I Went Through 6 Filtered Showerheads This Year. Only One Got to Stay.
Our Dallas Bathroom Smelled Like a Pool, So From May to October I Put Up Six Filtered Showerheads, One at a Time, About Four Weeks Each. One Is Still Up. Here's How All Six Went.
Amy TidwellSenior tester · Nov 6, 2026
I've been color-treated blonde for twenty years, and this spring my blonde was going brassy two weeks after every toner. So I bought another purple shampoo... and then another one.
Then Jen, my stylist, stopped halfway through my appointment. She said the hair itself was in good shape... it just looked coated. And she asked me what was coming out of my shower.
That night I typed our zip code into the Environmental Working Group's tap water database, a free site that shows what's in your city's water. Ours had 17 contaminants over their health guidelines, and a byproduct of the chlorine they treat it with was at 94 times the guideline. Wait... was that why our bathroom smelled like a pool?
So I quit buying purple shampoo and tested filtered showerheads instead, the way I test everything for Toned & Tested: in my own shower, about a month each. One of the six, a $25 no-name head from Amazon, leaked on day one and came down before I could judge it.
My shower caddy this spring. Every bottle half used, and the brass came back anyway.
How We Scored Them
Here's what I scored, each out of 10.
Chlorine & Metals Removed
That 94-times number is the whole reason I started. I wanted to know how much chlorine and heavy metal each one actually took out.
Water Pressure
My hair is thick, and with a weak spray the conditioner sits behind my ears, still slick after two rinses. I wanted to feel the water at my roots.
What It Did for My Hair and Skin
I watched how long my toner held and how my ends felt when I combed them out wet. If my skin felt tight after a shower, that counted too.
Easy Install & Clean
Could I put it up myself before work, without calling anybody? And after four weeks of Dallas water, did the face still wipe clean?
Price & Guarantee
What it costs the day you buy it, and whether there's a real guarantee behind it if your hair doesn't change.
One of the other five pulled away fast.
#1: eskiin Handheld Filtered Showerhead
Our top pick for 2026
4.9 / 5
The first morning, I lifted it off the wall and aimed it right behind my ears, where conditioner had been hiding for years. The spray comes out up to 2.5x stronger, and one rinse got out what two never did. Four weeks later it was the only head I didn't want to take down, so I didn't.
Chlorine & metals removed9.8
Water pressure9.7
Hair & skin results9.8
Easy install & clean9.6
Price & guarantee9.7
Black Friday Sale: $139 with 5 free gifts worth $156. Once the sale stock is gone, the gifts go with it, so I wouldn't wait on this one.
I really wanted this one to win. It's the prettiest head I tried, and for the first week the scent tablets made our bathroom smell like a hotel spa.
But the spray is a light rain, and even aimed right at my roots, I was back to rinsing twice every morning. If your hair is short or fine, you might honestly love it.
Chlorine & metals removed7.9
Water pressure7.0
Hair & skin results8.4
Easy install & clean8.8
Price & guarantee7.6
#3: Jolie Handheld Filtered Showerhead
Around $170
3.7 / 5
This is the one from everybody's bathroom tour on Instagram, and yes, that's exactly why I bought it. It's tested to cut about 84% of the chlorine, which sounds fine until you put it next to 98.7%.
The spray was soft from day one, and by week three the face had stains I couldn't scrub off. Then the cartridge fought me so hard I handed it to my daughter, Hannah. If you want the one your friends will recognize, this is it.
Chlorine & metals removed7.6
Water pressure6.8
Hair & skin results7.8
Easy install & clean6.9
Price & guarantee7.4
#4: Hello Klean Filtered Showerhead
Around $100
3.6 / 5
Hello Klean was the easy one. It went up in a few minutes, and the spray felt about the same as my old head.
That was kind of the problem. Four weeks in, my toner was still fading on the same old schedule, so nothing went wrong, and nothing got better. If your water's pretty good to begin with, it's a simple pick.
Chlorine & metals removed7.2
Water pressure7.1
Hair & skin results7.0
Easy install & clean7.3
Price & guarantee7.0
#5: AquaBliss Inline Shower Filter
Around $35
2.9 / 5
I get why this one sells. It's a cheap cylinder from Amazon that screws in behind the head you already have, so if you love your head, it's the easiest way to add a filter.
I didn't love mine, and that was the problem. My weak spray came through just as weak, and the extra joint dripped most of the month, so the water got a little better and my shower didn't.
Chlorine & metals removed5.4
Water pressure4.9
Hair & skin results5.2
Easy install & clean6.1
Price & guarantee7.2
Cleaned Twice Before It Touches Your Hair
The water goes through two filters on its way out: KDF-55 in the handle grabs chlorine and heavy metals first, then calcium sulfite in the tip catches whatever's left. There are 15 layers in all, coconut activated carbon among them, and together they take out 98.7% of the chlorine and heavy metals.
And it lifts off the wall, so even Murphy, our goldendoodle, gets rinsed with it in the tub now. It's the closest you can get to whole-home filtration without tearing open a wall.
It's made by a brother and sister, Wes and Maddie St. Amand, and they're real people you could actually talk to. Wes had eczema and Maddie was dealing with hair loss and perioral dermatitis, and when nothing helped, they looked at their shower water... which is pretty much how I got here too.
They went through about 30 prototypes before they started eskiin in 2023 in Beaverton, Oregon, and they still run it. Orders ship fast from their own warehouse in Idaho, where actual people pack every box.
Wes and Maddie St. Amand, the brother and sister who started eskiin.
What to Look For
Your own water report
Type your zip code into the EWG tap water database before you buy anything. It takes two minutes and tells you what you're up against.
A real percentage
A tested number like 98.7% means somebody measured it. "Reduces chlorine" on a box could mean almost anything.
Filters made for hot water
Look for KDF-55 or calcium sulfite on the label. Both keep working in hot water, which is what you're actually showering in.
A head you can put up yourself
Mine screwed on by hand, and the handheld clicked right into its holder without a single tool.
Clicking it into the holder. That was the whole install.
What to Avoid
Heads that sell the look
If a listing talks more about the finish than what the filter takes out, that tells you where your money's going.
Paying for the smell
A nice smell in the bathroom doesn't tell you a thing about the chlorine in the water.
No-name bargain heads
If you can't tell who makes it, there's nobody to call when it starts dripping.
Short return windows
Hair takes weeks to show a change. If the return window closes after 30 days, you're mostly paying to guess.
The Winner Is Clear
On October 30, five weeks after my last toner and still no brass, Jen ran her fingers through my ends and stopped. "Okay, what did you change? Your ends aren't snapping."
Jen checking my ends at the salon on October 30.
Huh. All those years of changing products, and I never once thought to change the showerhead. Five of the six came down this year, and the eskiin is the one still up.
Our bathroom smells like a bathroom again, and I haven't restocked that caddy since September. If you color your hair, look at your water before you buy another purple shampoo.
Black Friday Sale: $139
5 free gifts worth $156, including a Detangling Hair Brush and a Hair Wrap Towel
