[REVIEW] DHC Miretto Ekisu - the JAPANESE hair growth supplement

In Japan, there are a lot of supplements. A lot of brand that you might have heard of like DHC or Fancl, which have their own cosmetic line, are one of the leaders in beauty supplements market. If I want to talk about the hit and the miss or analyze this market it would probably gonna take me ages, and because I am not an expert in chemistry or supplementary goods, I think I’m just gonna talk about what I have experienced.

Usually, I don’t take these pills or vitamins or whatever. In my country, Thailand, it is very dangerous and there’re a lot of fake supplements that could kill you. So my interest in this kind of stuffs only started after I arrived in Japan, where the food and drug administration is way better and at least trustable. Since the beginning of October 2014, I have been taking a supplement called ‘Miretto Ekisu’ by DHC. According to the package, it will help grow and nourish your hair so it’s longer, healthy and shiny.

*Caution*

Since I am no pharmacist, all the data you will see down here are from the internet. I researched them as I wrote. So I apologize in advance for any inaccuracy if happens, and you can leave comment down below to help me correct it!

What is Miretto Ekisu?

This is a rough translation of the description of Miretto Ekisu from DHC site:

Miretto Ekisu consist of Millet Extract, Puerarin, selenium (Selenium is incorporated in a small cluster of important proteins, each of which plays a critical role in our health) and other vitamins. Millet is rich with an amino acid that helps synthesis/create Keratin and had been use widely in Europe for a long time. Miretto Ekisu is suitable for people who want to be confident about their hairstyles or people who encounter stress and fatigue but want to protect your hair to be healthy and shiny.

In my country, we don’t have millet. So while I was writing this entry in Thai I did Wikipedia-ed it so I will share that information here too. 

What is Millet? (According to Wikipedia)

Millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops. Millets are important crops in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. There are a lot of varieties of millet. In United States, it is mostly grown for bird seed.

In Nutritional aspects, Millets are very similar to wheat and maze in terms of protein content but Millets have more amino acid that are good for your body. Also, Millets are relatively rich in iron and phosphorus so Millets are often used in healthy cereal and food. On top of that, Millets are high in calcium which is good for your bone and teeth. 

Label:

These are contents inside 3 miretto ekisu pills which is the recommended consumption amount for 1 day. I translated this from the Japanese label with some help of Google translate.

3 pills of Miretto Ekisu is equal to 1200mg and has 6.9 kcal.

Millet Extract 240 mg

Pueraria Merifica powder (0.2% Puerarin) 12mg

Vitamin E(d--α- tocopherol)  60mg 

Vitamin B1 3 mg 

Vitamin B2 0.6mg 

Vitamin B6 3mg

Pantothenic acid (Vitamin b5) 27.6 mg

Selenium 12μg　

How to take Miretto Ekisu?

According to the label, you can take miretto ekisu whenever you want. There is no specific instruction of taking it before/after meal, so usually I take it before I go to bed. The prescribed amount is 3 pills per day.

Results:

Let me start by comparing how slow my hair grow without the help of any supplement. This is how much my hair grows in a year.

I did not use anything except shampoo, conditioner and some hair oils. And i didn't cut my hair at all. As you can see, my hair did grew, even though in my opinion it's pretty slow consider a year has passed. 

So i started taking Miretto Ekisu since the first week of October 14 untill today, 24th of January 2015. That's roughly 4 months. I did not take supplement relating to hair other than this.

Let me show you the difference with photos.

It's amazing right? And that's on the 27th of November, which was only 2 months after I start taking it. 

So as you can see this is the progress in each month. I didn't cut my hair at all during this time too.

Side Effect:

Hair:

I'm sorry if my hair looks messed up. That's because of my hair dye in the first picture, it didn't really recover from that so this is not a side effect from Miretto Ekisu. I've heard of some hair growth supplements that can grow your hair fast, but make your hair thinner and weak. For Miretto Ekisu, I think my hair has no change, it's not better or worse.

Body:

There's no side effect written on the packaging and I don't see any bad side effects happening because of this. My body feels fairly normal. My daily diet and workouts were the same throughout the whole 4 months and i do not gain or loss weight significantly. From what i have heard, some of DHC's supplements are advised to not be taken continuously for longer than 3 months, but this one has no such sign.

Extra Benefit:

Since Millet which is the main component for this supplement seems to have Amino acids that helps create Keratin, Miretto Ekisu is also very good for your nails. Keratin is a protein that make up the outer layer of your skin so it is needed by both your hail and nails, so it enhances both at the same time. This benefit is not written on any site or even on the package though.

So, for me, during this 4 months, my nails had become stronger, i can put on nail polishes longer and more often without the top layer of my nails falling off.

Conclusion:

It's amazing! at least it works for me very well.  I think my hair had grown longer in this 4 months than the whole year. I am very impressed eventhough my hair is not getting any healthier or shinier but as long as it grows I am more than happy.

Score:

Effectiveness 5/5

Price 4/5