Neutrogena T/Gel Therapeutic Shampoo

...review in this way is Neutrogena T/Gel Therapeutic shampoo.

THE COMPANY:

You’ve no doubt heard of the brand Neutrogena before and are probably most familiar with their Norwegian Formula Hand Cream and other similar products. Neutrogena are owned by the Neutrogena Corporation and they are manufacturers of skin care, hair care products, and most recently colour cosmetics. The company came into existence in 1930 and ...
...their website at http://www.neutrogena.com/ . Neutrogena are part of the much larger Johnson & Johnson group. You can find out a great deal about them and their many brands at their website, http://www.jnj.com.

WHERE TO BUY:

The most obvious place to buy this from is good old Boots, though I think I recall actually getting my bottle from Savers as it was a bit cheaper. I’m sure a lot of other pharmacy and toiletry ... more

Most of my reviews, as any of you who have read a fair few of them will know, have so far tended to be reviews in praise of products I really like and use regularly. I thought it was high time that I do a couple of reviews on products that I’ve not had such a good experience with. The first product I’ve chosen to review in this way is Neutrogena T/Gel Therapeutic shampoo.

THE COMPANY:

You’ve no doubt heard of the brand Neutrogena before and are probably most familiar with their Norwegian Formula Hand Cream and other similar products. Neutrogena are owned by the Neutrogena Corporation and they are manufacturers of skin care, hair care products, and most recently colour cosmetics. The company came into existence in 1930 and is based in American though they sell their products all over the world. Their main selling point seems to be that their products are dermatologist recommended. If you want to find more information out about them and the products they produce, visit their website at http://www.neutrogena.com/ . Neutrogena are part of the much larger Johnson & Johnson group. You can find out a great deal about them and their many brands at their website, http://www.jnj.com.

WHERE TO BUY:

The most obvious place to buy this from is good old Boots, though I think I recall actually getting my bottle from Savers as it was a bit cheaper. I’m sure a lot of other pharmacy and toiletry places probably sell it too, and maybe even some supermarkets. I doubt you’ll have too much trouble getting hold of a bottle, should you wish. You might want to shop around for the best price anyway.

I’m not sure if there are any places online that sell this stuff. There most likely are, there’s always somewhere online that sells what you’re looking for, even if it’s E-bay! Do some search engine searches on Google and Kelkoo etc if you want.

THE PACKAGING:

As you can probably see from the picture, it comes in a blue & white box, which means more packaging than you really need, since the box doesn't give you any more information than the bottle itself does. Perhaps it come in a box because the bottle looks so unattractive, mainly due to the colour of the liquid? Possibly. The bottle itself is a clear plastic bottle, which lets you see the liquid inside, with a screw on lid that has a little flip thing in it for squirting the shampoo out. It has fairly clear to read white writing on it, and has the usual details that these kinds of products have on it; the blurb about the product, directions for use, ingredients, size etc. As the bottle is clear you can see the not exactly attractive brown liquid inside. As I said before, this is probably why the product comes in a box! It’s probably not the sort of thing you’d want to have around for all and sundry to see, it’s best kept locked away, hidden in your bathroom cabinet.

THE LOOK & TEXTURE OF THE PRODUCT:

Well, let's just say it's not exactly the most attractive looking product! It's a sort of semi-transparent, fairly thick, brown coloured, gloopy liquid. It has a thick, sludgy type texture that isn’t the most pleasant feeling on your hands, but I guess it’s not too bad.

THE SMELL:

There’s no nice way of putting it, this products smells disgusting, unless you happen to like smells such as tar and creosote! It really is very off putting, and they’ve not even tried to disguise the smell of it with anything nice, possibly because they couldn’t disguise the smell. The worst thing is not only can you smell it while you’re using it, but you can also smell it once you’re hair has dried and I could even still smell it vaguely after I’d washed it again in my usual shampoo. I simply could not get rid of the stench! It’s a very strong smell, and it smells mainly of tar. Not the sort of thing you really want your hair to smell of.

HOW TO USE:

You use it pretty much as you would your normal shampoo, ie you wet you hair thoroughly, pour some product into your hand, lather it onto you hair, then you have to leave it for a few minutes instead of washing it off straight away, presumably so it has the chance to have an effect on your scalp. Then you rinse it off thoroughly and repeat the whole process, which can be a bit of a faff. You can then apply conditioner afterwards if you want (I’d recommend you do, this stuff really drys your hair out!), then dry and (attempt to) style as usual.. You will probably find it a bit harder to style than usual, and you will also find that the smell will stay with you until you’ve washed it in nice smelly shampoo. The bottle recommend you use it at least twice a week (if you can stand to, that is!), or as recommended by your doctor As you’ll see below, I ‘d say you need to use it much more than twice a week to get any real benefit from it.

THE EFFECT:

Sadly there wasn’t much of one, well no good effects anyway! Ok, so it did stop my scalp itching, until I’d shampooed my hair again with my normal shampoo. Well actually, I found that I had to pretty much alternate the use of this and my normal shampoo as I was my hair every day, even though the bottle suggested you only need to use it once or twice a week. I just didn’t find the effect was good enough or results long lasting enough to put up with the hassle of sing it and the stench I had to endure. Not only that but it has some very un-wanted side effects. It turned my not exactly cheap blonde highlights a rather unsightly shade of ginger, and was very drying on my hair. It left it hard to manage and completely dull, with no shine at all. It also badly affected the eczema on my hands as it was very drying, and cause the eczema to flare up. I was not impressed one bit, to be quite honest. I gave it a week or so and then gave up as I didn’t see any improvement. Maybe it would work better for someone who has short, un-dyed hair who doesn’t wash their hair as often as me, doesn’t have eczema and doesn’t mid the smell of tar. In short, it’d probably ok for a man, but not really for women, or anyone who loves their hair and love smelling nice.

INGREDIENTS:

This stuff smells of tar. Therefore you’d expect it to contain tar as a ingredient. You won’t be disappointed as it does in fact contain tar. What does surprise me is that it actually only contains 0.5% tar, which doesn’t seem much given how pungently the product smells of tar! Of course it contains a whole host of other ingredients, but I’ll spare you the long list of stuff that I can barely spell and you most likely won’t have the slightest clue actually is. Besides, the bottle contains the list of ingredients in all its full glory!

PRICE & VALUE FOR MONEY:

The bottle I bought was 250mls. It’s been a while since I bought mine so I checked on Boots to see how much the going rate for a bottle was, which is a staggering £6.99, more expensive than I remember buying it for a year or so ago! I remember buying mine from Savers though, which might account for the price difference. I’m sure I paid no more than £5 for my bottle. I don’t know if Savers still sell it, but it’s worth checking out if they do. Incidentally the Boots website describe this as a pleasantly smelling shampoo! Ahem, yeah right! Sorry Boots, but I think that might be a bit of a white lie. Mind you, they also reckon this stuff leaves your hair shiny and manageable. Hmm, maybe Boots wrote the wrong product description? Anyway, value for money? Not really, at least not in my opinion. A 250ml bottle actually doesn’t last that long considering you have to use it fairly often, and you also have to shampoo twice each time. Given the not so great results I’ve had from it I don’t really think you’re getting good value at all. I personally think the product is overpriced. Then again, I guess if you find it works for you and you don’t wash your hair as often as me, you may feel it’s not that bad value for money.

ANIMAL TESTING:

Although I was unable to find out about Neutrogena’s own animal testing policy via their website, I was able to find out the animal testing policy of Johnson & Johnson. The upshot seems to be that they feel their responsibility to assure that products are safe for intended use prohibits them from eliminating animal testing I the manufacture of their products, but they do say the believe only in the judicial and ethical use of animal testing. Visit http://www.jnj.com/community/policies/animal_testing/statement.htm to see their full statement on the issue and to make your own mind up about them. At least they are open about the policies and are willing to state them.

SUMMARY:

Well, there’s not much to summarise. Neutrogena T/Gel Therapeutic shampoo smells disgusting, is a hassle to use, doesn’t really work that well, gives you a whole host of un-wanted side effects and is over priced too! I’d personally advise you to stay well away from this product. Of course, you’re free to give it a go if you wish, but don’t say I didn’t warn you! Lucky for me I’ve found a much cheaper and more effective alternative (it’s still smelly, but hey you can’t have everything!). Check out my other reviews if you want to know what that is. As for this product, I’m afraid I won’t be recommending it to anyone. It just didn’t work for me.

OTHER PRODUCTS IN THE RANGE:

These days you can get Neutrogena T/Gel Therapeutic shampoo in and Anti-Dandruff version and a Damaged 7 Fragile Hair version too. I’m not sure if they work or smell any better. Also, at least at Boots, you can get 125ml bottle of Neutrogena T/Gel Anti-Dandruff shampoo in Sensitive, Normal to Dry and Greasy Hair options. These cost £4.29, though you are getting much less product.

Neutrogena do produce a whole load of other, and in my opinion, more effective products, most notably the Norwegian Formula range which includes hand creams, foot creams and body lotions. They also do a ranges of skincare called Visibly Clear and Visibly Young. Also available is the Clean hair care range. So there’s lots to chose from if you don’t fancy the T/Gel stuff, which I’d advise you to steer clear of!

CONTACT DETAILS:

The Neutrogena website can be found at http://www.neutrogena.com/ProductsDetails_62.asp and the Johnson & Johnson website can be found at http://www.jnj.com .
You can e-mail Neutrogena a question by following this link:
http://www.neutrogena.com/Ask.asp?mainVal=as

 

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