Clarifying before a treatment: what Shampoo Two is for, and when to stop

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Researched. We have not used this one long enough to give you a verdict, and we would rather say so than invent one. What follows is how it works, who it suits, and what it will not do. When we have used it properly, this page carries the verdict and the date.

Paul Mitchell Shampoo Two, Clarifying Shampoo

The most useful line on this listing is the one it says almost in passing: ideal for use before a deep conditioning treatment.

That is the right way to think about a clarifying shampoo. Not as a better everyday shampoo, but as preparation — the step that clears the way so the thing you do next can work.

Why a coated strand ignores a treatment

A conditioner or hair mask works by leaving something behind on the surface of the hair. The ingredients that do the smoothing are drawn to the rougher, damaged parts of the strand and settle there.

They cannot settle on a surface that is already covered. Weeks of styling polymers, silicones, oils and dry shampoo build a film that sits between the hair and anything new you put on it. The mask goes on, the mask rinses off, and very little of it ever reached the hair. That is usually what is happening when a treatment that used to work has quietly stopped.

"Squeaky clean" is a warning as well as a promise

The listing says it leaves hair squeaky clean. The squeak is friction: the sound of hair with nothing on its surface to let one strand slide past another. It has been stripped of the film that made it slip — the unwanted buildup, and the natural oil along with it.

Right before a deep conditioner, that is exactly what you want, because the conditioner is about to put slip back. As the way you wash every day, it is what leaves hair dry, rough and tangled.

Who it is for

The listing says all hair types, especially oily hair, and that second part is the honest one. Oily hair tolerates being stripped, because it replaces what it loses quickly. Heavy product users benefit most, because they have the most to remove.

Dry, curly, coarse or bleached hair has the least oil to spare. It can still be clarified, less often, and it should always be followed by conditioner.

How often

Less than you think. For most people, once a week at the very most, and every couple of weeks is plenty. The sign you are due is not the calendar: it is hair that feels coated, hangs limp a day after washing, or has stopped responding to the products that used to work.

There is more on the timing, and on the separate question of mineral buildup from hard water, in our piece on clarifying shampoo and the two kinds of buildup.

If your hair is coloured

Clarifying is the step in a routine most likely to fade colour, because it removes more from the hair than an ordinary wash does. That does not rule it out. It does make it worth asking whoever does your colour how often they would want you to clarify, and whether to avoid it in the days straight after a colour appointment.

What it will not do

It will not repair damage — it removes what is on the hair and adds nothing. It is the wrong tool for dandruff, which is usually a yeast problem rather than a residue one; that calls for an antifungal like ketoconazole shampoo. And it will not suit being your everyday shampoo unless your hair is genuinely oily.

The product

A clarifying shampoo that describes itself plainly: it deep-cleanses and removes the buildup that dulls hair. The reason to reach for it is the step it sets up, so buy it alongside the conditioner or mask you want to start working again.

The one people are searching for is the Paul Mitchell Shampoo Two, Clarifying Shampoo.

Paul Mitchell Shampoo Two, Clarifying Shampoo

We do not print prices here, because a price we typed last month is a price that is wrong today.

Written by CatieH, who covers nails and hair here.