Redken All Soft Hair Care: The Honest, No-Fluff Guide to Softer, Healthier Hair
If your hair feels like straw by Thursday no matter what you do, you’ve probably typed “redken all soft hair care” into Google at least once. Maybe your stylist mentioned it. Maybe you saw the champagne-colored bottles at Ulta and wondered if they actually live up to the hype, or if it’s just another pretty label with a salon price tag.
I get it. The hair care aisle is overwhelming. Every brand promises silky, shiny, commercial-worthy hair, and most of them quietly under-deliver. So in this guide, I’m going to walk you through the entire Redken All Soft line the way a friend would — what’s actually in it, who it works for, who should skip it, how to build a full hair care routine around it, and how it stacks up against other professional hair care products in the same price range.
Grab a coffee. This is a long one, because your hair deserves more than a 300-word listicle.
What Exactly Is Redken All Soft?
Redken All Soft is a moisture-focused hair care line made for dry, brittle, rough-feeling hair. It’s one of Redken’s oldest and best-selling collections, and there’s a reason it has survived decades in an industry where products come and go every season: it does one job, and it does it well. That job is softness.
The line is built around two hero ingredients. The first is argan oil, a lightweight, fatty-acid-rich oil that smooths the hair surface and adds slip without making strands greasy. The second is Redken’s RCT Protein Complex, which treats the hair at the root, core, and tip instead of just coating the outside. That combination of moisture plus protein matters, because dry hair usually isn’t just “thirsty” — it’s structurally weakened. A good hair care protein treatment paired with hydration fixes both problems at once, which is exactly what All Soft tries to do.
In plain English: if your hair snaps when you brush it, frizzes the second you step outside, or feels dry an hour after conditioning, this line was designed for you.
Who Should Use It (And Who Shouldn’t)
Let’s be honest before we go any further, because no product works for everyone, and pretending otherwise is how people waste money.
All Soft is a great match if you have: dry or coarse hair, color-treated hair that’s lost its softness, thick or frizzy hair that resists smoothing, long hair with dry ends, or hair that’s rough from heat styling. It’s also one of the better options if you’re searching for the best hair care products for dry hair but don’t want something so heavy it flattens your style.
You should probably look elsewhere if you have: very fine hair that gets weighed down easily (Redken’s Volume Injection line is the better pick), an oily scalp with greasy roots, or severely bleach-damaged hair that needs bond repair first — in that case, something like Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate or Olaplex makes more sense as your starting point, with All Soft added later for softness.
One more note: people with wavy hair or loose curls often do well with All Soft, but if you have tight curls or coily 4c hair, you’ll likely want something richer. The formula smooths beautifully, but very textured hair usually needs heavier butters and creams than this line provides.
Breaking Down the Core Products
Redken hair care products in the All Soft family cover every step of a routine, so let’s go through them one by one.
1. All Soft Shampoo
This is where most people start, and honestly, it’s the backbone of the line. It’s a creamy, softly fragranced shampoo that cleans without stripping. It doesn’t lather into a giant foam mountain the way drugstore shampoos do — and that’s a good sign, not a bad one. Gentle cleansers rarely produce huge foam.
A quick tip from experience: you only need a small amount, focused on the scalp. Let the suds rinse through your lengths instead of scrubbing shampoo into your ends. Your ends are the oldest, driest part of your hair, and they need cleansing the least.
2. All Soft Conditioner
The conditioner is where you start feeling the “all soft” name earn its keep. It detangles almost instantly and leaves hair noticeably smoother after a single wash. Apply it from the mid-lengths down, leave it in for two to three minutes, and rinse with cool-ish water. Skipping the scalp keeps your roots from going flat.
3. All Soft Heavy Cream / Deep Conditioning Mask
Once or twice a week, swap your regular conditioner for the mask. This is the step that transforms a decent hair care routine for damaged hair into a genuinely effective one. Leave it on for five to fifteen minutes — shower steam helps it penetrate — and you’ll notice the difference most on days two and three after washing, when your hair would normally start feeling dry again.
4. All Soft Argan-6 Oil
This multi-use oil is quietly the most versatile product in the line. You can use it on damp hair before blow-drying as heat protection support, on dry hair to smooth flyaways, or as a pre-shampoo treatment on your ends. A little goes a very long way. Two or three drops for medium-length hair is plenty; anything more and you’ll tip from “glossy” into “greasy.”
5. All Soft Moisture Restore Leave-In
If you only add one extra product beyond shampoo and conditioner, make it this one. Leave-in hair care is the step most people skip, and it’s the step that protects your hair all day — from sun, wind, brushing, and dryness. Spray it on damp hair, comb through, and style as usual.
6. All Soft Mega Line
Redken also makes an intensified version called All Soft Mega, built for severely dry, thick, or coarse hair. If regular All Soft feels good but not quite enough, Mega is the upgrade. It uses richer ingredients like cactus extract and murumuru butter and works especially well in dry climates or harsh winters.
Building a Complete Hair Care Routine Around All Soft
Products don’t fix hair. Routines do. Here’s a simple weekly structure that gets the most out of this line without overcomplicating your life.
Wash days (2–3 times per week): Shampoo the scalp, condition the lengths, and finish with the leave-in spray on damp hair. If you heat style, add a proper heat protectant — softness means nothing if you’re frying your strands at 220°C.
Once a week: Replace the conditioner with the Heavy Cream mask. This is non-negotiable if you have dry or color-treated hair.
Daily, as needed: A drop or two of Argan-6 Oil on the ends to refresh and de-frizz. This is especially useful for anyone following hair care tips for long hair, because long ends can be two, three, even five years old and need constant reinforcement.
Nightly, if you’re serious: Sleep on a silk pillowcase and tie long hair in a loose braid. It costs nothing extra and reduces the friction that undoes all your good work while you sleep.
That’s it. Four products, one simple rhythm. A proper hair care routine doesn’t need ten steps; it needs the right steps, done consistently.
All Soft for Long Hair: Why It’s a Favorite
Long hair care deserves its own section here, because All Soft has a cult following among people growing their hair out — and for good reason.
When you’re learning how to take care of long hair, the biggest enemy isn’t slow growth. It’s breakage. Hair grows about half an inch per month for almost everyone; the difference between people who “can” grow long hair and people who “can’t” is almost always how much length they lose to snapping and split ends. Softness equals flexibility, and flexible hair bends instead of breaking.
That’s why moisture-heavy hair care products for long hair matter so much. The All Soft conditioner and mask keep those older mid-lengths and ends supple, the leave-in reduces daily brushing damage, and the argan oil seals the ends where splits begin. Pair the products with basics like detangling from the bottom up, using a wide-tooth comb on wet hair, and trimming every 10–12 weeks, and you have a long hair care routine that actually produces results you can measure in inches.
Yes, Men Can (and Should) Use It Too
Quick myth-busting moment: hair products don’t have genders. Men’s hair care is mostly marketing — a black bottle, a “sport” scent, and often a harsher formula.
If you’re a guy with longer hair, dry hair, or a curly or wavy texture, All Soft works exactly the same on your head as anyone else’s. In fact, a lot of long hair care for men advice online eventually lands on the same conclusion: use a gentle, sulfate-conscious shampoo, condition every wash, and add a leave-in. That’s precisely what this line offers. Men with short hair honestly may not need it — short hair is all new growth and rarely gets truly dry — but anyone growing their hair past their ears will feel the difference within two or three washes.
How It Handles Different Hair Types
Since everyone’s hair behaves differently, here’s the quick honest rundown by type.
Colored and highlighted hair: Very good match. The formulas are gentle enough for color-treated hair, and the added softness offsets the dryness that comes with dyeing. If you’re blonde, you’ll still want a purple shampoo in rotation for tone, but All Soft can handle the moisture side.
Wavy hair: Excellent. It smooths frizz without erasing your wave pattern, which is the balance most wavy hair care routines struggle to find.
Curly hair: Good for loose to medium curls. Tighter curls may find it not rich enough as a standalone system.
Fine hair: Use with caution. Stick to the shampoo and a tiny amount of conditioner on the ends only, and skip the mask, or your hair may fall flat.
Grey and white hair: Actually a hidden gem here. Grey hair tends to be coarser and drier, and many people managing grey hair care find All Soft makes it dramatically more manageable and shiny.
All Soft vs. Other Brands: Is It Worth the Money?
Fair question, because salon quality hair care isn’t cheap, and comparison shopping is smart.
Against Kérastase Nutritive, All Soft delivers maybe 85–90% of the performance for roughly half the price. Kérastase feels more luxurious and smells incredible, but for pure softness results, the gap is smaller than the price difference suggests.
Against Olaplex, it’s not really a fair fight because they do different jobs. Olaplex repairs broken bonds; All Soft adds moisture and smoothness. Damaged hair often needs both, used together.
Against drugstore options like Dove or L’Oréal Paris, All Soft wins clearly on ingredient quality, how little product you need per wash, and how long the softness lasts between washes. Drugstore conditioners often rely on heavy silicones that feel great on day one and build up by week three.
Against Pureology Hydrate, its sister brand under L’Oréal Professionnel, the results are similar. Pureology is fully vegan and slightly more scalp-focused; All Soft is a bit better at raw smoothing power. You genuinely can’t go wrong with either.
The honest verdict: it sits in that sweet spot between affordable hair care and true luxury hair care brands — professional results without the eye-watering luxury markup.
Where to Buy It (Without Getting Faked)
This matters more than people realize. Counterfeit professional hair care products are a real problem on third-party marketplaces. Buy from Ulta, Sephora, the official Redken website, a licensed salon, or authorized retailers like Target’s beauty section. If a price online looks too good to be true — say, 60% off with no sale event — it usually is. Watered-down or expired fakes are common, and they’re the number one reason you’ll see wildly conflicting reviews of the same product.
Money-saving tip: the hair care sets and liter-size “duo” bottles that go on sale a couple of times a year bring the per-wash cost down to almost drugstore level.
Small Habits That Multiply Your Results
The products do a lot of work, but a few free habits will double their effect. Wash with lukewarm water instead of hot, because hot water strips the very moisture you’re paying to put back in. Squeeze hair with a microfiber towel instead of rubbing with a rough one. Keep heat tools under 180°C when you can. And drink water and eat protein — hair is literally built from what you eat, and no shampoo on earth can out-perform a poor diet.
None of this is glamorous advice, but combined with a consistent routine, it’s the difference between hair that looks okay and hair that people ask you about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Redken All Soft sulfate-free?
The classic All Soft shampoo contains gentle sulfates, while the All Soft Mega Curls variant is sulfate-free. If sulfate-free hair care is a hard requirement for you, check the specific bottle’s label, because formulations get updated over time.
You can, but most hair doesn’t need daily washing. Two to three washes a week preserves your natural oils and stretches the bottle further.
Softness is immediate — you’ll feel it on the first wash. Deeper improvements in strength and reduced breakage typically show up over four to six weeks of consistent use.
Is it safe for keratin-treated hair?
Generally yes, though if you’ve had a keratin smoothing treatment, your stylist may recommend the fully sulfate-free options in the range to extend the treatment’s life.
Does it help with hair growth?
Not directly — nothing topical dramatically changes growth speed. But by reducing breakage, it helps you retain length, which is what most people actually mean when they say they want their hair to grow.
How to Take Care of Curly Hair
Curly hair plays by its own rules, and the sooner you accept that, the happier your curls will be. The biggest thing to understand is that curly hair is naturally drier than straight hair — the oils your scalp produces struggle to travel down all those twists and turns. So almost every curly hair problem, from frizz to breakage, traces back to one root cause: not enough moisture.
Start by washing less often. Two times a week is plenty for most curl types, and use a sulfate-free shampoo so you’re not stripping away what little natural oil you have. Conditioner is non-negotiable — use a generous amount, detangle with your fingers or a wide-tooth comb while the conditioner is still in your hair, and never brush curls when they’re dry unless you want a frizz cloud.
After washing, skip the rough towel. Squeeze water out gently with a microfiber towel or an old cotton t-shirt, then apply a leave-in conditioner or curl cream to soaking-wet hair. This is the step that decides whether your curls clump beautifully or turn into frizz by noon. Let hair air-dry or use a diffuser on low heat — never a bare blow dryer.
Once a week, add a deep conditioning mask, and once a month or so, a protein treatment to keep curls bouncy instead of mushy. Sleep on a silk pillowcase or in a loose “pineapple” bun to protect your curl pattern overnight. Give this routine four to six weeks of consistency, and you’ll see curls you didn’t know your hair could make.
How to Take Care of Wavy Hair
Wavy hair is the trickiest texture to figure out — too heavy a routine and it goes flat and greasy, too light and it frizzes into a halo. If your hair dries with a bend or an “S” shape but isn’t quite curly, this is for you.
The golden rule for waves is lightweight everything. Rich, buttery products that curly-haired people swear by will drag your waves straight and leave roots oily. Look for a gentle shampoo, a light conditioner applied only from the ears down, and a foam or lightweight mousse instead of heavy creams.
Here’s the routine that transforms most wavy hair: wash two to three times a week, and while your hair is still dripping wet, flip your head over and scrunch upward toward your scalp. Apply a small amount of mousse or light gel while scrunching. This encourages the wave pattern to form instead of getting brushed out. Then either air-dry or diffuse — and here’s the part most people miss — don’t touch your hair while it dries. Touching wet waves is the number one cause of frizz.
If your hair dries with a slight “crunch” from the gel, good. Once it’s fully dry, scrunch again gently to break the cast, and you’re left with soft, defined waves. Brush your hair only before washing, never after. And if your waves fall flat by day two, a light mist of water plus a tiny bit of leave-in will wake them right back up. Wavy hair doesn’t need more products — it needs the right technique.
How to Care for Wavy Hair (Long-Term Health)
Beyond the day-to-day styling, caring for wavy hair long-term comes down to protecting the wave pattern from the three things that destroy it: heat, weight, and friction.
Heat is the obvious one. Every flat-iron session slightly loosens your natural texture, and over months, waves can stop forming altogether. Keep heat styling to once a week at most, always with a heat protectant, and let air-drying be your default.
Weight is sneakier. Product buildup from silicones and heavy oils coats wavy strands over time, and because waves are finer than curls, they collapse under it. A clarifying wash once or twice a month resets everything — you’ll often notice your best wave day of the month is right after clarifying.
Friction is the one nobody talks about. Cotton pillowcases, rough towels, tight ponytails in the same spot every day — these all rough up the cuticle and break the wave. Switch to silk or satin for sleeping, use scrunchies instead of elastic bands, and vary where you tie your hair.
Feed your waves from the inside too. Hair is made of protein, so a diet with enough protein, iron, and water shows up in your texture within a few months. Trim every 10 to 12 weeks to stop split ends from traveling up the strand. None of these steps is dramatic on its own, but together they’re the difference between waves that show up occasionally and waves you can count on every single day.
How to Take Care of Your Hair (Complete Basics for Every Hair Type)
Strip away all the marketing, and healthy hair comes down to five habits that work for literally everyone — straight, wavy, curly, thick, or fine.
One: wash smart, not often. Most people over-wash. Two to three times a week is enough for the majority of hair types. Shampoo is for your scalp, not your lengths — massage it into the roots and let the rinse-down clean the rest. Use lukewarm water, because hot water strips natural oils and leaves hair dull.
Two: condition every single wash. Apply from the mid-lengths to the ends, leave it for two or three minutes, and rinse. Skipping conditioner to “save time” is the fastest route to tangles and breakage. Once a week, upgrade to a deep conditioning mask.
Three: be gentle when it’s wet. Wet hair stretches and snaps easily. Blot with a soft towel instead of rubbing, and detangle from the ends upward with a wide-tooth comb, never yanking a brush from the roots down.
Four: control the heat. Blow dryers, straighteners, and curling irons are fine occasionally — but always with a heat protectant, and always on the lowest temperature that gets the job done. Under 180°C for fine hair, under 200°C for thick hair.
Five: remember hair grows from your body, not your bottle. Protein, iron, water, and sleep affect your hair more than any product. Chronic stress and crash diets show up in your hair within two to three months.
Do these five things consistently for six weeks and you’ll notice softer, shinier, stronger hair — no expensive routine required. Products help, but habits are what actually change your hair.
How to Get Dog Hair Out of Car
(Note: ye keyword hair care niche ka NAHI hai — ye auto/pet cleaning topic hai. Isko apne hair care blog mein use na karein. Answer alag article ke liye niche diya hai.)
Anyone who drives with a dog knows the struggle: fur woven so deep into car upholstery that the vacuum just laughs at it. The good news is you don’t need expensive tools — you need friction and static, and a few household items provide both.
Start with a rubber glove. Put on a regular dishwashing glove, lightly dampen it, and drag your hand across the seats in one direction. The rubber grips the hair and rolls it into clumps you can pick up by hand. This one trick removes 70–80% of embedded fur before you even touch a vacuum.
Next, a rubber squeegee (the kind used for windows) works the same magic on carpets and floor mats — short, firm strokes pull hair up from deep in the fibers. For stubborn patches, lightly mist the area with a mix of water and a drop of fabric softener; it loosens the static bond holding the hair down.
Now vacuum with a brush attachment, going against the direction of the carpet fibers. A crevice tool handles the seat seams and gaps where fur collects most. Finish with a lint roller or wrapped duct tape for the last stray hairs on fabric surfaces.
To keep it from coming back, lay down a washable seat cover or a dedicated dog hammock before your next trip, and brush your dog before car rides — five minutes of brushing at home saves an hour of cleaning later. A dryer sheet wiped over seats monthly also reduces the static that makes fur cling in the first place.
The Bottom Line
Redken All Soft hair care isn’t magic, and I won’t pretend it is. What it is, is one of the most reliable moisture systems in professional hair care — a line that has stayed popular for decades because it consistently turns dry, rough, difficult hair into soft, manageable hair without drama.
If your main complaints are dryness, frizz, brittleness, or ends that feel like they belong to someone else’s head, start with the shampoo and conditioner, add the mask within a couple of weeks, and give the system a full month before judging it. Hair changes slowly, but with the right routine, it absolutely changes.
And if you’re standing in the store right now trying to decide? Buy the conditioner first. It’s the single product in the line that will convince you fastest.
Have you tried the All Soft line, or are you comparing it against something else? Your hair type makes all the difference in what works — so choose based on what your hair actually needs, not what an ad told you to want.