This $3 Deep Conditioner Will Give You Rich-Girl Hair

::shakes lustrous locks in slow motion::

We hope you love the products we recommend! Just so you know, BuzzFeed may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

Hi, I'm Elizabeth, and I put my hair through the ringer. It's thick, colored, and naturally curly, but I prefer it the wavy way pictured here — so there's a lot of heat styling (and compensating with this conditioner, which I'll get to in a minute) involved.

Elizabeth Lilly / BuzzFeed

I wasn't always so obsessive about my hair. It started in seventh grade when my acne was in full effect and I'd read in a teen magazine that everything else is just "landscape" if your hair looks good. Twelve-year-old Elizabeth clearly took the advice to heart, as a solid way to distract everyone from staring at my acne — which, btw, cleared up at 15, thanks to three months of Accutane.

So, back to my hair: During seventh grade I started getting highlights, straightening my hair with one of those new wet-to-straight contraptions that totally fried it, and putting my hair in hot rollers for special events like church and cheerleading stuff.

Now I only wash my hair once or twice a week to offset some of that self-inflicted damage. Also because I'm lazy! Then I brag about it on Snapchat and Instagram stories.

Elizabeth Lilly / BuzzFeed

I didn't realize until I was about 15 that I could get away with not washing my hair every day. (So many beauty things happened for me at that age!) My friends noticed in the school hallways that my hair looked smoother, and I relished the extra z's I got the mornings of my "skip" days. I've kept up the habit since — even on days when I work out and sweat like a hog. I just blow-dry my sweaty hair and apply a bunch of dry shampoo. It works like a charm!

So when I *do* wash my hair, I make it count with a variety of masks and conditioners. But I keep going back to this $3 Pantene deep conditioner.

Elizabeth Lilly / BuzzFeed

I normally have no less than 10 bottles of shampoo and conditioner in my shower at any given time because I'm always in pursuit of stuff that makes my hair glossier and smoother. But this Pantene product is something I go back to when my containers of pricey hair masks and conditioners (that I often score for free because of my job) get used up.

It's more concentrated than your normal conditioner and pretty gloopy, so it adheres to your hair while you're awkwardly standing in the shower letting it work its magic. (Most luxury hair masks I've used are far runnier and require more product to coat every strand.) This makes running a wide-tooth comb through my hair to detangle while the formula absorbs even easier, so I don't have to worry about splats of conditioner moisturizing my tub instead of my hair. Afterward, my hair always feels soft, looks significantly smoother, and has a nice, healthy-looking sheen. Aka this is probably the closest I'm getting to "rich-girl hair."

You can use it every time you wash your hair if you'd like. That's what it says on the label! But I rotate it out and even squirt in a bit in with other conditioners to give them an extra boost. And yes, you can leave it on for longer than three minutes. I do all the time! Obviously, I adore that the formula is cheap and readily available, but it also squirts out, unlike a lot of hair masks that require dipping into a tub with a lid that always goes MIA or turns into a tripping hazard in the tub.

I used it before I went on a summer vacation out West, aka where there's hardly any humidity but your hair will feel fried. But I used the deep conditioner and look at how majestic my hair looks! The Badlands as a background sure don't hurt.

Elizabeth Lilly / BuzzFeed

I'm always concerned about how my hair's going to look on vacation because I don't want an epic moment like this one to be ruined by a terrible hair day. (Yep, I'm that vapid.) Using this conditioning treatment eliminated the need for a lot of my everyday styling in a weird hotel bathroom. After all, you probably shouldn't spend that much of your vacation time primping.

Get the Pantene Smooth and Sleek 3-Minute Miracle Deep Conditioner from Amazon for $2.98.