Our challenge of finding a reliable plastic-free shampoo bar is over. We’ve finally found one that ACTUALLY works!
Shampoo bars are gaining traction as a simple swap to reduce one’s plastic footprint at home. Think about all those plastic bottles for shampoos and conditioners that need to be replaced every couple of months, and then become waste. By opting for solid hair care bars, we eliminate that waste completely. Yes, it’s a behavioural shift to start rubbing a bar on your head, but this small habit change has a big positive impact!
The Journey
Our Life Without Plastic team has tested what seems like endless varieties of natural shampoo bars over the past couple of years (see our lovely team on the right). Each bar came with different challenges and always made for funny days at the office when one (or most) of us would walk in with our hair looking like a complete mess as we tried to get past the “adjustment period” of the new shampoo bar. Until now, most of the bars either left a waxy feeling, dried out the hair, required an adjustment period that never seemed to end, or simply didn’t clean well.
We embrace those ‘hairy’ days as an essential part of our commitment to radiate plastic-free living. We truly love to do all that trial and error as it helps us find reliable plastic-free alternatives that we can recommend with the confidence of first hand experience, and hopefully save you the hassle and the hair turbulence.
The Ultimate Bars
These new shampoo bars completely stand apart from anything we’ve tested before. First and foremost, they work! They do a great job of cleaning hair thoroughly and do not leave a film, a waxy feeling, dried ends, or a greasy look whatsoever. And the best part is that their lather is rich and feels like using liquid shampoo.
The other first place elements: they are completely plastic-free and zero waste. They come in a compostable box, which is possible because they are solid and don’t require leak-proof plastic packaging like liquid hair care alternatives. By opting for a bar, we eliminate the need to buy plastic bottles every couple of months, and that has a direct positive impact on waste generation. It means there will be less plastic in landfills, floating around oceans, polluting public spaces, and lethally invading wildlife habitat.
The solid bar is also neat because we ship only the concentrated raw material — no extra water, thus allowing for smaller, lighter, and less carbon intensive shipments. Each bar is handmade by a dear friend of ours in Florida, USA. She uses ingredients that are all vegan, biodegradable, phosphate-free, petrochemical-free, and grey water safe.
Here’s a recap of why we LOVE them:
Plastic-Free
Biodegradable
Handmade in the U.S.A
Up to 70 washes
Phosphate-Free
Petrochemical-Free
Vegan / Leaping Bunny Certified Cruelty-Free
Grey Water & Septic Safe
Compostable Packaging
Finding A Balance
We wanted to find a shampoo and conditioner bar that would be an easy switch away from plastic. One that wouldn’t be so different in efficacy that folks would revert right back to bottled products. This meant a small compromise in ingredients as the 100% natural bars simply didn’t do the job right. These shampoo bars use mostly natural ingredients like coconut oil, water, clay, and essential oils and all of them are listed below for transparency. They also use Sodium Coco Sulfate, a synthetic detergent, which acts as a foaming agent and is made from the fatty acids in coconut oil. Of all of the lathering options available, this was the best balance we found.
Ingredients:
- Lavender shampoo bar: coconut oil, water, sodium coco sulfate, purple mica, and lavender essential oil.
- Citrus shampoo bar: coconut oil, water, sodium coco sulfate, French yellow clay, and a blend of wild orange, palmarose, and pink grapefruit essential oils.
- Conditioner bar: emulsifier blend (cetearyl alcohol, behentrimonium methosulfate), cocoa butter, cetyl alcohol, coconut oil, glycerine USP, extra virgin olive oil, wheat germ oil, jojoba oil.
How To Use A Shampoo or Conditioner Bar
Using a shampoo bar is a little different from our usual routine, but it’s really a simple switch! To wash the hair, rub the wet shampoo bar directly on your wet head until a lather forms. Massage the lather throughout the hair and once well saturated, rinse out the shampoo. Be sure to rinse it very well. Then rub the conditioner bar on your head the same way or on the ends of the wet hair and massage downwards away from the scalp and rinse.
Simple, effective, non-toxic, plastic-free – enjoy them! We certainly do.
Find The Bars
Author: Sarah W