January 06, 2009

Dove Hair Fall Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner: Great products, stupid marketing

Let me start by saying that I love both this shampoo and conditoner and I'm thrilled I found such great products at such low prices. Now...

*starts rant*

There are times when the marketing of beauty products makes me so angry I could spit. What's the reason for my fury? Well, based on personal experience, these so-called "hair fall therapy" products are in fact volumnising haircare in disguise. "Hair Fall Therapy" my foot!

I can just imagine some clever britches, saying to a board of other wily coyotes, "Asian women think volumnising products will make their hair big and unruly. So they won't buy it. But I have a cunning plan!

Let's take our volumnising line, add something we'll call a "secret serum", and repackage is as Hair Fall Therapy! Since they'll have thicker hair, they'll assume it's working! How will we make this claim? Simple! We'll do a study proving that these three products (shamp, condi & mask) cause less hair fall (due to breakage) than hair washed only with non-conditioning shampoo. No one reads the small print anyway!"

His genius is applauded and giving each other manly hugs, and congratulatory pats my purely imaginary marketing board strut out for whiskey and cigars.

And here's me, looking high and low for volumnising haircare. I'll bet the idiots who came up with this marketing concept ALSO invented the Lynx / Axe ads.

*ends rant*

Read on for a non-ranty review of the products!

I was leery of giving these products a try despite their low price point because I assumed being "Hair Fall Therapy" (deep breaths, girl) they'd be overly moisturising and turn my hair into an oily, limp mess. But after swimming quite a bit, I decided my hair needed some TLC, so when I saw the smaller 180ml bottles on offer at less than RM8 each, I impulse-bought them. My love for the Syen-discovered hair mask also had a huge part to play in this.

And learnt that while gentler than my rapidly depleting John Frieda Luxurious Volume range, it was nonetheless, a volumnising shampoo with a light, low-silicone conditioner. My hair was soft, bouncy, shiny, and happy if a little bit less sleek than with JF. I also have no problems with the generic Dove scent, I find it rather comforting actually.

I find the conditioner is a little light for my ends, perfect for my hair shaft, and too heavy for the roots (yep, hair this long has three climates). So I mask the ends, and follow it with conditioner to the hairshaft and ends. This allows me to wash my hair daily (I actually enjoy this), and my roots stay grease-free all day.

So because this product is so good, and so cheap I do recommend for anyone out there looking for decent volumnising products to ignore the annoying marketing, and give this range a go. Sadly, it probably won't prevent breakage better than any other decent shampoo and conditioner will do. But at least your hair will appear fuller and that will help.

7 comments:

plue said...

Sigh, I wish I can love Dove like, but I hate it.

It is so drying that I can hate my hair! My sisters feel the same way too!

Sigh. Why does Dove have to hate my hair? :(

AskMeWhats said...

LOL about hair fall therapy! and LMAO on you with the rants! So true though, a friend of mine told me that most shampoo and conditioner companies put wax to the ingredients to make your hair "feel softer and smoother" and there we go..falling into those smoothening strategy! LOL

Thanks for the review, I haven't tried any DOVE hair care products, I've only used their soap! Loving the soap! LOL

Jenn said...

I never used any Dove products before!! My hair is dropping like crazy over here in India, so maybe i should scout this out!! :)

BTW, i thought those ridiculous AXE ads are REALLY funny!! hehehe!!

Kahani said...

Plue: I'd say this range is more for oily hair and not dry, so you may want to give it a miss. But give the hair mask a try! I think it would be great for dry hair. Have you also tried Dove's moisturising range? Is it also too drying?

Nikki: Exactly! Dump in one new ingredient and VOILA! New product! Ish!

Hey Jenn: Yes those ads are funny but don't you think it's slightly hypocritical that the same company who sells axe / lynx also sells Dove? The messages in their ads are directly contradicting each other!

Whatcha doin in India, babe? Studying? I can't promise that this range will help your hair stop falling at all. I'm using it and monitoring my hair fall but so far no big diff. I can suggest you take Biotin though (do a search on the site for the article). That one is at least scientifically proven to help over time. =)

Syen said...

Kahani: NOW thy doth tempteth me with the shampoo and conditioner. LOL.

plue said...

I used the Moisturizing one, the dark blue bottle. And it dries my hair like crazy!

I am little worried using Dove products right now, but i might just try the hair mask, once I clear off whatever I still have :P Hehe~

Kahani said...

Syen: At least I'm tempting you with really cheap products!

Plue: The hair mask really should be good. I use it only on my ends and it keeps them happy.