy Hair (2025)

Clarifying formulas are the powerhouse cleansers of shampoos, delivering the most purification and easily removing oil and dirt. This super lightweight Suave formula is the GH Beauty Lab go-to for deeply cleaning strands in all our hair swatch studies! Plus, you truly cannot beat the price, making this Lab favorite pick our best overall and our best value choice.

GH Product Analyst Grace Wu uses this shampoo once a week: "The first time I used this shampoo, I was blown away by how squeaky clean my terribly oily hair could feel," she says. "My hair doesn't get as oily as it usually does for a few days after using it." Many reviewers are unhappy with the smaller sized bottle even though it remains the same price as the previous larger bottle.

Oily strands and parched ends are a tough combo — but luckily are no match for this multi-tasking L'Oréal shampoo. A blend of three types of refined clay help reduce oil at the roots, while keeping the rest of your hair nourished and healthy at a bargain price. "This is an incredible shampoo," says one reviewer. "Cleans my scalp and leaves my hair really soft." However, some reviewers disagree, finding their hair and scalp to still be oily after use.

RELATED: The Best Sulfate-Free Shampoos

If you have oily hair and an oily scalp, this detoxifying shampoo is a great choice. It deeply cleanses hair and can extend the amount of time between washes. One of our GH staffers uses it once a week: "It has been a game changer for me, and allows me to go four days between washes (where I used to have to go every two days)." Note that this is on the pricier side.

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For a gentle yet effective clarifying shampoo, turn to this Olaplex formula. Marie likes this one for its deep cleanse. "It removes buildup and minerals on the scalp and hair but also isn’t super stripping," she shares. Our former Beauty Assistant has also used this shampoo and noticed a significant improvement in hair shine even after just one use, though it's pricey.

RELATED: Best Shampoos for Colored Hair

A salon splurge that’s worth it, Kérastase’s shampoo (and complementary conditioner) were stars in GH Beauty Lab testing for plumping strands but feeling featherlight. They won for leaving hair feeling clean after rinsing and also earned top points for weightlessness in Lab evaluations. "It left my hair full of body and was nice and thick without weighting my hair down," a tester raves. "All day it had that just-washed look." However, this pricey shampoo features a screw-on lid design that was very polarizing to testers.

RELATED: Best Volumizing Shampoos

This Bumble and Bumble weekly intensive deep cleanser is known to remove every last drop of oil, product buildup, dirt and pollutants from your hair and scalp. This Sephora best-seller is great for fine or thick hair, but you may want to skip if you color to prevent fading. "This product is great for breaking down product buildup from styling your hair," a reviewer shares. "I used to use this a lot before I colored my hair, but stopped ever since because it’s not color safe."

RELATED: Best Shampoo for Dry Hair

Unlike traditional shampoos, this uber cool formula from Carol's Daughter starts as a water and transforms into a foam once you massage it into hair and scalp. It gives hair a deep clean, thanks to the magnet-like power of micellar water to draw out impurities, while also detangling and hydrating hair.

Plus, it has a targeted applicator, allowing you to focus the product on your roots. "The nozzle on the shampoo bottle lets me get the product directly on my scalp, creates a nice lather and leaves my hair clean and smelling great," says one reviewer. Some reviewers find that the product leaves their hair feeling very dry, though.

The Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab scientists constantly test shampoos of all kinds, including shampoo for dry hair, shampoo for color-treated hair and sulfate-free shampoo.

The GH Beauty Lab has been evaluating shampoos and conditioners for decades. For a study on volumizing shampoos, where many of these products were evaluated in the Lab, we tested a total of 14 products, with 308 testers enrolled. We also used our swatch-wash station to wash and rinse 112 human hair swatches of various types and textures, all with a standardized process.

In the Lab, shampoos are first label-masked to eliminate brand bias and distributed to consumer testers around the country to use in their haircare routine. Testers thoroughly evaluate the products on multiple factors, including their ease of use (level of lather, scent, irritation, rinsing, etc.), hair cleansing effects and how hair looks and feels after use.

We've also enlisted the help of three celebrity hairstylists — Glenn Ellis, Nicholas Taylor and Ashleigh Marie — to provide expert advice and product picks.

If you're dealing with greasy hair and on the market for the best shampoo for oily hair, consider the following when shopping:

✔️ Formula: Look at the color and texture of the shampoo for a cue, suggests GH Beauty Lab Director Sabina Wizemann. "In general, the rule of thumb should be to look for clear shampoos, not milky ones," she explains. Milky shampoos typically have hydrating ingredients, making them better for dry hair, while clear formulas are usually stronger cleansers and designed to effectively remove excess oil from the hair and scalp with a higher concentration of surfactants.

✔️ Consider going sulfate-free if you're sensitive: Sulfates are frequently found in clarifying shampoos because they work well to degrease hair, but it's best to avoid them if you are allergic or have any skin or scalp sensitivities. All three hairstylists recommend opting for a sulfate-free shampoo. Sulfates are a cleansing ingredient that can strip natural oils from the scalp and hair, causing dryness and potentially irritation, especially for those with sensitive skin and/or color-treated hair.

✔️ Check out the ingredients: Taylor recommends looking for shampoos with ingredients like tea tree oil (which helps regulate sebum production and removes buildup), peppermint oil (to balance the scalp's pH level) or lemongrass oil (for its natural astringent properties) to leave your scalp refreshed.

• Avoid touching your hair. "When you touch your hair the oil on your hands gets in your hair so it can make your hair dirtier faster," says Ellis.
• Don't over wash your hair. Over washing can actually cause more harm than good. This may dry out the scalp, causing "a signal to produce more oil," explains Marie.
• Wash your hair when it feels oily. Everyone’s oil production is different. Washing two to three times a week may not be enough for someone with higher oil production, advises Marie, which could cause buildup.

Good Housekeeping Freelance Beauty Editor Dori Price wrote this original article. She has over 15 years of experience researching and writing haircare and hairstyling stories, combining her knowledge with the expertise of top industry professionals such as hairstylists, hair colorists and trichologists. She is an expert in all hair product categories, including shampoos.

Good Housekeeping Temporary Beauty Editor Celia Shatzman updated this article. She worked closely with the Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab to help deliver fact-based, science-backed beauty coverage.

Celebrity hairstylists Glenn Ellis, Nicholas Taylor and Ashleigh Marie are all experts in hair and provided product recommendations and expert advice.