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Ingredients
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Wash
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Scent
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Price
Summary
An effective relatively gentle medicated shampoo that controls dandruff and makes your hair feel magnificent after washing.
A first on this site.
User Review
( votes)
La Roche-Posay Kerium Anti-Dandruff shampoos come in three flavors:
- Dry Scalp
- Oily Scalp
- Intensive
At the time of purchase, I was suffering from a very dry scalp so I chose the dry scalp, erm, edition. Do shampoos even have editions?
The shampoo isn’t especially cheap but La Roche-Posay is a company of some repute.
Owned by Loreal, La Roche-Posay is a provider of sensitive skin products. They appeal to me instantly. They claim that their products are recommended by over 25K dermatologists worldwide. They also aim to create products for those of us with sensitive skin by developing minimalist formulas. The Kerium range is dedicated to providing “solutions to dandruff problems, hair loss, and a sensitive scalp.“ and contains no parabens, colorants, and minimal fragrance. By this stage, I was genuinely excited to try this shampoo.
The bottle arrived and immediately looked like a premium brand. Very classy. Very minimalistic. As good, if not better, than I expected.
On reading the bottle I found that the three variants of the shampoo contain the same active ingredients:
- Piroctone Olamine – an anti-fungal agent to help control seborrheic dermatitis
- Salicyclic Acid – an exfoliating acid that softens and removes dandruff flakes
- Capryloyl Salicylic Acid – seemingly unique to La Roche-Posay, little is known about Capryloyl Salicylic Acid. It is a derivative of Salicylic Acid which is reportedly less irritatable.
The dry scalp shampoo that I chose is a white thick pearlescent virtually fragrance-free shampoo. The oily scalp variant comes in a gel. Either way, not much shampoo was required to wash the hair. The foam was immediate and felt luxurious and my hair felt absolutely fantastic after the wash. My one criticism of many effective dandruff shampoos is the compromise on performance. However, La Roche-Posay looked and performed like a real premium shampoo.
After a week I found my dandruff was completely under control. I was suffering absolutely no side effects whatsoever. Unfortunately, after two weeks my skin and scalp were much drier than before I started. It really felt like a typical reaction to salicylic acid. Perhaps it was a reaction to something else though. I read the other ingredients with interest.
The dry scalp version, which I was using, contains a total of 24 ingredients. Not quite the minimalistic formula the company advertises. 5 of them are known contact allergens with perfume being the most severe. Unfortunately, the shampoo isn’t SLS-free either which I found extremely surprising for this of all companies. The oily scalp equivalent is essentially the same core ingredients with the same allergens but only 21 ingredients. The intensive edition is by far the harshest of the three although the active ingredients are exactly the same as the other two supposedly less intense formulas.
Would I use the shampoo again? Absolutely. Not over a two-week period but certainly to control an outbreak. I’ve never used a medicated shampoo that makes your hair feel this good and, don’t forget, it controlled my dandruff! It was almost certainly the salicylic acid that ultimately dried my skin after prolonged use. Given a choice again I would definitely buy the oily scalp formula. If only because it contains fewer chemicals than the other two.
Is it my new favorite seb derm shampoo? No. I still prefer Seba Med. It contains the same anti-fungal active ingredient that in isolation controls my dandruff. It has a gentler composition. It’s cheaper! But it doesn’t make my hair and scalp feel as nice after washing.
Controlling dandruff is seemingly all about compromise.
