DORÉ

One of the things I dread the most, well at least beauty wise, is washing my hair. There’s something about it that makes even the thought of it gives me the laziest of feelings. I look for every excuse imaginable not to do it. I just find it extremely boring. I know, quite gross of me.

Without intention or prior plans, I found myself in my bathroom and I looked around and I noticed that I was buying more and more beauty/hygienic products under the zero waste belt. My toothbrush is made out of bamboo, my cleanser’s packaging is free of plastic, and I find myself moisturizing my skin with more natural oils than creams.

So when shampoos in the form of bars found their way into my psyche, I knew I had to try it, especially if it meant making the whole process of washing my hair a lot less boring. I decided to test different ones because I was curious if they would all work for my frizzy and curly hair.

Surprisingly enough, and I don’t believe in the whole one size fits all gimmick, but each shampoo bar worked perfectly for my hair! This is not to say that the whole process of lathering a soap bar under water then putting said product on my head was not super odd. BUT, the experience was very much enjoyable and not boring at all, exactly what I wanted to achieve! But, I will mention that each bar performed better in certain areas – so welcome everybody to the first annual Shampoo Bar Awards, hosted by yours truly!

Let’s start with Meow Meow Tweet, a zero-waste brand, born and bred in New York. I have to give them all of the props for making my hair feel the most clean at the moment. Of course, the packaging is cute and the smell is great, but TRULY my hair has never felt so striped of disgustingness and grime. 10/10 for the Lavender Coconut Milk bar for leaving my strands squeaky clean.

Following up, female led and Brooklyn based beauty/skincare brand (also zero-waste), Happy Place, takes the cake for making my hair feel the softest it has ever been…ever! The bar I used was the Frond bar, formulated with all the oils imaginable: olive, coconut, castor, avocado, geranium and grapefruit. I’m not even joking when I say that I always, always, always use a leave-in conditioner to untangle my mop of a hair but after shampooing with this bar, no product was needed. NONE! Just my brush and wow, did it smooth over my hair like a dream, leaving it shiny and oh so soft.

Last but certainly not least, Lush delivers 100% on overall smell and how the bar looked physically. I used the Jason and the Argan Oil bar, which carries scents of rose, lemon and argan oil. The smell lingers and lingers forever, you’ll definitely be stopped on the street, I know I was. Plus, the overall bar looks like a bunch of magenta colored sprinkles melted together and that’s just plain cute. I’m a sucker for this product from the category’s OG brand.

If you haven’t given shampoo bars a try, I highly recommend it. It’s a totally fun and different experience without gimmicks or tricks. Also, you’re helping the environment by supporting these zero-waste brands and the amount of trash we’re sending out into landfills. See? It’s a win-win. Clean hair, clean environment.