Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum review and anti-dandruff usage

As the weather changes, my scalp becomes flakier, except during the rains, when it is perfectly fine. So I opt for anti-dandruff treatments which dry my already-frizzy hair further. This vicious cycle goes on for a while every year. Worse, any overnight scalp treatment or oil gives me a stiff neck the following day. And I tend to scratch away at the flakes till my scalp bleeds. The only thing to suit me is Lush Snake Oil and they've stopped stocking it, for some reason.
I received the Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum in my Christmas Edition A Beautiful World Box (reviewed here), a seasonal beauty box from the UK that features natural products. Yarok is a New York-based, salon-exclusive hair care range. The full-sized bottle first took me aback, because it said, "Feed Your Youth" and "anti-ageing treatment". The idea of an anti-ageing product for the hair and scalp seemed a bit funny to me. What was it supposed to do, give me fuzzy baby locks on a softer scalp? I hit the ABW website and read up on the product and gave it a try. Now that I've used up more than three-fourths of the contents of the bottle, I can share my experience.

Here's the review of the Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum and how I use it.

Packaging of Yarok Feed Your Youth Serum

An amber glass bottle with a dropper. The full size is an ounce. The detailed label tells you how to use the product.
Inside, there's a transparent, slightly greenish oil.

The serum is runny and has the same consistency as any essential oil.

Formula and claims of Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum

Entirely organic and made of natural ingredients, the serum contains yarrow, pure avocado, apricot kernel, orange blossom and bitter orange oils and ylang ylang. I can smell the yarrow oil but not much else, and don't mind it at all, though this is subjective. The serum is cruelty free and claims to nourish stressed and dull hair, remove product build-up and hydrate from root to end, leaving the hair soft, shiny, bouncy and healthy. It "may" ease dry scalp problems, so I didn't have many expectations in that area.... And the key ingredient for all this is yarrow oil, which is extracted from the yarrow weed.

How to use Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum

You need three full droppers to cover the entire scalp with the serum. Leave it on then for 10 minutes, with or without a warm towel covering the hair, and shampoo the hair. This isn't how I do it - I have been applying three full droppers to my scalp and coming through so the serum reaches the ends. I then braid my hair and leave it on overnight, sleeping with a towel over my pillow. I shampoo it off in the morning with a sulphate-free shampoo.

Results and benefits

The Yarok serum does not turn the hair greasy - this is what my hair looks like in the morning, pre-shampoo, with all the kinks from the braids.

I grew my hair out only recently (sported Princess Di's haircut throughout my swotty student days). So I can't really talk about the anti-ageing claims, but I am willing to testify anywhere that this does wonders for my flaky scalp. I use it every two weeks and I have been completely free of dandruff since mid-November 2013 and have a smooth scalp. I haven't felt like there is any product build-up either. As for the hydration part, I used to wash my hair everyday using shampoo with harsh surfactants, for more than 15 years, so there's a good bit of damage control needed before it is in perfect condition. And the serum is easy to rinse out with any mild sulphate-free shampoo (currently loving DermOrganic Daily Conditioning Shampoo).
While I love argan and macadamia oils for conditioning and hydrating my dry hair, I must say that yarrow oil is a marvel when it comes to dandruff and flaky/itchy scalp.
Bottom line
The Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum is now my HG anti-dandruff treatment. I will definitely repurchase when I run out, though I hope ABW includes something from Yarok in their Summer 2014 box. You can buy the serum from abeautifulworld.co.uk for £22 - they ship worldwide. Yarok donates three per cent of their profits to help conserve more than 10 million acres of rainforest in Ecuador and Peru.