How to Use Shampoo Bars Without getting into a greasy Mess!

Using a shampoo bar is a great easy way to reduce single use plastic consumption in your bathroom. In fact by using one bar of shampoo you roughly save around x3 virgin plastic bottles of 350ml size. It sounds such a simple solution, doesn’t it. But, I’ve had many disasters with shampoo bars. After washing my hair with one, all too often I’ve ended up in a greasy hair mess. Yuck!

So, how do you wash your hair with a shampoo bar without getting into a greasy mess? And which shampoo bars would I recommend? Well keep reading and I’ll tell you.

What’s Your Hair Type?

Now before I start, let me tell you a bit about my hair. It’s blond, dyed, straight, fine but lot’s of it and it has a tendency to get dry ends. Sounds like your hair? No, I thought not. You see, I know it’s obvious, but everyone’s hair is different. So, I can’t tell you which exact shampoo will work for your hair. That said, I’ve tried lots of different shampoo bar brands over the past few years and use a shampoo bar every time I wash my hair. So, what I can tell you is how to use a shampoo bar well, and also which brands I like and use.

10 Top Tips For Washing Your Hair with a Shampoo Bar

• First comb your hair, this gets rid of initial dirt and removes any tangles.
• Wet your hair. Sounds obvious, but a shampoo bar really won’t work unless your hair is completely wet.
• Rub the bar on your scalp x4/5. One of the key reasons using shampoo bar can land you in a greasy mess is because it is highly concentrated. So, you don’t want to use too much. And remember if it doesn’t have SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) in it then it won’t lather that much.
• Lather your hair with your hands. Start at the back, near the nape of your neck. I say this because naturally you’ll always wash the front and top of your head and often it’s the back of hair that stays uncleansed. A hairdresser once told me that if you wash the back underside of your hair first it will stay cleaner for longer and your hair will have more bounce. This trick certainly works for me, in fact I only wash mine about once a week.
• Shampoo your hair twice. A little bit like double facial cleansing, the first shampoo gets rid of pollution, dirt and hair products. The second shampoo adds shine and gloss.
• Rinse thoroughly. Now, with liquid shampoo you have to rinse, but with a shampoo bar rinsing is really essential. If you have any residue of shampoo left in your hair before you add the conditioner you’ll end up in a greasy mess.

“with liquid shampoo you have to rinse, but with a shampoo bar rinsing is really essential.”

• Wet the conditioner bar.
• Slide the wet conditioner bar down your hair around 4-5 times. Again it’s really important not to use too much conditioner. A bar of conditioner is much more concentrated that its liquid counterpart. So a little goes a long way. If you use too much your hair will end up looking greasy. Also, I find you only get that silky conditioned feeling when you wash out the conditioner, which is slightly counter intuitive. Now, everyone’s hair is different so experiment with the amount you use.
• Condition the ends. The mid part and ends of your hair are the driest and so need the conditioner to give it a silky smooth finish. I avoid conditioning my roots as it weighs my hair down.
• Rinse. Again, this is really important to do thoroughly as if you leave any conditioner in your hair it will end up looking lank and greasy.

If you fancy watching a video about How to wash your hair with a shampoo bar then head over to my instagram account now @n4mummy.

Remember Less Is More

The key thing to remember is that shampoo and conditioner bars are much more concentrated than their liquid versions. So, essentially you need less of them to clean your hair. A shampoo bar is all the good ingredients minus the aqua, yes water. This means by using a shampoo bar, not only are you reducing your plastic consumption, but also your water consumption.

Shampoo Bar Brands To Rival Traditional Shampoo

Ok, so here are some of my favourite shampoo bar brands and where to buy them. I will point out that this blog post contains affiliate links. This just means I make a small commission if you buy something, about the price of buying me a cup of (pink) tea, which I love.

Ethique

Ethique are on a mission to rid the world of plastic waste. Currently 80 billion shampoo and conditioner bottles are disposed of every year. I know, it’s insane! And Ethique want to change this by encouraging us all to #giveupthebottle .

They are one of my favourite brands because their shampoo & conditioner bars really have replaced their liquid counterparts in my bathroom. Mainly because they have a great range for different hair types. Their shampoo bars contain Sodium cocoyl isethionate & Sodium cocoyl glycinate, rather than SLS. These ingredients are biodegradable surfactants derived from coconuts and coconut oil and crucially not palm oil. It’s this that makes the bar gently foam which helps to give that really cleansed feeling.

All their products are cruelty free, vegan, plastic free with completely compostable packaging down to the sticker on the box. Plus they’re so sure you’ll love their bars they’ll accept them back within 14 days (used) for a full refund. One thing to point out it that the bars are made in New Zealand. However, they have a warehouse in the UK and sea freight the bars there. Ethique are also a carbon neutral company.

From £12

• Zero Waste
• Vegan
• Cruelty Free
• Palm Oil Free
• No SLS
• Carbon Neutral

Eco Warrior

Brought to us by the Little Soap Company, Eco Warrior has a great range of affordable eco bars including their deeply nourishing Shampoo bar with orange ginger and essential oils. In fact, it’s what I washed my hair with this morning. They’re really easy to get hold of as they are stocked in supermarkets, everyone from Waitrose to Asda has them on their shelves.

Like Ethique they use Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate rather than SLS, but this is derived from sustainable Palm Oil. As a brand they are passionate that using 100% RSPO certified sustainable Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil is the way forward, rather than boycotting it. I’ll let them explain why:

….the big issue is deforestation and lack of local alternatives. Not palm. If there was no palm, there would STILL be deforestation. And on a far larger scale sadly as palm is a faster yield that needs less space. The locals can’t just pack up and put down their tools – they need an income. We absolutely welcome the debate and soap has become a vehicle in which we are able to educate about the need for sustainable palm and that a blanket boycott of all palm would be even more devastating.

Little Soap Company, Palm Oil Statement

From £4

• Zero Waste
• Vegan
• Cruelty Free
• No SLS
• Made in the UK
• Certified B Corportation

Lamanzuma

This is a French brand selling zero waste solid cosmetics, everything from solid toothpaste through to a shampoo or conditoner bar. They’re really transparent about the ingredients used in their bars, and will tell you exactly why they’ve included something. Like the above two brands, there’s no SLS used, instead it’s Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, derived from coconut oil rather than palm. Lamanzuma’s products are readily available in places like Planet Organic or Love Lula.

From £8.99

• Zero Waste
• Vegan
• Cruelty Free
• No SLS
• Made in France

Lush

One of the first shampoo bars I ever tried came from Lush and my husband still uses their vegan Montalbano shampoo bar to this day. The downside to their bars is that they contain the known irritant SLS. The positive is that you get that great foam that we’re so used to associating with cleansing. However, SLS is a rather good cleanser, so much so that it can overly cleanse and cause irritation to your skin.

Lots of Lush’s bars are vegan, but not all of them as some do contain Fairtrade honey. Something else to be aware of, is that as a brand they do use some synthetic ingredients such as perfume and colour. But, on the plus side, they are very transparent about this.

From £8

• Zero Waste
• Cruelty Free
• Palm Oil Free
• Made in the UK

But What if I have Afro Hair?

If you have Afro hair, then check out @healthyafrohairhabits on instagram. Laila has used Ethique’s Frizz Wrangler and the Oaty Delicious shampoo bars, with the latter being her favourite. For a conditioner, she uses one from Tree Naturals, who specialise in hair care for curls. Tree Naturals detangling condition bar has Fair Trade shea butter and cocoa butter in it. But, it also has honeyquat which is made from honey so it isn’t vegan. The company is based in the US, but they do sell via Amazon. If I hear of a UK zero waste conditioner bar for Afro hair that works well I will let you know. Or, if you know one please comment below so it can be shared with everyone.

• Zero Waste
• No SLS
• Handmade
• All Natural

A Final Note On How to Use Shampoo Bars

The hardest part of washing your hair with a bar, is undeniably using the conditioner. So, if you’re struggling to make them work for you, just use a shampoo bar and your regular conditioner until you’ve got the hang of it. No one is judging 🙂