Olaplex's Curl Range Delivers: Senior Writer Reviews Best Products for Frizzy, Unruly Hair

Curly hair has a mind of its own. Some mornings it arrives as loose waves; other mornings it's tight ringlets. The only constant is thickness and frizz—the kind that demands real products, not promises. Finding a routine that actually works is less like shopping and more like archaeology: you dig through what doesn't work until you hit something solid, and even then, you're never quite sure it'll perform the same way twice.

Philippa Tonkin, a senior shopping writer, knows this intimacy with uncooperative hair. She's spent years bleaching and dyeing her blonde locks, which means she's also spent years repairing the damage that comes with it. When she spotted someone on TikTok using Olaplex's curl-specific line and getting results that looked familiar—that Carrie Bradshaw texture people kept mentioning in the comments—she decided to test the full routine herself. The logic was simple: if the hair looked like hers, maybe the products would work the same way.

The standout was Olaplex's reformulated N°.3PLUS treatment, a three-minute repair mask that replaced the original version. Tonkin had liked the old one, but this iteration delivered something she'd learned to be skeptical of: actual, visible change. After years of trying products that felt pleasant in the moment but left her hair unchanged, this one made a difference she could see and feel. The softness returned. The smoothness stuck around. For hair that's been through bleaching cycles, that's not a small thing.

The shampoo and conditioner pairing formed the foundation. The shampoo was competent but unremarkable—it didn't lather as generously as Tonkin would have liked, sometimes requiring a second wash to build proper foam. The conditioner, though, was where the system showed its teeth. It moved through her hair without resistance, untangling the knots that accumulate during washing. More surprisingly, it began forming her curls while she was still under the water, the waves and ringlets organizing themselves before she'd even reached for styling products. That's efficiency most curl routines don't deliver.

The N°.10 gel challenged Tonkin's long-standing wariness of gel products. Every gel she'd tried before had left her hair feeling stiff, weighed down, almost plasticky—the kind of result that made her want to wash it out immediately. This one felt different in her hands, more like a cream than a traditional gel. It didn't create that rigid cast she'd come to expect. Instead, her ringlets gained definition and her hair felt fuller, without the sacrifice of movement or the feeling of product buildup.

The final piece was the N°.7 hair oil, applied to mid-lengths and ends when her hair was nearly dry. Tonkin had resisted oils for years, convinced that adding one to naturally oily scalp would only compound the problem. She was wrong. The oil pulled the whole look together, adding softness and shine without making her hair feel greasy. It also smelled good, which matters more than people admit when you're using something daily.

The timing of this review lands during Amazon Prime Big Deal Days, when selected Olaplex products are discounted up to 40 percent. For someone standing in front of the mirror every morning, negotiating with their hair's mood swings, that's a practical window to try a system that actually seems to work.