Playa’s Launching A Leave-In Conditioner — & It’s The Brand’s First Step Into Eco-Conscious Packaging

Your hair deals with *a lot* of drama during the summer — whether it’s the sun, saltwater, or just dry air from chilling under the AC all day, the possibility of damage is everywhere. As much as you'd like to keep it healthy, it's not the season you want to weigh your hair down with 20 products, which is why, thankfully, there seems to be a recent spike in leave-in conditioners with multitasking abilities. Case in point: Playa's soon-to-launch Monoi Milk Leave-In Conditioner, which not only detangles and softens, but primes and protects your hair from heat, too.

Officially available starting May 19, you can join the waitlists at Sephora.com and Playabeauty.com to get your hands on the Cali-cool brand's new $24 product, which highlights two ingredients that your hair will relish in when heat waves hit (whether that's from sunshine or a blow dryer). Those include Tahitian Monoi oil — a powerhouse for getting deep into your hair shaft to tackle frizz and repair damage — and soothing, softening coconut milk.

"I’ve been looking for a way to highlight Tahitian Monoi oil, as it’s such a beautiful ingredient," Shelby Wild, founder of Playa, tells The Zoe Report in an email. "It’s packed with antioxidants and vitamin E, which fight free radicals and strengthen the hair." Plus, like the product itself, the star ingredient serves as a multitasker. "The oil also really penetrates the hair shaft rather than coating it or weighing it down, and in doing so tames frizz and helps heal damaged strands from the inside out," she continues.

The leave-in conditioner's benefits go even further, though; which makes sense, since the entire concept of Playa was based on products that could do more in less time. A few years back, Wild's busy career as a stylist often had her running out the door with wet hair that never dried to her liking, so a multipurpose formula that leaves you with effortless, healthier hair seems to be a foundational trait of all Playa products — leave-in conditioner included.

"I wanted to create a product that dry, summer hair can really drink up. Like our Ritual Hair Oil, the new Monoi Milk Leave-In Conditioner is ultra-light yet deeply conditioning. But since all of our products are designed to be multitasking problem solvers, we knew it had to go above and beyond your typical leave-in conditioner," says Wild. Which is why it can be used on wet and dry hair, and can serve as a styling primer, heat protectant, and detangler, all sans toxic ingredients.

But according to Wild, clean haircare should take the health of the environment into account, too — so, the launch of the leave-in conditioner also serves as the beginning of Playa's switch to 100 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) packaging.

"We’ve had a successful recycling program in place where customers can request to receive a pre-paid label and send back their empties. But I wanted to continue striving to reduce our footprint, and it became clear that going the route of PCR packaging would help move us in that direction," she says. "It’s a challenging and costly undertaking for a small brand like ours, but I’m so proud of this initiative." And no, the brand isn't stopping with this new product; the rest of Playa's products will follow suit throughout the year.