Hey everyone. Today we have a brand new Dex Does. As I've said before, I don't edit his posts beyond spelling and punctuation here and there, so rest assured this is 100% undiluted Dexter!
So where to start with this product, hmm I guess I'll start with me and my scalp/hair background to give ou an idea of what I was like before trying this product out. My scalp is NOT perfect in any sense of the word, I haven't been formally checked but I believe I have a mild eczema/skin-condition on my scalp from time to time. this irritation comes in the form of flakes falling from my scalp and getting caught in my hair for the world to see (sad face) and itchiness around my crown from time to time. I tried any number of products across all manner of shelves and never could find anything with permanent results. Eventually I progressed onto using, what for me was, the best thing of all time for my scalp. Anyone ever heard of it? It's 'nothing'. That's right, for about 8 months now i use absolutely no products in my hair to treat my scalp. The only thing I use regularly is gel for work to keep my man-fro under office-professional-looking wraps. Short and sweet is not using any products increased my scalp health tremendously and my hair too, it's never been any softer or stronger before now. I still get slight irritations from time to time but they are few and infrequent, que Viviscal into my life.
So, Red-Lips here asked me would I review this hair-product that got passed her way and I was trepidatious at first but after looking ta the product I said 'Sure!' because why not? truthfully I wanted to see if this no products test was really working for me and I figured if I could get something like Viviscal into my hair I could really test if I was just using all the wrong products before and had finally stumbled across the savior of scalp treatments. So we shall hop right into it.
Viviscal is a VERY pretty product, a little annoying to use in the shower (seriously who designed that bottle, you can't stand it anywhere. Who is that useful for? This annoys me far more than it should but talk about impractical.....anyways) but very pretty and comes in a very aesthetically pleasing box too. Nice colour scheme, the cream is a normal color too nothing usetting there. It smells nice too, kind of like what I imagine upmarket medicine of the hair product world smells like. Nice, clean, minty, and like it'll do magic for your affected area. So, so far so good on the looks department.
Start reading about it. 100% drug free, okay that's actually a great point, some scalp treatments out there have some steroids in them or parabens or SLS/SLES in them that can have awful affects on you if you use them. Point for Viviscal, go you. 99% naturally derived products, another point for Viviscal. 25 years of research and backed by doctors (doesn't mean much to me, find it hard to find more than a couple studies of research for just this product as opposed to the whole range so I take this with a grain of salt). Few other advertising points you usually see, easy to apply non greasy etc. Quite a few success stories for it online and backing from people like Oscar blandi a well renowned salon owner. It's looking pretty good for Viviscal, I am sold on the product to try it out!
So I read the instructions and I think this should be clarified for people, this serum bottle says that this bottle is a twice daily use product that requires 2/3 "pea sized" drops to cover most peoples hair. That is not accurate, I tried to, I REALLY tried to make 2/3 pea sized drops go over my scalp but believe after ten minutes of rubbing my scalp and my shoulders aching from the task i couldn't get the pea amount across half of of my scalp let alone the whole scalp. I tried it with wet hair and dry hair but I couldn't do it. Instead I upped the amount to a 'dollop' which just about did my whole head. It was easy enough to apply after that, still alot of working it into my scalp though which is unfortunate. As a commuter and morning gym goer I don't have an extra ten minutes in the morning on top of the rest of my routine to do this every morning in the changing room, so that was a real disappointment/frustration. It smelled nice enough when I used it if that matters to anyone. And the little bottle lasted me nearly the whole month too (maybe around 4 days short of the full 30 days) so even though I used 'dollop' sized amounts it still lasted me nearly the whole month. Those are large peas Viviscal, very large peas.
So my month was up of using it consistently everyday and my scalp is pretty okay I thought, good in fact. Thought I'd go back and write it up as a stellar success story but then I thought, maybe I'll give it a week and see how we go, let's see if my scalp stays healthy. And boy did it not stay healthy. Towards the middle of that very week my scalp was itchy like never before and flaking like it was trying to make up for the lack of snow at Christmas which was horribly embarrassing. My shedding rate increased every time I slept or brushed my hair. Luckily gel kept it mostly in place during the day at work and at home I just had to bear it and try not scratch my scalp clean off my skull.
It took about 3/4 weeks but it finally got back to normal again and now it's not itchy anymore after no product use in it for near a month. So for this reason and experience I don't recommend Viviscal to anyone, I didn't see the benefit of it and in fact it only made my scalp worse. As an aside apparently Viviscal say you need to use this product for 3-6 months to see the benefit of it. That's €90-€180 worth of serum alone. If that's the case I'll stay with my free no product regime and continue how I'm going. It's working a treat so far with no set backs yet. Sorry Viviscal, you're pretty and you smell good and have good groundings too in your ingredients but you just didn't work for me.
On another note, the last thought I'd like to put out is after many hours researching the product there does seem to be alot of genuine positive results from people across the globe about Viviscal. Particularly around the tablet treatments. If given the chance I might consider going for the tablet treatment myself. Maybe my scalp is just a senstivie prissy scalp and no product will ever be good enough for it but all I know is, it doesn't like this one. Sorry Viviscal, I really wanted it to work and all.
*Viviscal was sent for review purposes.
It was sent to me (Amy) and I passed ot on to Dex.
All opinions are his own.