I gave up shampoo and conditioner for this £48 cream and was seriously impressed

Most of us have the shampoo-and-conditioner routine firmly ingrained: shampoo to clean, rinse, conditioner to put the moisture back in, rinse again. Hairstory takes a very different approach. Its hero product is a cleansing cream designed to do both jobs at once.

Hairstory was founded in 2015 by Michael Gordon, the man who previously founded Bumble and bumble, so there’s some serious hair industry pedigree behind the relatively young brand.

Its philosophy is built around challenging the conventional shampoo-and-conditioner cycle. At the centre of everything is New Wash, a cleansing cream which doesn’t contain the detergents traditionally used to make shampoo foam.

Hairstory’s argument is that conventional shampoo can strip away the scalp’s protective natural oils, leaving us reaching for conditioner to replace some of the moisture we’ve just removed. New Wash instead cleans and conditions simultaneously – with no detergents.

The three products I’ve been testing form what the brand calls its New Wash Method, and it’s certainly a departure from my normal routine.

It begins on dry hair with Pre-Wash, £27, designed to help loosen oil, dirt and product build-up. I sectioned my hair, applied it directly to the roots using the pointed nozzle, massaged it into my scalp and left it for around three to four minutes before getting into the shower.

It’s an extra step, admittedly, but an easy one, and Pre-Wash can be used every time or whenever your hair needs a more thorough clean.

The biggest change comes with New Wash Original, £48, because this isn’t simply a case of swapping your shampoo for another bottle.

New Wash is a cleansing cream and it doesn’t foam. At all. Instead, Hairstory recommends a three-step approach: amount, friction and rinsing.

You use enough product to lightly coat your scalp and hair, roughly the amount of shampoo and conditioner you’d normally use combined. Then comes the important bit: really working it in. I massaged New Wash vigorously into my scalp with the brand’s £11 scalp brush, although you can use your fingers instead.

Finally, you rinse thoroughly, using your hands almost like a squeegee to help remove the product.

It feels surprisingly alien the first time. We’ve been trained to interpret a head full of foam as evidence that our hair is getting clean, so massaging in a cream with barely a bubble in sight requires a certain amount of trust.

And then you don’t follow it with conditioner. New Wash is designed to do both jobs in one step.

Hairstory says switching from conventional shampoo can involve an adjustment period and recommends persevering for a couple of weeks.

For me, any concern was short-lived. After towel drying my hair and starting to brush it ahead of drying, I could immediately feel how tangle-free it was. This is usually a big problem for my hair and every hairdresser I’ve had has been warned to be careful with it.

I also tried Primer, £39, a lightweight leave-in mist for damp or dry hair which adds moisture, helps with detangling and provides heat protection up to 450°F/232°C. I didn’t feel I needed it for detangling, but the heat protection was reassuring.

When I did use it, it didn’t leave my fine hair overloaded with product, which can quickly take it from nicely conditioned to flat and weighed down.

The biggest benefit, though, was the result after blow drying. These products left my hair shiny, smooth and super-clean. With no conditioner, I’d expected a dull and lifeless finish. Seriously impressive. The fact that I know I’d achieved these results through a product that didn’t strip away my hair’s natural oils was a bonus.

And, maybe surprisingly, it didn’t take long for me to adapt to the new approach, even after years of cleaning my scalp and hair a different way.

As far as the results go, there isn’t much I don’t like. But there are drawbacks, starting with the price. Combined, the three products cost £114, before adding the £11 scalp brush. (There is, however, a much better-value way to buy into the routine. Hairstory’s New Wash Method is currently £69, reduced from £91, and includes Pre-Wash, New Wash Original, the reusable Better Bottle and Massaging Scalp Brush. That means you can try the core two-step system, complete with the brush I used to work New Wash into my scalp, for considerably less than buying everything separately. Primer isn’t included, but given that I didn’t feel I particularly needed it for detangling, I don’t think that’s a deal-breaker.)

There’s also more effort involved than with conventional shampoo. New Wash needs to be worked thoroughly through the hair and scalp and rinsed particularly well, so it isn’t necessarily the quickest option.

And while Hairstory’s philosophy is partly about simplifying haircare, that argument becomes less convincing once Pre-Wash, Primer and a scalp brush enter the equation. I didn’t really need Primer for detangling, while Pre-Wash adds another step before you’ve even stepped into the shower.

For me, New Wash is the star of the routine, and I’d be tempted to start there before investing in the whole system.

For many the biggest adjustment with Hairstory will be psychological. We’ve spent years equating bubbles with cleanliness and conditioner with softness, so replacing two familiar products with one non-foaming cream might take some getting used to.

This isn’t simply another shampoo promising shinier, softer hair. It’s asking you to rethink the way you’ve been washing it in the first place. I’m always going to be a fan of something that challenges the status quo and for the environment, one plastic bottle in the shower has got to be better than two.

Washing my hair without a satisfying headful of bubbles still feels a little strange, but I’m beginning to see why Hairstory thinks we might be ready to break up with shampoo and conditioner altogether. It’s just a shame the price will put it out of reach for many people.