Best French Hair Mask 2023 (Our Top 8 Picks)
Our top pick? Kerastase's Genesis Reconstituant Hair Mask
The secret to achieving luscious, silky French girl hair is multifaceted, but that doesn't necessarily mean complex. It begins with the best French shampoo, followed by the best French conditioner, but arguably the most crucial step is to use a potent, nourishing, fortifying hair mask once or twice a week.
Unlike shampoos and conditioners, choosing a mask isn't so much about whether your hair is thick or thin. Rather, the most important consideration is what your hair *needs* — whether that be hydration, damage repair, nutrient replenishment, or something else, we've got you covered with our top 8 best French hair mask recommendations.
Before we dive into specifics, though, here is some handy advice that can help you get the most out of your hair mask:
- Aim to use a hair mask about once or twice a week (instead of your usual conditioner)
- A little goes a long way, so only use a small amount of product each application
- Leave it on for about ten to fifteen minutes (or overnight if you so wish!)
- Rinse with ~cold~ water to enhance shine
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#1 — Genesis Reconstituant Hair Mask by Kerastase
Price: $$$$
The best French hair mask overall.
What makes it special?
As a result of its root-to-tip strengthening, this mask helps reduce breakage and produces a smooth, glossy finish. With Edelweiss Native Cells, Ginger Root, and Aminexil, it provides intense hydration and nourishment. This powerful blend smooths hair fibres, reducing tangling and strengthening the strand.
The antioxidant formula helps prevent your locks from being damaged and weakened by environmental aggressors, like pollution and heat. Following the mask, your hair will feel soft and look healthier, having been thoroughly nourished and conditioned.
#2 — Karite Hydra Hydrating Mask by Rene Furterer
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best hydrating hair mask.
What makes it special?
This fan-favourite hydrating mask owes its impressive efficacy to ethically sourced Shea oil - the prodigious regenerating active that intensely nourishes your hair and restores its natural beauty with the power of hydration.
It also contains a unique natural complex known as Cimentrio, which acts in the same way as an antioxidant, protecting your hair and scalp from external aggressors. After just one application, your hair is instantly detangled from roots to ends, leaving your hair easy-to-style, soft, supple, shiny and lightweight - for a beautifully radiant head of hair.
#3 — Multi-Tasker Instant Conditioning Flash Mask by Fekkai
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best French hair mask for dyed/color-treated hair.
What makes it special? Its photoprotective properties help shield your hair from UV rays, environmental aggressors, and free radical damage, resulting in the most vibrant hair colour you have ever seen. Infused with jojoba and olive oils for deep hydration, Fekkai's treatment masque hydrates colour-treated hair instantly. Not only is it vegan and cruelty-free, but silicones, sulfates, parabens, phthalates, and gluten are all absent from the formula, too.
#4 — Elvive Total Repair by L'Oreal
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best budget hair mask.
What makes it special? Repairing up to 1 year of damage to your hair's smoothness in just 1 use, the Elvive Total Repair mask delivers intensive care without weighing your hair down for silky, healthy-looking hair that feels good, is stronger, suppler and easier to style. Enriched with Active Serum, Pro-Keratin and Ceramides, you'll be bathing your hair in the highest-quality, most luxurious ingredients without breaking the bank.
#5 — Mask with Organic Cupuacu Butter by Klorane
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best French hair mask for damaged hair.
What makes it special? This 3-in-1 mask is a super-intensive nourishing and repairing treatment for very dry, damaged hair. It can be used in 3 ways: as an in-shower treatment (in place of your conditioner), as an overnight mask, or for the driest hair, as a leave-in cream. The 96% natural-origin formula nourishes and tames hair without weighing it down, and superbly hydrates hair by improving water retention.
#6 — Regenerating Mask by Christophe Robin
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best indulgent hair mask.
What makes it special? With the Regenerating Mask by Christophe Robin, you get a rich, creamy formula that quickly penetrates your hair for long-term effects from the root to the tip. It starts working within minutes of the first application, ensuring your hair is repaired, protected, and smoothed. Prickly pear seed oil has antioxidant and regenerative benefits whilst plant ceramides restructure the hair to make it stronger and increase shine. Inula flower extracts revive and protect pigments in natural or coloured hair. A must-try.
#7 — Regenerating Hair Care Mask by Sisley
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best luxury hair mask.
What makes it special? The Regenerating Hair Care Mask enriched with four botanical oils encourages the overall regeneration of your scalp and hair to yield silky, healthy locks. Its light and creamy formula is highly concentrated in plant-based active extracts, proteins, vitamins and minerals that energize the scalp to strengthen damaged hair from the root. It boasts a gorgeously fresh fragrance, can easily be distributed from roots to ends and is ideal for massage, making it one of the most luxurious and sensorial hair masks around.
#8 — SOS Splendid Ends Mask by L'Occitane
Our rating: ★★★★★
Price: $$$$
The best hair mask treatment for split ends.
What makes it special? This whipped hair mask immediately repairs and smooths split ends with an ultra-sensorial formula of essential oils and nourishing shea butter. Free from silicone, it deeply treats your hair leaving it soft, smooth and shiny with a delicate fruity and gourmand fragrance. Our only qualm with it is that it runs out rather fast! This, however, is offset somewhat by its relatively purse-friendly price.
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Calum Torrington is the founder of FemmeNordic. He has worked as a beauty editor since 2020 and employs his analytical background in mathematics to thoroughly scrutinize complex INCI lists. Now, he helps over 1 million people per year to find the best beauty products.