My article in The Irish Times this week features a brilliant Irish company called Elave. I thought I would add a follow up post to my article because there is literally only so much I can fit into 250 words and some topics warrant more details.

You know those conversations that spark a Eureka moment? Well I had one of those moments while chatting with Joanna Gardner, MD of Elave. She was firstly, extremely generous with her time in talking to me and secondly, very informative. Elave is a really interesting company that does a huge amount of research into making their products really effective yet extremely kind and gentle on skin. Anyway, we got chatting about sulphates which is something that I knew a little bit about but wasn’t overly aware of what impact they might be having on my family. Now perhaps that sounds dramatic but sometimes things affect you that are only mildly irritating so you sort of do little or nothing about them.

• First off both myself and my husband found ourselves with dry scalps, I’m not talking about dandruff but it was still bad enough to make wearing dark tops a little bit embarrassing.
• The big lady has had a really mild form of cradle cap with dry patches around her head that I used to treat with oils but they kept coming back; and
• Finally, the small lady had red, dry patches behind her ears that we not causing any irritation but looked a little uncomfortable (this would be where suds usually accumulate after hair washing).

So it turns out that all these mild irritations can be caused by the presence of sulphates (which you can read more about in my article here).

Literally the next day my husband went out and purchased Elave’s Junior Shampoo for use in the gym, he was that convinced that sulphates were the problem for him (and believe me he never normally listens when I rabbit on about beauty related topics!). We were sent some more shampoos for the rest of us to try and that we have been doing for the past couple of weeks.

Anyone who knows me well will already have heard me harping on about the incredible difference it has made to us all. Both dry scalps are completely cleared up. The big lady’s cradle cap is totally gone and the small lady’s ears are improving but this is taking the longest to clear up. And for the purposes of a good review I’ve been testing my hair – gone is the grease that appears about 24 hours after regular shampoo. My hair stays much cleaner and healthier looking for longer. It holds a style better and it just feels nicer, thicker, smoother, calmer. 

I’ve seen so many people talking about remedies for dry skin on kids but in some instances it might be worth stepping back and seeing if you can fix the problem at the source as opposed to trying to remedy a problem. I believe the only suphate-free shampoo you’ll find in the likes of Tesco is a L’Oreal offering that is designed for coloured hair. Elave is available in most good pharmacies (beside La Roche Posay and Vichy) or you can buy online. I’ve also been using this Alfaparf Precious Nature Shampoos that do exactly the same job. I’ve leaned towards using these on my hair and keeping the Elave one for the girls but that’s purely my own notions, both work brilliantly, the Alfaparf range is available in salons nationwide and online from xpertpro.ie.

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