Sophie Says: I’ve heard a lot of things about Pantene Pro-V’s shampoo and conditioners. A lot of hairstylists swear on 
However, I’ve been using the Pantene Restoratives shampoo and conditioner for a few months now, and I find my hair less frizzy, more manageable, smoother, and softer. Of course, I also use John Frieda Anti-Frizz Serum and Pantene Pro-V Restoratives Frizz Control Ultra Smoothing Balm (I highly recommend the latter, just apply to wet hair).
Phew, that was long. So, my question is: Is Pantene good or bad for my hair?
The Right Brain Righteously Responds:
Sophie, please don’t fall into the trap of believing everything your stylist tells you. (That’s one of the The Beauty Brains Basic Beliefs.) While most stylists are very talented at cutting and styling hair, they’re not very talented at interpreting cosmetic formulations.
The truth is, Pantene’s shampoo and conditioner formulas are believed to be among the best in the industry by those of us in the cosmetic science side of the business. It makes sense if you think about it. P&G, makers of Pantene, have a HUGE research budget. Certainly larger than any salon company. That means they can afford to dedicate resources to developing and testing the best formulas possible. We’ve seen Pantene formulas beat the pants of salon products in blind consumer testing. (The products are hidden or blinded, not the consumers)
Why is Pantene vilified?
So why do stylists say that Pantene coats the hair with plastic, or make it fall out? Because that’s what they’re told by the sales representatives for the salon companies. And the truth is, it’s just not true! Compare the ingredient lists for Pantene conditioner and any salon brand you can find.
Even though the names vary you’ll see three basic types of ingredients: fatty alcohols (like cetyl and stearyl alcohol); conditioning ingredients (like stearamidopropylamine and quaternium-18) and silicones (like dimethicone and cyclomethicone.) There’s nary a plastic to be found in Pantene. And no, it doesn’t make your hair fall out either.
The Beauty Brains Bottom Line:
You can choose whatever you like – a retail brand like Pantene or a salon brand like Matrix. But shop around and find a product you like and make your own decisions based on your own experience. Don’t pass on Pantene because of stylist anti-hype.
Have you got something to say about Pantene? Leave a comment below.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone
Very plasticy and rubber-like in the right formulation, isn’t it? So why list it and then state that there’s no plastic in the ingredients – the stylist wasn’t going to describe it in complicated terms, were they? Just layman’s terms.
So, to make hair feel silky and smooth, coating it in silicone wouldn’t work? Of course it makes sense. The R & D budget could be going into making a shampoo that makes your hair fall out on purpose – a large budget doesn’t mean it’s spent wisely!
Laughable to draw attention to the lack of logic in someone else’s comment when yours has the same kind of large holes in it.
Personally, the thing that makes the largest difference to my hair is washing it in soft water rather than hard water. Huge difference. Adjust your hair product with this in mind apart from anything else, maybe?
My main reason to not use Pantene or Matrix or L’Oreal or Redkin… is because they’re all products that use animal testing as a form of research.
I think it’s important not only to use a product that delivers what it claims but to also be open to what your professional stylist suggests. I find many people are wary of their stylist because they’re afraid they are trying to sell them and steer them in the wrong direction.
If you are able to create a strong rapport with your stylist, listen to their suggestions. They want you to have great hair, it keeps them in business. When you trust your stylist, you will know that they aren’t just trying to sell you something but protect the investment of their time and your money.
I apologize for the typo, spell check has gotten the best of me. *** REDKEN ***
pantene is bad for your hair because the ph balance is high. Yes P&G is a great and large company, thats why they make such great professional produsts.
When I worked in a salon I could always tell when someone used Pantene when I washed their hair. I would ask the client and sure enough – Pantene. The hair felt horrible. No one had to tell me Pantene was bad for your hair, I figured that out for myself.
The reason why your hair is falling out is because your hair is going into a protein OVERLOAD!! Too much protein to the hair causes excessive hair shedding.
I’m 40 and I’ve used Pantene for many years. In my opinion, it’s the best shampoo and conditioner out there.
I have Pantene hairspray build-up on my hair!! It looks awful! What do I do?
Ive read all the replys on here and there are much more bad than good about this product .
well i jus wanna sy dt iv been using pantene shampoo nd conditioner 4 a vry long tym nd its really gud..it hs made my hair vry soft, shiny nd strait..so i jus lov dis shampoo..n the hair potion is also excellent, evry1 shud try it!!!
So, a few months ago I was at the sylist and she was commenting on how healthy and smooth my hair was. She asked me what I used and when I said Pantene, she launched into a lecture about how horrible it is, especially if you have color treated hair (I get highlights).
Duly chastised, I switched to a fancy (and more expensive) formulation. I immediately noticed that I had to spend a LOT more time detangling my hair and it seemed drier. I go back to the salon after a couple months and my horrified stylist announces that I have split ends almost up the roots. She cut off about 3 years of growth. Barf.
I have heard that feeding your hair too much protein can result in excessive shedding of the hair. However, I have been using Pantene again recently after I used salon brand products for about a year now and my hair feels the healthiest it has ever been now that im using Pantene again. maybe its true that its because it uses silicones which i hear are bad for the hair because they build up and coat the hair shaft thus making it feel shiny and soft but in reality strips the hair from obtaining moisture. whatever the case may be i like pantene and my boyfriend also has thick black hair and he has used pantene his entire life with no hair loss. however, perhaps when one stops using pantene and switches to another product the pantene build up is so bad on the hair that the hair is actually broke all the way which would explain why you would have to get so much cut off. all i would say is whatever works for you works!! and if there is no factual evidence that pantene makes your hair fall out then why believe it? If everyone posted that some other brand did the same im sure plenty of people would reply they also experienced this…there is no proof!! and pantene contains a lot of the same ingredients that all the other shampoos do!!
My boyfriend’s sister is a hair stylist so I asked her what shampoo brand would keep my hair from splitting and breaking so easily. So, she asked what I was using and I said Pantene. She made the claim that it uses car wax in it’s ingredients. I’ve always used Pantene and I thought it made my hair really soft and shiny (most of the time), but I can never get my hair to stop splitting and breaking. So I took her advice and bought a different brand (Joico K-Pak Reconstruct). It was okay. It had an odd smell to it, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t so great either. It made my hair soft, but it doesn’t do what it says it does (repair damage). And honestly, I think it’s made my hair worse. I’ve never had so many problems with my hair when I used Pantene and other cheaper brands. So I stopped using it and bought John Frieda Root Awakening Anti-Breakage shampoo and conditioner. I LOVE the smell so much, but it also hasn’t done anything for my hair. I still see numerous strands with breakage.
So, I’m still on the lookout for an effective shampoo and conditioning system that will keep my hair from breaking. I use heat protectant whenever I straight/curl/blowdry my hair (I use FX and John Frieda Frizz-Eaze Heat Defeat) but they aren’t working at all. It’s awful, becuase everyday I look at my ends and it just seems like the number of splits keeps growing and growing. I use scissors to cut them, but they just reappear, and I just got a trim about a month ago. Anyone have any ideas for a heat protectant and shampoo/conditioning that will actually improve and protect my hair? I’d say my hair is pretty normal, more on the thick and wavy/semi-curly side though, and can get pretty frizzy.
Hey Diana,
i also have problems with split ends and my hair is average thickness and wavy/curly as well. split ends are going to be there no matter what you do even if you get them trimmed..you just have to do it every 6-8 weeks get half inch to inch trimmed off. however i find that putting leave in anti breakage conditioner to my ends as well as a silicone based anti frizz treatment on my ends up to midway of my hair has helped a lot with the ends. some peoples hair though is naturally more prone to split ends however. the best thing i have found is to get regular trims along with a leave in anti breakage and defrizzing serum. i dont know also if you have heard of oil treatments..these are common in India. this puts moisture back in your hair and makes it strong. i would recommend trying this by applying this to the ends of your hair before you sleep and washing it out the next morning..do this 3x a week. this also can be applied all over the hair for total overall health. it makes my hair grow alot faster as well and this is the beauty secret for india how they get all that beautiful long hair! anyways good luck!
by the way…common choices of oil are coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, mustard oil, etc. i love coconut oil…this is what they use in India. you can generally find it at an asian grocery store..the brand i prefer is Parachute coconut oil…it works pretty well.
Yeah, I do get trims typically once a month. I also use FX Silk Drops, which is also silicone based, but it doesn’t seem to defrizz my hair very well. It just makes my hair look kind of greasy. Maybe I should try a different brand, but I’ve tried multiple defrizzants with no success.
I’ve never heard of an oil treatment, but I just used Regis protein treatment for about a week until I ran out. It seemed to make my hair a little better but I didn’t have enough to use it long enough to see if it was actually working completely. What kind of anti-breakage conditioner would you suggest? I use Garnier Fructis leave-in conditioner. It makes my hair a little softer, but I haven’t seen or felt any difference in the strength of my hair, even though it’s supposed to strengthen hair and prevent breakage. I feel like it weighs my hair down a bit.
I used pantene for many yrs and it has made my hair fall out. I use nexxus now and its better. I know lots of people that had their hair fall out from pantene,so that statement is true.
You lose hair each day naturally. If your hair isn’t very well conditioned, the ‘lost’ hair stays within the body of your hair (even though it’s no longer attached to your scalp). If your hair is well conditioned and silky, you’ll comb it through better and will notice the hairs that you’ve naturally lost. This is why Pantene shampoos (which bar the transparent ones have a bit of conditioning agent in too) make people believe their hair is falling out.
I would say just try using a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. try using a salon brand like Design Line’s ‘Olive Oil Shampoo’ and conditioner. its a huge container that last a long time and smells really good. plus olive oil is good for your hair. its like 13.99 but the container is HUGE so it will be worth the buy. try that…i like pantene personally…but people seem to be convinced it makes them loose their hair so..i would recommend that salon brand.
I have been losing hair recently and finally googled “Pantene+hair loss.” I was astonished at the number of people who have experienced hair loss from this product! It should come with a warning! I have had all the obvious blood work that might indicate a health problem…all came back OK. It is probably the Pantene. I have switched to an all natural product that seems to be working well.
I am a hair stylist and I can truthfully say that I am not out to sell any products that I don’t truly believe in. I care about the condition of my clients hair as well as their pocketbook. I suggest professional products that I like but I also tell them to use what works best for them. I was a Pantene user for years before I was a stylist. In fact, I’m sure I used about every supermarket brand available at one point. I don’t have to compare the ingredient labels in professional vs. non-professional because I can see and feel it in my hair, as well as my clients. I can tell when they’re using cheap shampoo because their color fades much quicker, and when they go back to the pro…what do you know! Less fading! No, I don’t have scientific evidence to back up that theory, but I see it so much I’m convinced. I don’t recall experiencing abnormal hair loss using Pantene, but I haven’t used it in years. There are a ton of reasons for sudden hair loss–stress, illness, climate change, diet, product build up clogging follicles, the list goes on. I just tell my clients finding the right product is all about trial and error. Most professional brands are guaranteed meaning if you try it and not satisfied you can return it to the salon. Can you return Pantene to Wal Mart if you don’t like it? You can also usually get free samples from salons before you commit to buying. Once you find a pro brand you like, you can usually get a great deal on liter sizes which will last you a long time. After you’ve gone pro for awhile, go back to your old stuff for a day or two and judge the difference for yourself. O, and even pro shampoos and products will build up on your hair, along with minerals from your water, pollutants in the air, etc. I recommend a good clarifying shampoo every now and then.
I went to my stylist to get a haircut and it had been much longer than it should have (probably about 6 to 9 months since my last trim). She commented on how she was very surprised at how healthy my hair was and how few split ends I had considering how much time had passed since my last visit. When she asked me what shampoo/conditioner I was using and I told her it was Pantene, she told me that I should switch because it wasn’t good for my hair. Obviously, she just wanted to make money by selling me the expensive salon products because she had just told me moments before that my hair was in really good shape. Just thought I’d share!
I’m sorry but I think the Brain seems to be wrong here. Why do I say so? Her logic to prove that both shampoos are about the same lies in her assertion that both contain similar ingredients. But even with similar ingredients they come in DIFFERENT AMOUNTS and FORMULATIONS, which will have an impact on how, say, silicones coat the hair, or how harsh the sulphates are.
Please don’t subscribe to the Brain’s logic because it has made a simplistic conclusion.
People, use some common sense here. Hair stylists have ALWAYS downed products sold in stores but not in hair salons. It’s how they make their money. They try and convince you that THEIR products are better, so buy from ME. Wouldn’t you?
Pantene Ice Shine is the best. I do alternate between different shampoos, because it has been my experience that they work better when given a “break”. However, I don’t think salon brands are any better than a good brand sold in stores. Anyway, haven’t you noticed that brands sold only in salons are eventually sold in Target and Wal-Mart, lol. Same as prescription drugs make it to shelves after the prescription-only industry squeezes enough money out of it.
I guess I have to add my own anecdotal evidence to the batch. I’ve been growing my hair out for 3 years to donate to Beautiful Lengths. It’s now reaching my hips. I have used Pantene conditioner because REAL professionals (with degrees, not someone with a license in cosmetology after having gone to school for two years) have said it works. I have brilliant shiny, soft hair with NO split ends whatsoever. I’ve only gotten it trimmed once to even it out, and the stylist kept saying how beautiful and healthy it was. When I told her what I used, she, of course, told me it was no good. Well, obviously it is – I have beautiful, healthy hair and she had terrible, unhealthy, brittle hair.
The other products you use can attribute as well. I don’t use anything on my hair (I’m “blessed” with hair that looks good when I wake up with just a little finger-combing) – not even heat to dry it. I leave it in a towel until mostly dry and then let it air dry the rest of the way. I get frizz because it’s incredibly thick and coarse and it’s humid down here, but I just use a leave-in conditioner/frizz treatment once in a while.
I believe the most important “product” for hair is good nutrition. If one product worked perfectly for everyone, we’d all be using it. But don’t discount the word of the scientific community based on anecdotal “evidence.”
Heh heh. The little face I got is so cute.
I use Pantene shampoo and conditioner twice a week. It really makes you hair shiny and manageable.
I have short hair, actually it is medium iguess and it is also thin should i use the oantene full and thick collecton or beautiful lengths collection?
I am a hair stylist myself and I have to say that pantene is very damaging to MOST peoples hair. Everybodys hair is different so not everybody gets as much damage as another person does. But right off the bat I can feel if someone uses Pantene in their hair from the waxy build up in the hair coating it and making it feel smoother and looks shiny. I have return clients who switched from pantene to a Professional product, and their hair is in much better shape, and much healthier. But especially for women trying to grow their hair out, I reccomend every 4-6 weeks getting a trim because longer hair is going to split, you can’t completly stop it, but you can prevent a fair amount of it by using the right products and taking care of your hair. Also yes, hot oil and deep conditioning treatments work wonders in your hair, especially in the winter months. I have seen too many women come into the salon complaining about their hair falling out and 95% of the time, they are using pantene. And yes, the pH is alkaline in pantene where your hair and skin are acidic, changing the pH of the hair causing damage. So Pantene is in my opinion and from all the hair that I see, the worst shampoo one could use in their hair.
In the late 70′s Pantene was only available in salons, and that is when I started to use it, I could only purchase it from a salon. I was thrilled when it became available to purchase through a retail store, I have been using Pantene since the late 70′s. I have always been told that I have beautiful hair!
I would like a listing of the ingredients and what they do for your hair that are in pantene shampoo.
I have used all Pantene products for years. They are always my first choice.
I have tried other products….I always go back to Pantene.
As stated before, most hair products contain about the same group
of ingredients; just maybe a bit different quantities of each.
If anyone is loosing more hair than usual, go to a Registered Dietitian
or nutritionist as you may have Adrenal Exhaustion (one of the #1 symptoms is hair loss) and in today’s busy world with heavy caffeine use, well the Adrenals get heavily overworked and then symptoms start showing up.
Just a thought. I have battled with Adrenal Exhaustion for years.
I am not an expert or Doctor, but it is worth checking your health before
vilifying Pantene.
Wow this is an old thread. When I was a kid I used Herbal Essences and on occassion Pantene. Both these shampoos made my hair fall out. At the time I didn’t know because I was a kid, but just recently my stylist told me how horrible Pantene is for your hair and I realized why my hair used to fall out. I am now 22 and blowdry, straighten and highlight my hair and my hair NEVER falls out as much as it did when I was a kid. I was probably about 12ish when I was using Pantene and never colored my hair, straightened or blowdryed so my problem was not from over-processed hair. I will never go back to those shampoos again. When I reached high school my mom started going to a very popular stylist who recommened some awesome professional shampoos that I have never had a problem with. They are a bit pricey but well worth it.
Hi still waiting for a reply to my question. Why isn’t there a Unscented Classic Classique Unscented Hairspray, Pantene have it it there scented one’s. I have always used the Pantene Shampoo, bit scarey reading all the neg reports on some of the e-mails.
I have only just started to use the above hairspay find it very good. Had to change from my one I had been using for years beings they changed the formular. One other thing the container for this pump Classic is not very hand hold friendly the spray tends to move around whilst spraying the hair. I have to find another container, but the Aerosol would be the best.
Regards
Patricia Chester
Pantene and similar products with silicones in them make my hair break off horribly. This is because a lot of them create a moisture resistance coating. That’s really useful if you already have moisture in your hair, or you can wash your hair daily to let it back in, but if you can’t wash your hair daily due to lack of natural oils, it can end up drying out your hair. With Paul Mitchel, my hair broke off from my hips to my shoulders when I was 10. I was not happy about that.(Before that, I had just used Doc Bronner’s soap every week, and put olive oil in my hair after a shower.) When your hair goes from your hips to your shoulders just from breakage in a matter of weeks, without any trimming or chances to your routine, it’s a pretty clear sign your hair is damaged.
So yes, pantene etc can damage hair, and it did damage my hair horribly(I’ve tried pantene since, with less dramatic results than the Paul Mitchel incident, but I did notice more breakage). However, I have very fine hair that breaks very easily, so I’m probably not the best example. I can’t use a blowdrier, and I have to wear a scarf on it while I sleep(Along with keeping it braided constantly!), I can’t dye it or do really anything to it. It shreds if I brush it from the friction on a good day… Conditioners with “silicones” in them seem to give me really bad back acne as well, probably because it’s harder to remove them with just plain water and lye soap as opposed to a bodywash made with other surfactants.
i have used pantene a couple of times only one bottle at any one time, but i didn’t really feel it did any damage i would only use it as a last resort, something cheap to clean my hair i wouldn’t use it regularly for my relaxed hair.
Well if you been using pantene for a couple of months, chances are that if you were under any kind of stress from diet, exercise, day to day type of stress, hormonal changes, etc… your hair doesn’t always fall straight away. You hair actually takes a couple of months to fall out and you can lose over 50% of your hair before you ever realized that you are losing them. By then, if you switched shampoo at that time it appears like it. Also if you use a lot of products, dye your hair frequently, hot iron it, etc…it stresses your hair coupled that with environmental factors from air and water, you could do a lot of damage.
hi,
now as a stylist for the past 10 years, i have told people not to use Pantene. It does have ingredients that build up on the hair and scalp. Everything does. It also has harmful ingredients that can over time and constant use damage the hair. It coats the hair to make it feel soft, smooth and shiny.
I understand that some people think that all stylists are just trying to sell you their products. Just think about this, how long have you heard stylists telling you not to use pantene specifically? I am assuming quite a while, there is not a conspiracy happening, we are not told by bosses, sales reps, teachers or anyone for that matter to bash Pantene or any product for that matter.
As for the company that makes Pantene, P&G, yes they do have a lot of money to reaserch, but how many other products do that make that have nothing to do with hair?Hair care products are not their only business.
Salon products are made by companies that only do that. Hair care.
Essentially yes, all products have the same basic ingredients.
A company, P&G, brings an idea to a scientist and telling then i want a shampoo to do this………, the scientist then comes back with the product and how much it will cost to make. P&G then tells them to use what ever substitutes they have to make the shampoo have the same effect on the hair but cost X amount. SO the more expensive the product, the less fillers and substitutes. You are paying for the quality of the product.
If a client does not have the funds or just does not see the need to buy salon products, i recommend Garnier. It is created by L’Oréal, who also creates salon products, Kerastase for example, as well as some of the color we as stylist put on your hair. So this is their less expensive version.
It works, its good. I trust it.
People will use what they want just please dont say we only tell you not to use it because we want to sell you something. My job is to make your air look and feel its best.
Hi I have been using pantene for years, without excessive hair loss, but I do have a question. I am older and color my hair I have been reading that as hair ages you should use shampoo with less detergent. Is this true?
OMG somebody please tell me how to get this pantene icey shampoo plus conditioner out of my hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..i used it 1 time and the roots of my hair are just like wax and i cant even brush it..and this is after 12 washes of a different shampoo…my mom had me try this pantene pro v shampoo plus cond. and i absolutely hate it…DONT EVER BUT THIS…i am still trying to get it out of my hair after 6 days…help help help it will not come out and i am getting scared now…..it looks wet 24/7 and everybody keeps asking me why my hair wont dry..please help i hate this stuff…does anybody know how to get it out???????????
okay so i jus left the other comment above and i might have found what helps to remove this junk…i went to sally beauty supply in a hunt 4 something that would get rid of this junk it;s horrible and i asked the lady working there to find me a product and she was like ” all you have to do is use dawn dish detergent because what you used was a very strong clarifiying shampoo”…so i was thinking is this really gonna work..but then i started thinking its an antigreaser…duh why didnt i think of that…lol…but to make a long story short i have now washed my hair with the dawn 2x and it works great but it is still not completely gone its still waxt feeling but it slowly is coming out and everything else i used did not work…so eventually i will have my hair back…i will always use my suave and NEVER change again…..but if anybody is having the same trouble getting this pantene pro v junk out of your hair USE DAWN..i wish i would of had somebody on here tell me what to use because this was a HAIRsaver..lol
I started using the Ice shampoo. It made my hair feel great BUT my scalp is itching really bad after using it for about 2 weeks. Why is that happening?
I am an African American woman. I have always had problems with my hair breaking. The only way I could have it long was to keep it braided up and only comb it once a week. I have been using Pantene beautiful lengths for more than a year. My hair is about four inches from being waist length. I owe it all to the Pantene. I used to lose a hand ful of hair every time I combed my hair after shampooing and conditioning it. Now it is only a few strands. I highly recommend it!
Simple and the fashionable are the Discount Damier Azur features. perfect details are
must absolutely belongs to the top society.
Ok, I will be the 10 millionth person to add a comment on here because I can’t resist. I read ingredient labels all the time, can pronounce everything on there and tell you why it’s in there because this is my hobby and I’m going to school for chemistry soon.
I can tell you that yes, silicone leaves a film on your hair which helps PREVENT damage because it acts as a buffer against heat and other substances (such as hair color, which means it penetrates less, this is a fact, just use a lighter conditioner or a hot oil with coconut oil before coloring).
Because it works so well for this purpose it’s used in 99% of hair products today, including every salon brand I know of (even the ones that talk about not using silicone, read the ingredients, almost all have dimethicone, polysilicone, trimethicone, cyclomethicone, cyclopentasiloxane, etc etc). It is not bad for your hair in the slightest, especially if your hair is coarse dry or damaged, it’s a miracle. This is why there’s more silicone in curly hair, or colored hair, or dry and damaged hair products, because these hair types need that coating the most.
Most products that are designed for fine hair or hair that is “normal” meaning less damaged have less silicones, more lightweight silicones or none at all on the rare occasion. Too much silicone on hair that’s very fine or in good condition can feel heavy and like there’s a coating. This coating isn’t bad for hair, it doesn’t strip moisture (the only thing that legitimately strip moisture from hair are processing and heat styling, that’s a fact) it doesn’t cause breakage (it prevents it) it just doesn’t feel pleasant if your hair is not in poor shape. For hair that gets tangly, it detangles and creates slip, and this slip visually makes hair look shiny and feel soft. This is why you feel like your hair is coming out, the hairs that naturally fell out but were tangled into your live hairs are now detangled and slipping out much more easily. The other ingredients in Pantene like cetrimonium or behentrimonium chloride (etc, there’s a lot of different ones) are quaternary ammonium compounds. It sounds scary, but it’s very simple, they add more lightweight conditioning, frizz control and have the added benefit of being great antistatic agents (these are commonly found in fabric softener too, that’s why your clothes feel so soft after you’ve just washed them). They are like helpful assistants to silicone that help it work better while making the product feel more lightweight on the hair. If you have fine hair, look for conditioners that have more of these than silicones and your hair will behave better. Some products for ethnic hair or ultra dry damaged curly long and thick (hair like mine) also contain high amounts of mineral oil or other oils. These oils would feel even heavier greasier and waxier on most hair types than silicone, but on hair that is very unruly they are a miracle because they make it much shinier, pliable and workable. This is why many people with fine hair that is very damaged love using hot oil treatments and then shampooing them out, because they get a lot of the conditioning benefit with very little of the coating or weight.
As for ammonium lauryl sulfate, ammonium laureth sulfate or the sodium versions, these are also used in almost every single salon product you can buy. Even though they talk about low or no sulfates, they’re in there, you can check if you read the ingredients for yourself rather than asking your stylist who has likely never even glanced at the ingredient statement. They are drying to the hair because they are designed to lift away dirt and grease. That’s what they do. If they didn’t take oil away from your hair (your natural oil) they wouldn’t be cleaning your hair and you would be upset that your shampoo doesn’t do what it’s supposed to, and the beauty companies definitely don’t want that. Some of the non-sulfate detergents that are used as an alternative as is the trend now, such as TEA- sodium cocoyl glutamate (etc) are actually MORE drying to the hair then sulfates, with less of the foam which helps the product spread more (and saves you money because you use less shampoo). Again, please don’t fall for marketing. Shampoo is supposed to clean hair, that’s why you buy it, that’s why it has detergent. And almost every shampoo on the market has one or more of the ammonium or sodium based detergents because they provide the best researched most consistent results in terms of cleansing the hair while balancing the result with minimal drying. This is also why conditioning ingredients such as silicones and quaternary ammonium compounds are added to shampoos for dry or damaged hair, to mitigate some of the drying. Or you can just take one part shampoo, one part conditioner, mix in your hands and you have a conditioning shampoo, with low sulfates, because you’ve now diluted the sulfates. This is part of what I do for my hair. I also do a hot oil before I shampoo every time, because my hair is very coarse, I shampoo only my roots and let the running water rinse my ends which have less dirt and oil anyways (especially in very long hair). I then condition starting at the ends and using less and less as I get to my roots, because again, my roots are naturally more conditioned and it’s my ends that need the most conditioning. I find in this way I use half the shampoo and half the conditioner I usually would.
For a little bit of background, I took cosmetology in high school. Although I very much enjoyed the theory portion and learning about the biology of hair, I was not so good at the technical things (I can’t roundbrush to save my life, but I can pull off a perfect liquid liner within a second with no effort, we’re all good at different things) so I droppedi t. My younger sister took it and I would often come to her to get my hair done on her student service nights. Her teacher taught her, just like mine taught me that all drugstore brands were bad (and especially pantene) because of their high amounts of detergents and silicones. When I showed her the ingredients on her salon products that she was recomending, which were virtually the same as the Pantene bottle I had in my bag from buying at the store, she was floored. She did at first try to say that there are different qualities of ingredients and then when I told her that half her brands were owned by P&G, loreal etc and that they used the same suppliers across the board, she was floored. Then she said that drugstore products are watered down, to which I responded that if silicones and detergents were harmful to your hair wouldn’t you want lower concentrations of them? We then used pantene conditioner on one side of my hair and biolage on the other, and styled my hair with the same products. The pantene side was smoother and less frizzy. My sister is a very talented stylist and wields her brushes and heat tools much better than even I (and her teacher admitted herself) so both sides came out comparatively good, but one was better than the other. When we compared the ingredient lists, there was more silicone in the Pantene. She then tried to tell me about the waxy film, and that’s why my hair was seemingly healthier on the pantene side. We then pulled a comb through the length of my hair, the non pantene side snagged and broke strands in only a few places, whereas the biolage snagged almost right from the top. So my pantene was more elastic and healthy too. She said to get the best results from salon products you have to keep using them and this is why people get addicted to pantene, because it seemingly provides results right away and then stops working. I told her I had been using that particular biolage conditioner upon my sitser’s reccomendation for two months and decided to go back to pantene because the results were still inferior. I also reminded her of something she and all cosmetology teachers teach from the start, hair is dead tissue. Whatever you put on it is only temporary and washes off quickly, nothing can penetrate the cortex unless the cuticle is damaged and even then it shampoos away quickly. This is why the most hair color is lost after processing on the first shampoo, because it can all be washed away. This is why hair color and perms last long, because they change the chemical structure of the cortex. This is why semi-permanent color does not reach the cortex and therefore washes away quicker. This is why hair goes back to poor condition after not using a conditioner, because it’s not healed (if it was healed it would remain healed) it is just coated to seem healthier. This basic concept about hair penetration and what does and doesn’t hold on in the cortex is taught at the start of hair school, yet the second that products are talked about all of a sudden it’s deep penetrating and rapidly repairing proteins, herbs and royal jelly (depending on what the specific product is). So I asked her, if the deeply penetrating extracts and proteins of the biolage were so great, why were they at the bottom of the ingredient list among the preservatives, rather than at the top amongst the silicones and quats in a higher concentration. At this point she said it was because they were so potent, that there was so little of them needed. I then asked her, if they were so great, why was sebastian using different extracts, or paul mitchell using even different ones, yet everyone was using the same silicones (and all of these products are supposedly great because they’re sold at her salon). She then told me that she had heard horror stories from tons of clients that Pantene made their hair fall out to which I responded that some hair from my head had also fallen out on the biolage side, because it smoothed the cuticle and made my already dislodged hair slip out (again, basic biology). To this she responded that they had said it made the hair fall out like NOTHING before and it was a very dramatic bald spot. I looked around the room and everyone that was getting their hair done. I asked if anyone had been using pantene and had their hair fall out. 2 women responded, and I looked at their scalps. Neither of them had any noticeable bald spots, their hair was simply more fine (in distribution rather than diameter) than the person next to them and so they believed they were balding. They said the majority of their hair loss started when they used pantene and then when they went to a salon brand it stopped. I asked them if they had ever heard of the placebo effect? Just to clarify, I explained to them again the premise behind it (if one really believes something, they will see it come true, I have known people who don’t believe in God because they say all of their followers are just seeing and interpreting what they want to be true, yet they really believe that natural ingredients in hair products are what make their hair manageable and shiny). It was at this point that teacher gave in, realized the feeble “training” she had received as a beginning hairstylist and throughout her years styling, did not give her the entire picture. She herself did not know how silicones really function, how shampoos wash hair, how to read an ingredient list and how her own industry works in terms of parent companies etc etc, because she herself had never been taught these things from an unbiased source. She wasn’t a bad person for thinking this or teaching it to my sister and her other students. My sister isn’t a bad person for trying to get me to use biolage rather than pantene. No one is saying that hairstylists are bad people who are trying to lie to you, most of them are very good people. Most of them realize they’ll get higher tips and more loyal clients if they lower the sales pressure (not all, but many). They genuinely do believe what they’re telling you is right because they are taught by their superiors and peers and no one ever doubts the sales reps. The Beauty Brains weren’t trying to attack hairstylists, they were merely poking holes in an argument. That’s how scientific experiments are done, something is looked at, they try to explain it, they try to back it up with well designed experiments. If they are a good scientist they try to perform experiments that disprove their hypothesis. This is why it’s generally believed that silicones are helpful for hair, because there have been tons and tons of studies performed, in many different ways, on many different people, which led to the generally accepted theory that the coating they leave on hair makes it temporarily behave more healthy. It’s natural to want to jump to conclusions and believe the simplistic answer to every question, but the truth is rarely simple. That’s just life.
And for a little bit of followup knowledge. I have now worked at Sephora selling makeup, skincare and yes, expensive hair care. Although I love my job and love helping people I also love dispelling myths and empowering women by telling them the truth and referring them to sources such as the beauty brains. I love a lot of the hair products we carry, but I use mostly drugstore brands because I am on a budget and because they perform just as well if I make sure to get the right product. The same goes for our skincare and makeup products. I have now personally been trained by countless sales reps and I can genuinely tell you that they too, don’t know about ingredients and if you pose the questions I pose, hey get flustered and try to come up with an answer. Because they too are just people that started out like me, regular old sales girl, but had more personal charm and charisma, became better sales people and got promoted to regional sales reps and trainers. They too don’t remember basic high school chemistry, nor have they really looked at the ingredient lists of the products they promote (or the competitors). They are trained by the marketing departments at the head offices, who also have never formulated products nor looked at ingredient lists at length. These marketing honchos interact with cosmetic chemists who formulate the products, who tell them that this conditioner cannot possibly repair hair and can only make the hair seem repaired. But the marketing people specialize in knowing what sells and they know that the average woman is far more likely to buy something that “helps hair regain strength, shine and bounce in just one use” rather than “coats the hair to make it seem healthier and shinier”. They know that and they buying public deep down knows that and this is why cosmetic companies continue to lie, because people buy lies more often then they do the truth, especially when it comes to something emotionally charged like our hair. So the marketing people choose not to pay attention to the chemist’s sensible explanations and choose to build ad campaigns around carefully structured claims such as “improves the look of” or “hair looks twice as strong” which make us think this product will repair our hair. Yet if you think about the “look” of something, you are then led to very subjective grounds. How something looks is not necessarily what it is, which any woman who has ever had a first date can attest to. We all know that how something looks does not always correlate with it’s inside, but our subconscious chooses to ignore that all important word, because we want to believe something will truly repair our hair. We should know better, but we don’t want to. I too have fallen subject to this, even though I know as much as I do about hair biology, cosmetic chemistry and the beauty business, because I too am a woman and I want to look like the girl from the hair commercial. But I choose to save my dollars and pinch myself back to reality instead (most of the time). I’ve only chosen to post this long of a comment and this much detail because I felt like it was the only way to refute every single post that has been posted here against pantene or any other brand.
I hope all those who “want more information” choose to read that entire post even though it is very long.
I was using Garnier shampoo for months and my hair was shiny and healthy and perfectly fine. I saw some shedding, but it was only a normal amount and nothing that alarmed me. Then, several months ago I decided to switch to Pantene just to try something new. After just a couple of weeks I noticed a significant increase in the amount of hair I was shedding. Huge clumps of it would come out just when I ran my fingers through it, let alone brushed it, and my once thick hair became noticeably thinner. In an attempt to fix this I completely stopped heat styling my hair thinking that maybe the shedding was due to damage from blow-drying and flat ironing. The shedding still continued so I finally decided to just switch shampoos hoping that would fix the problem. And guess what? It did! The severe shedding has stopped since I stopped using Pantene and I will NEVER use it again.
I’m not a hairdresser nor did my hairdresser give me any advice when it came to pantene here’s my story: I HAD long hair (half way down my back). I have colored and straightened my hair for years. I never used pantene because it always made my hair frizzy. I decided about two months ago to try it again since I was straightening my hair anyway it would take the frizz out and pantene always left my hair soft. I noticed about a month into using pantene daily that my hair was breaking off more than usual (didn’t dawn on me I changed shampoo and conditioner). I continued using it for another month and my hair has broken off to shoulder length hair. It finally dawned on me that I had changed shampoo and conditioner. I immediately change to another shampoo and conditioner and it has stopped. Maybe on regular non-colored non-straightened hair it might work out, but I would never recommend Pantene. This is coming from someone who has never used anything but store bought shampoo and have colored my hair for 24 years and straightened it for at least 5 years. No other product has ever done this to my hair. Please be cautious of using it just make sure you stop before you have no hair left!!!
Well, I guess I’ll put my too cents in as well. Suave or Tresseme are much better to use than Pantene. Garnier comes in a shady 3rd…but leaning only on the conditioners and styling products–not the poos. Now, peoples hair gets used to the coating of the conditioners and seems to look shiny but it don’t last too long. You end up washing your hair too much thinking it’s dirty when its only the film.
So basically, I don’t believe in this article. I am an aspiring cosmetologist,
but I will say this: Ladies, Pantene is expensive when you cut right down to it. While Tresseme and Suave are a heck of a lot cheaper Garnier. I say, know your hair type; which product/s (don’t be afraid to mix instead of match) to by and try and learn.
I’m so sick and tierd of hairdressers bagging pantene!!! I’m 29 and I’ve been using pantene since I was 15. I have had long curly hair for most of my life. I started bleaching my hair at 14. In that first year before pantene, my hair was soo dry and unmanageable it was a nightmare!. “It looked like lambs wool”. Then I discovered pantene and since then I’ve had the most beautifull hair. It not only was blonde but very long and healthy with no split ends. I never knew what it ment to have split ends! I’ve never had any problems with foils heating up either. The only problem I have had with my hair was with hairdressers constantly stuffing up the colour including turning my hair purple!!That would force me to go back to get it fixed. My hair would get soo worn out that if it wasnt for pantene i would have no hair left!!! because of all that and also hearing all the time how bad pantene is for your hair i decided to try out expensive salon products hoping it would speed up th process of recovery!!! What a big mistake!!! my hair literally started breaking off, my split ends were an inche long it was soo discusting i had to chop my hair off!!! Now i have really short hair but im back on pantene and i know in no time my hair will be long and healthy again!! I love pantene and i will never stop using it!!!! As for the hairdressers “you all sound like brainwashed robots!! stop trying to sabotage pantene and start doing your job right instead of wrecking peoples hair!!”
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