What’s the difference between the fifteen dollar shampoo bottle and three dollar one? (Assume both are the same size of course…)
$12
One is a brand name and the other (cheaper one) is generic (what are the names)? Most of the time the cheaper one will work just as well and may even be exactly the same (more or less).
Or the $3 one contains sulfates and the $15 one doesn’t. To be fair, though, you can get a sulfate-free shampoo for $7.
What’s bad about sulphates?
The $15 one can make you feel special by allowing you to buy the “best” for yourself.
No difference, they are both terribly overpriced compared to Baking soda+Apple Cider vinegar
I know nothing about what health differences there may or may not be, but I think the issue has to do with environmental issues once it goes down the drain. (Or am I confuzling this with phosphates?)
Maybe you have to use 5 times as much of the $3 kind to get the same cleaning as with the $15 kind? 
Sulfates have a drying effect on hair, but unless your hair is long, curly, or color-treated (or you have scalp eczema or dandruff) you probably won’t notice a measurable difference. If you get good results from sulfate shampoos, there’s really no reason to stop using them. It’s just that cheap shampoo (like Suave) leaves hair “squeaky-clean” by stripping every last molecule of oil from your scalp. Shampoo without sulfates is less harsh and leaves behind more of your natural oils.
Taking it to an extreme, try washing your hair with dish soap sometime. It has a higher concentration of sulfates than even cheap shampoo, and will leave your scalp squeaky and dry as a bone.
Ehh… for what it’s worth, I spend a little extra on shampoo/conditioner for long hair. Don’t know if it’s a placebo, but the hair does seem to be happier as a result.
I have long and slightly curly hair. $3 shampoo makes my hair all fuzzy. $15 shampoo does not. Bed Head it is!
Cheap vs. expensive doesn’t necessarily tell you if one shampoo is better than another: don’t bother watching the video, I just read the article anyway.
Three dollar shampoo? Personally, I always grab the 99 cent special (suave).
I don’t know how much of a difference it makes to a person who doesn’t have long, heavy, straight hair such as myself. I love the different scents available for the cheaper shampoos like Suave and Vo5 but they leave my hair flatter than before and it feels greasier quicker. I pay $15 for Redkin and it adds a little oomph to the volume. Some shampoos gave me allergic reactions, such as the grapefruit shampoo from Burt’s Bees.
I don’t remember the source, but some time ago I saw a listing of product effectiveness vs. price. In hair care the verdict was, go with cheap shampoo and expensive conditioner. Makes sense to me, but I go cheap with both. I’m aging guy with less hair to mess with, and nobody really cares what my hair looks like now.
I color my hair, so if I use cheap shampoo, the color strips out two to three times faster than it does with a good shampoo.
I do a lot to my hair-- teasing, blow drying, flat ironing, curling-- so my hair needs something that will not strip the moisture out of it. Cheap shampoo means my hair literally breaks off throughout the day, leaving me with a big, frizzy, gorked up mess.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I no longer use super fancy million dollar salon shampoo and conditioner ($15? Hell no, that shit is like $30+ a bottle now for the really good stuff), but I make sure that what I get is a high end drugstore product-- so like $7-9 dollars, instead of $3-$4. My current favorite is the L’Oreal sulphate free stuff, but I really want to find something better at this price range where they don’t engage in animal testing.
The most important thing, though, is a good conditioner. I will spend money on a good conditioning treatment, just because it makes such a tremendous difference in my hair’s condition. People always ask how my hair is so long, shiny, and healthy looking— and despite me dying and fucking with my hair for 12+ years now, it looks that good because I use good conditioners on it.
I use a cheaper one, but then I need a “squeaky clean” shampoo – my hair gets really oily, and then it goes flat. (It’s baby-fine and poker straight). So then I use a volumizing gel. I WISH I had the drying out, frizzy problem, since it seems everything on the market is made for that kind of hair, but not for my kind. Or if it is, it just gunks it up. 
(My hairdresser told me to use Pantene gel after getting out of the shower, scrunch it, and then comb it out when my hair’s dry. It really does work for giving it some volume and cutting out the oil.)
You do realize that your hair is overproducing oil because you’re stripping it of all of its oil, right? It’s sort of a self-worsening prophecy heh. If you used gentle shampoo and only washed every few days, you’d be a big oily mess for a month or so, but your body will correct itself.
Either way, a nice way to control oil between showers is to use dry shampoo. All kinds of drugstore brands have it now, but I like Big Sexy because it’s clear. You can also just use baby powder.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the $15 shampoo is somewhat better for your hair than Baking soda + Apple Cider Vinegar.
Too extravagant for me. I just lather up some soap using my bar of Ivory and apply it to my scalp.