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When I started hairdressing in the 1970s the average person washed their hair once a week. Shampoos were sold in three types - for dry, normal or oily hair. Life experience has taught me that the only normal people are the ones we don’t know very well, but it’s not a great descriptor for hair type either.
Because most people wash hair more often these days, fewer people get really greasy hair so can choose their shampoos based more on hair thickness and texture around the roots and mid-lengths. But there are still lots of people that have fine, silky, lifeless hair or over-productive sebaceous glands in the scalp. Dealing with oily hair by using overly aggressive cleansers isn’t good as it simply strips the hair shaft making that dry.
• Problem – Overactive scalps can produce excess sebum. This leaves hair feeling oily, flat or lifeless and can lead to seborrheic scalp conditions.
• Solution – Citrus oil, bio-sulphur, plant extracts and minerals, cleanse and rebalance the scalp and improve blood circulation. Multivitamin herbal complex A, B, E, F & H, helps protect to reduce hair loss while cashmere amino acids build volume and hydration, so your hair feels fresh, vibrant and fuller.
This citrus balancing shampoo treats the scalp and is gentle on the hair, strengthening it to improve the texture. It’s one of our original trichological shampoos – available prescriptively from the salon these last 30 years and now launched to the wider world.
This shampoo was the only one we used for the twins as babies and likewise for my four daughters going back 25 years. No other product dealt with their cradle cap. Many of the natural ingredients are known to help treat seborrheic scalp conditions and we didn’t want to use heavy - hitting synthetic chemicals.
If you are going through a period of oily scalp with over productive sebaceous scalp glands, or have overly silky floppy hair, this could be the shampoo you need.
Jack and James have set up their own salon in their bedroom. They wanted to release their own product, pointing to the Balancing Scalp Shampoo. Jack designed a label too. I blame four months of Lockdown home-schooling for his spelling.
Orange Oil
Orange oil helps deep cleanse and tone and reduce sebum production without stripping hair of its natural oils. It helps maintain hydration and leaves the scalp fresh clean and balanced.
Cashmere Protein
Almost identical to the human hair molecule, the short-chain cashmere amino-acids are readily absorbed, deep into the hair shaft, rebuilding and protecting from dehydration.
Bio – sulphur
Sulphur is a natural mineral and essential for all living cells. It is present in the amino-acids cysteine and methionine and also in tissue substances such a hyaluronic acid. The highest concentration of sulphur is found in outer skin cells and the keratin protein of hair, giving keratin its strength.
Sulphur has been used for hundreds of years in scalp and hair preparations for disorders such as seborrhoea as it can help reduce over production in the sebaceous glands. It also has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial qualities. We use a small particle size combined within an unsaturated fatty acid, which makes the sulphur readily available for the scalp and hair to absorb.
Multivitamins complex and horse chestnut
Multivitamins complex (Vit A, B, E, F essential fatty acids, H biotin, and Bx p-amino benzoic acid) – in combination with horse chestnut extract helps promote blood circulation and strengthen the extracellular matrix. Suited for the care of oily as well as dry scalps that are poorly supplied with blood, and dehydrated hair with a tendency to greasiness.
Flavonoids, courmarins and aescin in horse chestnut extract stimulate blood flow on the peripheral blood vessels. Tocopherol (vitamin E) reinforces the circulation of the blood by activating the flow of fluids to the skin and is reported to have a positive influence on the formation of new skin cells. Vitamin E additionally protects against UVB induced DNA damage.
Michael Van Clarke
