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Ingredients
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Wash
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Scent
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Price
Summary
This shampoo is an enigma. It contains some innovative essential and plant oils but also contains some pretty harsh allergens. The wash is fantastic, it doesn’t dry your hair. It smells pleasant too. However, the active ingredient will only help those of you with the mildest forms of Seb Derm and the price is pretty extortionate too.
Picking a score from that is tough but the shampoo, in our opinion, really doesn’t justify the price tag.
User Review
( vote)Rene Furterer is a new company to me.
They originated in France when their founder opened his first hair salon in the 1950’s.
His specialty and expertise were using plant and essential oils to relieve various scalp conditions. He was obviously good at this as his company grew and grew.
Innovative formulations are badly lacking in this generic sulfate and phthalates dominated world of cheap shampoos so I was looking forward to trying their dandruff shampoo.
The first surprise when receiving the bottle was the active ingredient – Zinc Pyrithione.
This surprised me somewhat as Zinc Pyrithione is a cheap, mild, anti-fungal agent that is used in many shampoos these days. The cheapest generic own brand shampoos you pick up in the dollar store contain this ingredient more often than not. Head and Shoulders uses Zinc Pyrithione! It’s not a particularly effective ingredient either – it typically won’t clear anything but the mildest forms of Seb Derm.
The second surprise was the price. Rene Furterer’s Melaleuca Anti-Dandruff Shampoo isn’t a cheap shampoo. In fact, the price was extremely high. Certainly for a shampoo containing such a cheap active ingredient. The bottle and box scream premium-brand.
Very stylized. Very French!
The shampoo itself is yellow – very very yellow. If toothpaste was yellow it would look like this. This is no doubt due to the two yellow dyes added to the bottle; Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. Yellow 6 is particularly controversial as a food additive and is banned in a number of countries. This is in food though, not shampoos. There is no evidence whatsoever that it causes problems in shampoos.
I’m personally not too keen on any shampoo additives that are there for cosmetic purposes and I wish manufacturers felt the same.
The shampoo itself is quite thick. The first thing I noticed when washing was the smell; tea tree. If you haven’t used tea tree shampoos before it has a pleasant almost clinical smell to it. I like it but of course, this is very subjective. It’s certainly not a nasty overpowering smell.
The shampoo foamed well and a little went a long way. After washing my hair felt clean and soft without feeling dry. It had a real bounce to it too. Very impressive.
The number of ingredients in this shampoo raised a few eyebrows in this household. 25+ is pretty exceptional. 5 of the ingredients are known contact irritants or allergens .
Fragrance is almost standard these days. BHT is a preservative used in embalming fluid. Methylisothiazolinone won contact allergen of the year in 2013 and Sodium Hydroxide is better known as Lye… To top it all off, the shampoo isn’t sulfate free either as it contains Sodium Laureth Sulfate. This isn’t as harsh as SLS but for those who wish to go sulfate free, this shampoo isn’t for them.
That’s quite a bunch of allergens and I have to admit to being disappointed. I really hoped a company like Rene Furterer, with all their expertise, would avoid using allergens where possible.
The other ingredients are a pretty eclectic mix of plant and essential oils. Tea tree oil is in there as I mentioned earlier. I can’t comment on the effectiveness of Safflower Seed Oil or Soybean Oil but I do know that this shampoo is at least as effective as Head and Shoulders. But a bit gentler. Before you go off and buy it bear n mind that this isn’t a great accolade. Head and Shoulders is terrible. If H&S works for you then this may be worth checking out, despite the price. However, if you are looking for a shampoo that is as effective as Head and Shoulders, relatively low priced and gentler than Rene Furterer then I highly recommend you check out our favorite zinc pyrithione shampoos. If you’re looking for something stronger then take a look at our current favorite – Sebamed.