A few years ago I noticed that my hair was getting thinner. I've always had thick hair, in fact I used to complain that I had too much hair on my head and I could not manage it. Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.

So my friend told me she uses Nioxin for her thin hair, and I decided to give it a try. My friend's recommendation was a big selling point because she looks like she has plenty of hair, so I figured it must work.

Nioxin comes in several different formulations, each directed at different textures or needs of people's hair. I chose System 3 because it is for chemically treated, normal to thinning hair.

I just visited their website, Nioxin.com, and I see they have expanded their line so now there are several different formulations for chemically treated hair: System 3, "For Fine, Chemically Enhanced, Normal to Thin-Looking Hair" and System 7 "For Medium/Coarse, Chemically Enhanced, Normal to Thin-Looking Hair." There are also lines for hair that is noticeably thinning, within the same parameters. I used System 3 for several years, but switched to a different brand. I suppose that I would switch to System 7, based upon the survey provided at Nioxin.com, but this is getting very complicated and all this might make me feel a bit daunted if I were to start using this brand again on a regular basis.

Each "system" has 3 products, shampoo, conditioner, and a scalp treatment. This review is for the shampoo only, but it does bear mentioning that the site claims:

"CLINICALLY PROVEN** COLOR PROTECTION

9 out of 10 people perceive a thickening effect
when using the daily 3-part system*"

I can find nothing that says that Nioxin actually thickens your hair, or stops hair loss, but the woman at the salon that first sold me this product told me it thickens your hair. The fact is that there are very few products that thicken your hair, ie. help regain lost hair and/or halt hair loss. Nioxin is not one of them.

With that said, I found that this product may have made me look like I had more, or a fuller head of hair. Honestly, I am not sure that it did, but for a while I believed it worked to make me look like had fuller hair.

The shampoo make a nice, rich lather and left my scalp tingling when I first started using it. After a while, my scalp stopped tingling. I found that it did a fine job in cleaning my hair, and it did not appear to damage or change my hair color any more than any other shampoo for color treated hair did. It rinsed out of my hair easily, leaving my hair feeling clean, without any film.

My only problem with Nioxin was that I disliked its fragrance. The best way for me to describe it is to compare it with Ben Gay, a rather smelly product that is used for muscle pain. It has Ben Gay's menthol-like, chemically fragrance. It wasn't nearly as intense as Ben Gay, but I disliked it and when my husband smelled it in the bottle he was taken aback. Fortunately, it does not leave a strong fragrance in its wake.

After a few years I ended up switching to another product that smells a lot better, but I periodically consider switching back to Nioxin because I felt it was very gentle and did less damage to the color of my color treated hair. However, I just can't bring myself to do it because of the fragrance.

If you are interested in getting a list of ingredients copy and past the following address into your browser, it will take you to a PDF file that contains the ingredients for all their products: http://www.nioxin.com/index.cfm?objectid=6F2521DB-C291-0196-BB6DAACD82E782A1

Recommended: Yes