I’ve always loved the smell of hair products. Starting from when I was 6, I would sit next to my mother at the hair salon for the long process of getting matching “Mommy and me” perms. We’d endure hours of curing, aware that the lingering, almost skunk-like smell of hair solution (which I later learned is called ammonium thioglycolate, thanks to Legally Blonde) and our tight ringlets had to be earned. As a teenager in middle school, the scent of Pert Plus on wet hair wafting through the homeroom made me feel like I was in an unofficial sorority. When I became a baby beauty editor, I couldn’t believe that one of my job perks was that my hair could smell like Oribe’s Dry Texture Spray every day. This year, my hair smells like Santal 33 and a private plane had a baby, thanks to Suite Reyad’s new products.
I was introduced to Suite Reyad via ELLE editor-in-chief Nina Garcia. Garcia’s hair has long been the envy of everyone who sees it—her color is always a shiny caramel, her hair is bouncy, and it always looks luscious and thick. One of her secrets is that she has been going to the hair salon at The Pierre hotel for years. They do “the best highlights,” she told me. They also make the best-smelling shampoos and conditioners I’ve tried this year.
“The Shampoo,” as it is simply called, is the color of gold, and the conditioner is thick like a toothpaste. Reyad founders Kylie and Reyad Fritas are both longtime colorists. They wanted to create a formula that would clean hair without stripping it. “The healthier the hair, the better our color looks,” they said, laughing. But also, their clients have been begging them to make hair products for years. The Fritas went completely custom for the line, from the formula to the perfumer-created fragrance.
Inspired by Reyad’s North African roots, the formulas include organic date seed oil, which has long been used in Arab culture for nourishing and restoring the scalp. The fragrance was sparked after the Fritas went on a trip to Morocco. “We walked around the city, and it gave us a particular feeling and scent that we kept in mind,” they said. The fragrance is one of my favorite things about the shampoo and conditioner; the earthiness makes me feel like I’m subtly surrounded by a cloud of perfume. Many hair products tend to smell fruity, floral, or fresh, not all that different from the scents we used to favor in middle school. This is the unique shampoo that smells smoky, expensive, and sophisticated—like long nails clinking against a martini glass.
My hair has a natural inclination towards limpness. When a shampoo is overly drying or too moisturizing, my hair is prone to looking lifeless, and some of my softer layers turn flippy. The ends are also particularly dry and frizzy right now, thanks to the cold weather, with lots of broken split ends. I really love the richness of this conditioner, which works to smooth my ends and make them feel less brittle. The shampoo makes my hair fall in gentle, cascading layers, with a softness that lasts for days. But of course, the best part is the compliments. I was riding up the escalator to work one day when someone stopped and whirled around to face me. “You smell so good,” they said. I replied, without any doubt, “Thank you, it’s my hair.”
The Duo for Fine & Normal Hair
