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
-
Ingredients
-
Wash
-
Smell
-
Price
Summary
If coal tar helps your psoriasis then MG217 will probably help you out. This benefit may well come with significant side effects though. Especially if you are sensitive to ingredients in soaps and shampoos.
Proceed with caution.
User Review
( votes)MG217 isn’t a shampoo with a large market outside the USA and has no brand to speak of in western Europe. The company provides a range of coal tar scalp psoriasis treatments, have built up quite the reputation with these treatments and I was eager to see if their dandruff shampoo lived up to the well-marketed hype.
On opening the bottle the first thing you’ll notice is the smell. For those unacquainted with the smell of coal tar, imagine the smell of a newly laid tarmac road. Think of that sticky black smell that some love (and some loath). It smells like that. Worse!
Unlike most coal tar shampoos, MG217 is a nicotine green! I’m not sure where the green came from and I’m not too sure it had the desired effect. The shampoo looks a bit like ectoplasm as a result.
That said, the wash wasn’t bad and my hair felt surprisingly decent after washing. Coal tar shampoos tend to dry the hair whereas MG217 didn’t do that at all.
MG217 is 3% coal tar, which is as strong as you’ll get without a prescription. Coal tar is excellent on some psoriasis sufferers at reducing inflammation on their scalp while simultaneously slowing down cell regeneration. The anti-fungal properties of coal tar can also help alleviate mild cases of seborrheic dermatitis but there are better ingredients on the market.
In either case, if you’ve never used it, I would proceed with caution as coal tar is pretty strong stuff.
The rest of MG217 left much to be desired too. There are only 17 ingredients in this shampoo. 9 of those ingredients are known contact allergens. 5 of them are listed in the skin deep database as red light warnings. As in, they can have real side effects on some people. Before trying this shampoo I would check the ingredients and really understand what this shampoo is composed of. Parabens, Sulfates, Cocamide DEA, Phenoxyethanol and Propylene Glycol. They’re all in there.
If coal tar helps your psoriasis then MG217 will probably help you out. This benefit may well come with significant side effects though.
Proceed with caution.