The mane solution to baldness

Are women today worrying themselves bald? According to French hair-care company Phyto, if we’re not careful, we ladies could indeed be headed towards GI Jane territory.

“Nowadays more and more women are suffering a male kind of hair loss, which is located on top,” observes Dominique Vedy, technical director of Phyto, which was the first company to use botanicals in its naturally derived hair products. “This is more severe, more chronic hair loss and due to stress and family, professional life all together. Women are smoking, drinking … kind of leading a man’s life.”

Surprised at how many women are now suffering from local hair loss, Phyto created its latest technological breakthrough, PhytoLium 4, a serum that treats chronic, severe and persistent hair loss, and is recommended for both men and women.

“It’s not a beauty product, it’s really a treatment for the scalp,” says Vedy. “You can do it at home. Apply it three times a week after shampoo and conditioner — it’s the last product you put on. And then blow dry or dry. You can even put on mousse and hairspray after, but just on the ends.”

Though hair loss is not the No. 1 problem Phyto addresses — they have products for every hair condition, from dry to chemically damaged — their hair-loss lines are their bestsellers worldwide. First there was Phytopolleine, a purifying stimulant for dry, oily, itchy or irritated scalps. Then there were anti-hair thinning ranges Phytoaxil for men and Phytocyane for women.

“Phytocyane is really a woman’s treatment for hair loss and on top of that, is a beauty product,” notes Vedy. “So it is both treatment and cosmetic for long hair, to give shine and volume.”

Growth serum: PhytoLium 4, the first anti-thinning hair concentrate that protects your follicles, is exclusively available at Rustan’s Essenses.

But Phytocyane and Phytoaxil are for normally occurring (if baldness is a genetic inheritance, say), overall hair loss. For those localized bald patches, PhytoLium 4 is your solution.

PhytoLium 4 gets its name from four patented elements aimed at four different targets. The one you should know about is CapicellPro, a patented new mixture combining shiitake mushroom — “In Japan they eat a lot of shiitake and live longer than anywhere else” — and white apple tree stem cells, which prolongs the life cycle of your strands and delays hair loss. “For the first time we’re using stem cells in beauty products,” Vedy says. “Of course we don’t use animal or human but botanical stem cells. They are bio-compatible with our own stem cells.”

Other elements include anti-aging procyanidol, which Phyto has used to redensify hair for over 20 years; and essential oils like sage, rosemary, and lemon, which penetrate the scalp and delay hair thinning.

PhytoLium 4 has been tested at Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris, where clinical trials of Phyto products have been done for the past 40 years. Using a method called “videotrichogram,” doctors do a monthly scan to count any growing hairs. “After four months we realized that there was an 88-percent reduction in thinning hair, hair was growing faster and there was 10 percent more new hair growing than before,” Vedy says.

To complement PhytoLium 4 there’s also a PhytoLium energizing shampoo to add strength and vitality, but Vedy says if you have other problems you’re treating, like an oily scalp, you can use Phyto’s other treatment shampoos before applying your serum.

And, like all other Phyto products, PhytoLium is free of parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances and dyes, petrochemicals, pthalates, and silicone. “If your shampoo has silicone inside, don’t use it,” Vedy warns. “It coats the scalp and blocks the pores so the sebum, sweat, and bacterial circulation is not good. Silicone may be good for the (hair) ends because it gives shine, suppleness and a nice texture, but it’s a beauty product for the hair, not for scalp.”

I had a taste of both Phyto’s treatment and beauty benefits at Rustan’s temple to the brand, the Univers Phyto Salon by Kaizen at Heaven on the Fifth in Rustan’s Makati. There you can have your scalp and hair analyzed by in-house tress experts — master cutter Jude Hipolito and master colorist Rose Velasco — before they recommend the appropriate treatment and styling.

Hair gurus: Phyto technical director Dominique Vedy (center) flanked by Univers Phyto Salon’s head stylist Jude Hipolito and colorist Rose Velasco. Photo by WALTER BOLLOZOS

This time I was lucky to get Vedy himself to prescribe intense hydrating treatment Phyto Huile d’Alés (named after founder Patrick Alés) as emergency rescue for my dry, abused hair before getting to try Phyto’s organic hair color, which is truly amazing. It has no ammonia to hurt your scalp and eyes and no chemical odor either — it was the most gentle, pleasant hair-coloring experience I’ve ever had and my husband said my hair smelled like strawberry candy afterwards.

To keep the color vibrant, Vedy suggested the Phytocitrus range next — shampoo to wash the excess color out, then the Restructuring Mask to nourish and regenerate my strands.

After the blow dry the difference was miraculously apparent: I had entered the salon with dry, lank, frizzy hair and was now leaving with silky, shiny, vital-looking hair.

Next year Vedy will come back to launch another exciting new hair product that he can’t talk about right now, but if it’s anything like PhytoLium 4 and the rest of the Phyto range, it should be a boon to the follicularly challenged among us.

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Phyto products are exclusively available at Rustan’s Essenses in Makati, Shangri-La Plaza, Alabang, Gateway, Robinsons Place Manila and Cebu.

The Univers Phyto Salon by Kaizen is located on the fifth floor of Rustan’s Makati.