Review :: Clairol Herbal Essences Anti-Dandruff Shampoo

Dandruff Deconstructed is reader-supported. All reviews are independent and any products reviewed are purchased by the site owner. To help fund this model, some of the links on the site are affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase from one of these links, this site will receive some commission. At no cost to you. It helps keeps this place running. Learn more

Review
0.5
  • Ingredients
  • Wash
  • Scent
  • Price

Summary

Clairol Herbal Essences Anti-Dandruff Shampoo sells nice, it’s a nice shade of green and there’s pictures of pretty flowers on the bottle. These pleasantries come at a cost; this shampoo contains more harsh chemicals than I’ve ever seen in a dandruff shampoo. If pictures of flowers are your thing then this is the shampoo for you. However, if you want to control your dandruff…

Sending
User Review
3.8 (5 votes)

buy now on Amazon The Clairol Herbal Essences range has a reputation for being natural, gentle and organic. Whether this brand is deserved or not remains to be seen. Did Clairol actually develop the shampoo organically, using consumer led progressive ingredients that are both natural and effective?  Or did they dream up the brand in some evil genius marketeers office?

I ordered the Anti-Dandruff shampoo and before my package arrived I had a quick scan for the on the interweb for the wider public’s opinion and this post summed up the general consensus: A lot of anti-dandruff shampoos do contain harsh chemicals to cure dandruff, but according to the official Herbal Essences website, this shampoo prevents and cures dandruff through 100% organic and natural plant-derived ingredients. It does contain salicylic acid though, which I know is used to dry up spots in face washes and stuff like that, so I’m not sure. Nonetheless, it did seem a lot more gentler than other anti-dandruff shampoos I have tried, and my hair didn’t feel rough or dry.

Source: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Clairol_Herbal_Essences_Anti_Dandruff_Shampoo__Review_5353671

The comments were fairly unanimous so I was genuinely looking forward to reviewing this one.

The bottle itself is fairly unimpressive but the smell of the shampoo is absolutely divine. This is possibly the best smelling dandruff shampoo on the market. The wash felt luxurious too with a really dense foam and my hair felt really clean.

Was this the perfect shampoo?

A quick scan of the ingredients destroyed (obliterated) that notion in less than 10 seconds.

Clairol Herbal Essences contains the worst, the harshest and the most damaging contact allergens  I have ever seen rammed into a bottle of shampoo.

Let me put this into context. If you were looking for a gentle dandruff shampoo, I would recommend Head and Shoulders above this bottle here. Clairol Herbal Essences Anti-Dandruff shampoo is the most cynical bottle of marketing yet seen on this website. True, I’ve seen all of the ingredients on other shampoos but I have never seen so many crammed into one bottle.

Sulfates, parabens, they are all here. Would you like to preserve your dead pet? Well, perhaps the formaldehyde in this shampoo will help. Harsh perfumes? That’s what makes this bottle smell so damn good. The sulfates make it wash so luxuriously. Even the active ingredient, salicylic acid, isn’t strictly a dandruff control treatment but rather a dead skin exfoliating treatment that will dry your skin after prolonged useage.

So why do so many people think that this is gentle and natural?

I had to look at the bottle in more detail. The shampoo is green, the bottle has flowers and it looks very “organic”.  The bottle is made out of 25% recycled (and recyclable) plastic, immediately appealing to a certain section of our society. The fact it contains no animal products will cement that further. They use the word natural a bazillion times and all the herbs used in the manufacturing process are all organically grown, using no pesticides or petrochemicals.

All of this is extremely admirable but “organic” or “natural” do not control dandruff. The active ingredients control dandruff. The other ingredients are there to foam, preserve, clean and moisturize. These other ingredients shouldn’t irritate. Otherwise, you risk drying your scalp and getting more dandruff!

If you want to control your dandruff I would look elsewhere. Dead Sea Spa MAGIK Mineral Shampoo is a much gentler alternative if you find that salicylic acid works for you.  

I would go so far as to say that Clairol Herbal Essences are taking advantage of the general public here, a public who don’t read the ingredients and have trust in certain brands. The manufacturers of Clairol Herbal Essences know this, understand this and have taken advantage of it in the most cynical of manners.

Avoid at all costs.

Author

    by
  • The site owner. I founded, and have ran this site for too many years now. I have extremely sensitive skin, have suffered from seb derm for all my adult life and this site is my way of doing something about it. Check out my sister site at safehouseholdcleaning.com

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.