I’m lucky in the fact that I don’t tend to get a lot of dandruff however, when I was younger I suffered from it quite a bit and Head and Shoulders quickly became my best friend. I had a couple of samples of the L’oreal Phytoclear Shampoos from magazines and I decided to give them a try. Before using these my scalp was a little dry, it wasn’t anything terrible but it gave me the opportunity to really test how these worked, here’s my thoughts.

(Left L’oreal Phytoclear Regulating Shampoo, Right L’oreal Phytoclear Soothing Shampoo)

Starting with the packaging, it’s similar to all of the other L’oreal shampoos with the Phytoclear range being identifiable due to the dark green packaging. There may not seem to be much distinction between these two types but the Regulating shampoo has a blue band and the Soothing a pink band. The price for these is average, £2.99 for 250ml or £4.49 for 400ml. Just to distinguish between the two the Soothing version is aimed at sensitive scalps whereas the Regulated version aims to purify.

L’oreal describes these products as the following.

Soothing:
“OUR 1ST ANTIDANDRUFF SHAMPOO COLLECTION COMBINING OCTOLAMINE WITH 3 PURE ESSENTIAL OILS. FOR A TRIPLE ACTION FORMULA. A sensitive scalp prone to dandruff needs special care. Beyond anti-dandruff efficacy, it should provide a comforting effect to the scalp while helping to leave hair more beautiful.”

Regulating:
“OUR 1ST ANTIDANDRUFF SHAMPOO COLLECTION COMBINING OCTOLAMINE WITH 3 PURE ESSENTIAL OILS. FOR A TRIPLE ACTION FORMULA. Hair prone to dandruff needs purifying care to not only fight visible flakes but to provide comfort to the scalp. However, this intense action does not have to compromise beautiful hair or manageability.”

I’m going to start with the ingredients as I often find that L’oreal shampoos can make my Hair to be quite greasy. I’m not going to list every ingredient but some of the key ones. Octolamine is a trademark of L’oreal so I’m not 100% sure what that is. These shampoos are silicone free which I think is good as silicones can dry out the hair. Unfortunately these both contain fragrance, I’m disappointed in this as I think that fragrance can be harsh on the skin particularly if you have sensitive skin so I’m a little bemused by the presence of this. Salicylic acid is present in both shampoos which is known for calming down irritated skin.

Both of these shampoos smell nice and I also noticed that they lather up very well. The main thing is, how did they perform in terms of dandruff? My scalp wasn’t overly dry but definitiely on the dryer side particularly when using the Soothing shampoo. I found that this did manage to remove the dryness from my scalp which is a plus however, I noticed that the Soothing shampoo seemed to turn my hair greasy within a day which was definitely a disappointment.

Of the two I actually prefer the Regulating shampoo, my scalp and hair can get quite dry but recently it’s been on the oilier side. I’m not sure if this was an affect of the shampoo or if it was more of a placebo effect but the Regulating shampoo seemed to sort out the balance of oil on my hair.

Overall, these are not bad but I do think that they could be improved. I think the presence of perfume is a definite drawback and I think that if my scalp was very inflamed and irritated I’d prefer to use something that I know is gentle and has been successful previously. I think you may like these if your hair tends to dry out in the winter however, I don’t think they should replace medicated shampoos if you need those.

The L’oreal Phytoclear range is available here, prices start at £2.99

I hope that you enjoyed this post and if you did please hit the like button, let me know in the comments if you have tried the Phytoclear range and generally which shampoos that you like to use. Are you a fan of L’oreal shampoos?

Thanks for reading!