As a hairstylist with over a decade of experience, I’ve tested countless shampoos. Let me break down Herbal Essences vs Pantene and help you choose the best for your hair.
Navigating the hair care aisle can be overwhelming. Herbal Essences and Pantene are two popular brands, but which one is right for you?
Drawing from my decade of experience as a hairstylist, I’ll delve into the key differences between Herbal Essences and Pantene, helping you make an informed decision for your hair type and needs.
So, I did a little digging over the internet, in my search to find a brand that suits some, if not all my expectations and found two brands that I could say, matched up somewhere close to my expectations.
Herbal Essences vs Pantene
| Feature | Herbal Essences | Pantene |
|---|---|---|
| Key ingredients | Herbal extracts, botanicals | Pro-vitamin B5, antioxidants |
| Hair type | All hair types | Dry, damaged hair |
| Price | Affordable | More expensive |
| Fragrance | Strong, fruity | Mild, floral |
About Herbal Essences
Founded by Clairol in 1971, Herbal Essences is a brand of hair care products that is at present owned by P&G (Procter and Gamble), a multinational company based in America.
At Herbal Essences, they believe in selling the best quality products, as they have very high standards of product safety to ensure that every user is satisfied with their products and can trust their products when they use them.
They use many powerful all-natural ingredients that have been identified by their team of professionals based in Kew, at the Royal Botanic Gardens.
As a world-renowned brand, they believe in environmental sustainability and wish to protect the Earth and its resources. Thereby, they make a very careful attempt to safeguard the Earth, in every single aspect, from their end, so they can reduce the waste collecting in landfills, in addition to reducing their footprint.
Thus, they make sure to use renewable electricity, reduce their absolute consumption of water and also have turned towards making their packaging, manufacturing and sourcing of their products all using most recyclable raw materials.
They also make sure to use plant-based ingredients in their products to ensure customer safety and satisfaction, whenever their products are used.
About Pantene
Pantene is a hair care brand that was founded in 1945 by Hoffmann La-Roche, in Switzerland, but today is owned by P&G (Procter and Gamble), the American multinational company.
Pantene make sure to incorporate the best ingredients developed by their team of experts in order to make products of high standards and quality.
They simply wish to make hair care safe for everyone and thus they create products to suit anyone with any hair type.
Just like Herbal Essences, Pantene too believes in environmental sustainability and even have a team of sustainability experts.
They make sure to source, manufacture and create products that are environmentally friendly, as far as possible, so that they can reduce their footprint and save the Earth.
Range of Products – Herbal Essences Vs Pantene
Herbal Essences is solely a haircare products brand that develops a range of hair care and hair-related products like shampoos, conditioners, hair oils, hair masks, dry shampoos and other hair styling products.
As compared to Herbal Essences, Pantene has a lesser range of products. Their products mainly consist of haircare products like shampoos, conditioners and clarifying shampoos.
Brand Comparison: Herbal Essences Vs Pantene
In my opinion, I observe that Herbal Essences have good brand ethics. They do make sure that all their products and ingredients are free from animal testing, both by them and their suppliers, thus ensuring cruelty-free products.
They also believe in environmental sustainability and use environmentally-friendly packaging as far as possible and now aim to make their packaging completely environmentally friendly in a few years from now.
Similar to Herbal Essences, Pantene too has good brand ethics. They not only believe in environmental sustainability and wish to reduce their footprint as far as possible and to the greatest extent, but they also believe in putting an end to cruelty to animals.
They wish to put an end to animal testing when it comes to evaluating their product performance. For over 30 years now, Pantene has been committed to ending cruelty to animals.
Ingredients Comparison
The ingredients used in the products developed by Herbal Essences are mostly plant-based ingredients, as they wish to ensure customer hair care and safety, without any damage.
Some of the ingredients used in their products are rice milk, rose essence, passion flower, blue ginger, chamomile, citrus, hibiscus extract etc.
They do make both types of products that contain sulfates and those that don’t, so the customer can choose the product that they wish to buy.
Most of their products do not contain harsh chemicals like sulfates, parabens, toluene etc.
At Pantene, they ensure that their ingredients are “mindfully chosen”. Their products contain ingredients that are best suited for haircare and more importantly, those ingredients that are all-natural, at least for most of their products, if not all.
They use natural ingredients like pro-vitamin B5, panthenol, citric acid, rose water, argan oil, jojoba oil, castor oil, bamboo, biotin, charcoal etc.
Pantene has most of its products that are free from sulfates, parabens, and silicones, but even then are capable of ensuring customer haircare at its best even without these harsh ingredients.
Comparing Pricing
The prices of products at Herbal Essences are quite reasonably priced and can cater to even the common class of people, in my opinion. Their products start at around $5.99, if you choose to purchase their products from their official website.
On the official website of Pantene, you can buy their products at a very reasonable price of $4.47, as the starting price range. So just like Herbal Essences, Pantene too can cater to all classes of people.
Herbal Essences Clarifying Shampoo VS Pantene Clarifying Shampoo
I have tried out products from both these brands, so I thought of letting you in on my personal opinion of a couple of individual products as well.
So, I’d like to give you my personal opinion about the clarifying shampoos that I tried from both these brands and how they worked on my scalp and hair.
I tried out the Tea Tree Oil + Jasmine Clarifying Shampoo from Herbal Essences and the Pure Clean and Clarify Shampoo from Pantene.
The Herbal Essences Clarifying Shampoo worked well on my hair and it did get rid of a certain amount of build-up from my scalp and hair.
I did notice that my scalp and hair felt really fresh once I had washed my hair with this shampoo. But it didn’t completely get rid of the greasiness from my scalp and hair.
The fragrance of this shampoo was superb! I really liked how perfectly the tea tree oil and jasmine blended in to give this subtle fragrance.
I wouldn’t say that this shampoo was too gentle on my scalp and hair, as it did strip my hair off some of its moisture. The shampoo also contained sulfates, which I felt could have been the reason for the moisture loss.
Overall, I do not think I would buy this shampoo again for the purpose of clarifying my hair, but as a brand, I would definitely wish to try other products which do not contain sulfates or parabens.
I paid $5.99 for this shampoo, which I felt was quite reasonable.
On the other hand, the Pantene Clarifying Shampoo did a better job at clarifying my hair and scalp of buildup and grease.
This shampoo contained absolutely no fragrance, so I was quite surprised about this, but personally, this aspect was negligible to me.
Just like the Herbal Essences clarifying shampoo, this shampoo too did have sulfates, but luckily it didn’t strip my hair of too much moisture and it also came with its own moisturizing treatment along with the shampoo and conditioner. So, this is something I really liked.
I paid $17.99 for the set of the shampoo, conditioner and moisturizing treatment and bought it on Amazon, which is slightly on the expensive side in my opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do both these brands have shampoos that cater to colour-treated hair?
Yes, both these brands have shampoos that can be used on all hair types. But for safety of colored hair, a strand test is always recommended for first-time users.
Can Herbal Essences and Pantene shampoos be used for daily use?
Since they are clarifying shampoos, I would recommend using it once every two weeks or only when you feel your scalp and hair require deep cleansing, as clarifying shampoos are deep cleansers and can strip the hair off its moisture to a great extent.
Summary: Herbal Essences vs. Pantene
Overall, these brands are environmentally-friendly and reputed brands. So, for those who wish to try out any type of products from these brands, from my end, it would be a green signal!
Both these brands have a great collection of products that cater to all hair types and those that can even help treat specific hair problems. They also have products that do not contain sulfates, in addition to those that do, so the customer can make their choice.
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To Summarize