Having spent most of my teenage years being plagued by what I believed to be dandruff I have tried and tested most of the anti-dandruff shampoos on the market and none of them seemed to work. My mum and I were baffled as to why my dandruff seemed to be he-man, superduper strength and immune to everything we tried. Until I changed hairdressers, found one that knew what they were talking about and who informed me that I actually suffer from psoriasis on my scalp and not dandruff at all! She recommended I try hair products that were made only from natural ingredients as a way of treating it, but after I'd told my mum what it was she spotted T-Gel therapeutic shampoo in the supermarket, saw that it was good for treating psoriasis and so bought some for me.

At around £6.65 for a bottle smaller than the average shampoo bottle I thought it was a bit pricey for a shampoo, but if it worked it would be worth every penny.

And work, it has! Finally I have a shampoo that gets rid of the flakey skin on my scalp and stops the itching that I suffered from for years. Whilst it isn't a particularly pleasant shampoo to use - it's thick, gloopy and dark brown, and the fragrance isn't all that nice either and smells quite strongly (tar is one of the main ingredients) so it's not exactly something you would want to rush to slather all over your head! But I find that if I use this first (you have to leave it on for about 5 minutes for maximum effect), then use a "normal" shampoo, or in my case shampoo for curly hair, and then use my usual conditioner then the smell from the T-Gel gets masked by the other products and doesn't linger, thank goodness!

Even if it didn't smell strongly though, I would probably still use a second shampoo as well as this works mainly on your scalp and I don't think it cleans and treats the length of my hair as well a normal shampoo does.

Bizarrely my husband suffers from the same condition, although to a much worse extent, poor thing, and now we both wouldn't be without this shampoo. On the rare occasions that we do run out and have to use a normal shampoo on it's own we both notice pretty much immediately that the scratching returns and the flakiness becomes a problem once again. So, obivously the T-Gel doesn't actually cure your scalp of psoriasis, but it definitely does ease the symptoms to a huge extent.

Niggles with it:

-Whilst it is more than I would normally want to pay for a shampoo, there is a Bodycare shop near us that sell it slightly cheaper (around£5.50) and often have it on special offer too (and we once found it at CostCo on 2 for a tenner which was a bargain!), it is definitely worth every penny for us. It sounds daft to say that this has changed our lives, but if you've suffered from and itchy, flakey scalp you know how irritating it can be, and to have relief from that is fantastic...I can wear dark tops again now!

-It comes in a plastic bottle with a flip cap (if you've read my previous reviews you know the flipcap is a big bonus for me!), but the bottle comes in a box too, which to me is a complete waste of a box and totally unncessary. We try to be as ecologically responsible as possible and excess packaging is a particular bug bear for me.

In conclusion, this shampoo, for us at least, has been revolutionary! I willingly pay the price tag for is, as it's the only shampoo we've found to work on our psoriasis, and although it's not a pleasant smelling or looking product it's a constant on our bathroom shelf. So I will be awarding it 5 stars because it work so well that I don't care about the rest of it!

Now...if only I could find a body alternative to cure my poor husbands skin psoriasis too :(