Stick to Making Bubble Bath Mate! (Matey Mild & Gentle Shampoo)

Member Name: Lucille

Product:	Matey Mild & Gentle Shampoo
Date:	01/05/01 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice smell, washes out easily

Disadvantages: Didn't clean the hair well, can cause problems for sensitive eyes

I needed to buy my daughter some more shampoo, so we went round to our local chemist. While I was looking at all the different bottles she suddenly made a grab for one with a dolphin on it. “This one” she said giving it to me. I looked at the bottle and when it said Matey I thought she had picked up a bottle of bubble bath rather than shampoo, so was about to tell her to put it back. Then I read ‘mild & gentle shampoo’, and saw the price, 99p, which was 40p cheaper than the brand I usually buy, (expensive but a bottle lasts her ages). So I brought it. However, it has turned out to be a false economy, as I ended up throwing most of the bottle away.

First the good things about Matey shampoo. It smells nice, sort of fruity. It says on the bottle that it is easy rinse, and that is very true. It washes out of my daughter’s hair quickly. The bottle is very pretty, with a picture of a dolphin, and a nice curvy shape. It was cheaper than my usual brand. And that’s about all I can say in its favour.

My daughter has quite curly hair. It’s lovely to look at, but it does get into knots and tangles very easily. The Matey shampoo says that it “leaves hair clean and soft, smoothing out tangles for easier combing”. The first night we used it, her Daddy gave her a bath. Afterwards I could hear her crying and shouting, and went to see what was wrong. My husband was trying to brush her hair, and she was crying her eyes out. Her hair was full of tangles and knots, and it took quite a while to brush them all out, which of course upset her a lot. With our usual brand her hair is very easy to brush through. To get her hair tangle free I was having to use a conditioner after I had washed her hair. This means that not only was I having to use twice the number of products on her, (more money), but she was having to spend twice as long having her hair washed. And, as with most children, hair washing is not something she
enjoys.

I also noticed that while I was washing her hair she was moaning about her eyes being sore, something I had never heard her do before. Again, the bottle says that the “shampoo has been specially formulated to minimise eye irritation”, well, not for my daughter it seems. Then one morning she woke up with her eyes stuck closed, which was very frightening and unpleasant for her. I can’t say for sure that the shampoo caused this as she did have a cold at the time, but she has her hair washed at night just before bed, and when I changed brands straight away, the next day there was no problem with her eyes.

My final problem with Matey shampoo was that it didn’t seem to really wash her hair clean. My daughter is a typical 2 ½ year old, always getting dirty. Her hair often has food, play dough, mud from the garden etc etc in it, but it has always looked clean and healthy after being washed. While I was using the Matey it looked greasy and lank.

It could just be that my daughter is sensitive to something that is in Matey shampoo, which it why it caused her problems. However, I have used several other shampoos without any worries before, and the ingredients list doesn’t look any different from any of them. I wouldn’t buy Matey shampoo again, however cheap it is. I think they should stick to what they are best at, making bubble bath!

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