Clear

Clear is a global anti-dandruff and scalp-care hair brand owned by the British-Dutch company Unilever [1]. It began in Italy in 1975 as a shampoo called Clinic and was relaunched under the Clear name in 1982 [1]. The brand sits within Unilever's Beauty & Wellbeing division alongside houses such as Dove, TRESemmé, Vaseline and Rexona.

Today Clear positions itself less as a conventional shampoo and more as a scalp-care specialist, treating the scalp itself rather than only cleansing the hair. According to Unilever, it is the world's best-selling shampoo for men and the leading anti-dandruff brand in several of the company's largest haircare markets, sold in more than 60 markets worldwide [4].

Sources place the origin of the product line in Italy in 1975, when it launched as Clinic shampoo; it carried that name until 1981 and was re-branded as Clear in 1982 [1]. Because of this two-step history, the brand's "founding" is recorded differently depending on what is being dated: Wikipedia gives 1975 as the introduction of the underlying line, while Unilever's own account treats 1982 as the year the Clear brand itself was relaunched [4]. The Clear name therefore dates to 1982, even though the shampoo it grew out of reaches back to 1975.

Unilever describes Clear as the first shampoo to address recurrent dandruff by treating the scalp rather than the hair alone, with formulas developed by scientists at the company's Clear Institute in Paris [4]. The brand expanded internationally over the following decades, reaching the Philippines in July 2007. In some markets it is sold under different names — Ultrex in Greece, Linic in Portugal and Pure Derm in India.

Clear is a Unilever house brand; the manufacturer is owned by Unilever, and the brand has no separate founder of record [1]. Within Unilever's portfolio it shares the haircare and personal-care space with sister brands including Dove, TRESemmé, Lux, Vaseline, Rexona and St. Ives.

The company states a single goal for the brand: to provide the most effective dandruff solution for its consumers, addressing a spectrum of scalp needs from dandruff and grease to sensitivity and hair fall. Unilever has framed Clear's wider ambition as shifting the category from basic cleansing toward what it calls derma-level professional scalp care. The brand carries the tagline "Nothing to Hide" [1].

One recurring theme in Clear's positioning is gender-specific scalp care. Acting on an insight that men's scalps produce 60% more sebum than women's, the brand developed targeted products for men [4]; Unilever describes the resulting men's line as the basis for Clear becoming the world's best-selling men's shampoo.

Clear's range centres on anti-dandruff shampoos and conditioners, including dedicated men's lines such as Clear Men Scalp Therapy. Its formulas draw on active ingredients including selenium disulfide and piroctone olamine, supported by amino acids such as serine, alanine and glycine, panthenol, taurine and coffee extract.

In April 2025, Clear launched its first Scalpceuticals Pro Range globally at TANK Shanghai, presented as a premium professional anti-dandruff line [2]. Unilever said the range drew on the brand's 50 years of scientific research and the work of five global labs and more than 200 dermatologists [2]. The company also stated that the line is built on three global patents — a UK patent (EP4271351) for a soothing and repairing shampoo formula, a US patent (US12246084) for an anti-dandruff conditioning formula, and a Chinese patent (ZL201811056799.0) for an oil-control formula [3]. Clear's broader work has been tied to the wider "scalp-care" or skinification trend in haircare, in which scalp products borrow ideas and ingredients from facial skincare.

Clear has used national brand ambassadors across its markets, among them footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal, singer Jackson Yee in China and cricketer Virat Kohli in India [1]. The brand also sponsored the Lotus Renault Formula One team during the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Clear is an active, large-scale global brand. Its most recent major public milestone was the April 2025 worldwide launch of the Scalpceuticals Pro Range, which Unilever timed to the brand's 50-year mark.