Corporate stupidity, often, is why we can’t have nice things. A lot of people, including me, have experienced hair loss with TRESemme and other shampoos and conditioners in the Unilever family of brands.
Retracing My Steps
Last year, faced with (at last) the end of my Tigi Moisture Maniac stockpile (that I had gleefully found at Costco), I faced the music that the discontinuation was finally final. and decided to return to drugstore options. I’d had decent results with Tresemme in the past, so while the variety I had previously tried wasn’t available, I went for their Moisture Rich shampoo and conditioner.
Hair Loss with TRESemme
We all shed hair, it’s part of the process. But I was shedding a lot. Granted, 2020 was a hell of a year, and we know stress is a contributor to hair loss.
But I’m no stranger to stress, and I was losing hair in fistfuls. I’m not a particularly emotional person, but it brought me to tears. I’d wash and condition my hair in the shower, capturing and coiling the fallen strands on the wall to see the casualties of the day and cry. I’m not even thirty yet. Was I sick? What the hell.
So, given that, it isn’t surprising it took me months to connect the dots that the acceleration of my shedding coincided uncomfortably with the product change.
Unforutnately, I’m Not Alone
When the suspicion occurred to me, I put on my investigative hat and found, to my horror, that Unilever is currently facing a class action suit over hair loss with TRESemme. The litigation is over another product line for containing an ingredient that is known to accelerate hair loss.