Beauty Finds: Hair Care Bars Part 1

I’ve been reducing or trying to reduce my plastic waste for the past few years. Somethings are easier than others to replace with non plastic. Hair products aren’t going to to be anytime soon unless part 2 of The Hair Care Bars do a miracle on this girl’s fine wavy stubborn hair.

A friend recommended Lush hair bars. She’s also on a plastic freer journey. I should have taken my own advise from my last trip to Lush. Lush is a I like concept brand, the products just don’t do it for me. My hair however wasn’t fairing well from Freshly Cosmetics duo, it was that time of the month making me feeling a little down with I need a boost (with shopping. I always say shopping is modern day hunting. The thrill of the chase hunting down items adrenalin low key pumping) so I was okay lets try Lush hair bars to see if they’ll revitalise my hair. Something I’m working this year is to listen to my intuition more. So many times I’ve gone against that voice, not listened and I should have. That and not buying unwanted things, saving pennies. 

Anyways, my hair time is fine, oily easily damaged. You’d think not colouring it, no heat treatment, eating as healthy as I can, all the hair foods and taking brewers yeast tablets my hair would be in okay condition. Nope. I blame pollution! And the wrong products. I wash my hair everyday due to the grease and sweat working out. Trust me my hair gets greasy so greasy 36 hours later it’s scary. Just with like my skincare and makeup products, I go for cruelty free, no nasty ingredients; parabens etc, natural as possible products. Vegan extra gold stars. I try to avoid palm oil as I prefer organutans and avoid petroleum and petroleum derived products as much as possible. 3rd or 4th generation petroleum derived products maybe depending. I also try to avoid silicones as much as possible. I know they make hair shiny, glossy, easy handle locks. The wrong silicones overtime can do the reverse on hair. On fine hair I think there’s only 2 that can help. There’s a lot of silicones out there which I do my best to I avoid except in BB creams where I try to opt for less is more. Okay backstory done. The bars: which are surprising easy to use. Either lather up in your hands like regular soap and apply like liquid shampoo or wet the bar and apply run the bar through your hair then lather up with hands.

L-R Seanik, Jumping Juniper, American Cream

Seanik Shampoo Bar. The blue one

This solid seaweed, sea salt and lemon bar gives great shine and volume, with an uplifting summer scent for that buoyant feeling. We’ve added a combination of Irish moss gel (made from bushy red seaweed), with protein-rich Japanese nori seaweed and fine sea salt to give hair some oomph. Lemon oil makes your hair shine, and we’ve added the heady tropical scents of mimosa, jasmine and orange flower essential oils.

Okay, disclaimer. I was in a rush purchasing these products before closing. I didn’t read the ingredients at time of purchase. Firstly as there wasn’t any ingredients listed in the shop. It’s Lush, all okay right? No, only online I found them. One bar thankfully I checked before use returned as it contained isoeugenol which I react to. I was desperate in that time of the month feeling down to ignore the SLS’s or sodium lauryl sulphate which I avoid at call costs. It’s Lush right? All good. Well, until I did my research. Not only is it not so skin friendly, it’s also palm oil derived. Lush’s article and the comments were enough to make me feel bad, I but I’d already started using them. Why SLS’s are bad and  SLS’s and the environment.

I learnt the hard way after using Seanik too much SLS’s make fine hair frizzy. I was it’s Lush, they’re against animal cruelty, SLS’s can’t be that bad (yes, for the environment) and dry out skin. I did get some volume from the bar at the price of coarse, frizzy, fried looking hair a few weeks later. The SLS was too strong. While Lush is naturalish I went against my no SLS principle, felt bad for the environment, frizzed my hair all because I wanted a pick me up. Lessen learnt. The cons? It cleaned my make up brushes amazing! It took forever however to rinse out the foam from my makeup sponge. Oh it left blue residue that took some elbow grease to remove from the soap dish like the others featured. It’s now regulated to makeup brush cleaner. Reading the comments a lot of people have experienced the same issue of dried out hair. 

Jumping Juniper The Purple One

Perfect for when hair needs a really deep clean. Juniperberry gets to work regulating sebum production, clearing the scalp. We’ve also used calming lavender and antibacterial rosemary essential oils to soothe and cleanse the scalp. Lemon and lime oils give shine, as they help the cuticles on your hair lie flat, enabling them to reflect more light.

This was better! This was meant to be my after climbing shampoo to help get out the chalk not for everyday day. However as Seanik made my hair electric this became the main show. It made my hair so shiny! Until 2 weeks later. Frizzy dry looking hair returned. While my hair felt kinda soft thanks to the conditioner below it didn’t look it. Again I think it was the SLS which was the issue among several Lush reviewers also. Neither contain silicones so it wasn’t them It’s also quite heavily scented which I didn’t like. It also breaks apart if you leave it to air dry for a few weeks. I’ll use it up as regular soap unless it’s too drying for my skin. I’m beginning to think Lush shampoo bars if you have sensitive skin, eczema prone skin or fine hair give the bars a miss or go for an SLS free bar. I have 2 more SLS free shampoo bars to try but I’m also thinking again for sensitive skin or fine hair the ingredients are too concentrated in shampoo bars. 

American Cream Conditioner. The Pink One

Big bouncy locks don’t have to be an American dream, American Cream solid hair conditioner puts Hollywood hair within your reach. This shine-enhancing, reparative conditioner will volumise strands for thick tresses that deserve to be in the spotlight. 

Delivering filmstar shine, fresh orange juice and strawberry juice cleanse and brighten each strand, encouraging the hair cuticle to lie flat so that your hair reflects the light. Rebuilding your locks from within, hydrolysed wheat gluten will make you ‘do more resilient, repairing past damage by coating the hair and binding split ends together. Agave syrup gives hair a fuller finish for an effortless post blow dry look. Topped off with a scrumptious sweet vanilla and strawberry scent, this packaging-free, solid conditioner evokes 50s’ diner milkshakes. 

Orange juice and strawberry juice?! I’m in! This was great until about 1 month later. My hair felt smooth glossy looking. I learnt not to leave it anywhere near the shampoo bars otherwise the shampoo bar residue on it just foamed up and/or to rinse it before use. Like the shampoo bars is easy to use. Either run the bar over wet hair or lather up in hands (it won’t foam, you’ll just feel the oils) and apply to lower half of hair. Or use a combo of both. For the first 4 weeks it was great. Made my hair soft to touch, it had shine! The scent’s nice too. It brightened up the bathroom with its Barbie pink vibes. Then just like the Lush shampoo bars, my hair turned on me. Maybe I’d applied too much leaving it looking flat. No life in the lower half of hair and dry looking. Which was crap as I’d just got hair rebuilding treatment thanks to the damage the shampoos had done. I was impressed that the propylene glycol in it wasn’t obtained from petroleum but from ‘a rapeseed oil-based source’. If they can do that for propylene glycol why not SLS? Sadly Lush once again isn’t for me. 

I ended up using another shampoo bar (review in Hair Care Bars part 2 to come) by Inuit which I thought was doing great. However my last trip the the hairdressers they said my scalp was red again. Soothing scalp mask and rebuilding treatment to nurse it back to health. I’m back on OWay who while aren’t 100% plastic free the bottle’s glass with a plastic pump and my hair’s happier. That however isn’t saving pennies as it foams less so I use more as I can’t tell if it’s in the areas I want it to be. The hairdressers also doesn’t offer refills. I can return the bottle and pump when finished for them to reuse in the salon or for them to up/recycle As for conditioner I’m back on Freshly Cosmetics until while I look for another. I’m holding off an OWay conditioner. I’ve previously used their moisturising one which after a year of use, started making my hair dry looking. I’m seriously blaming pollution as I do so much internally to look after my hair. Maybe there’s also a mental not dietary link to hair condition as body’s using nutrients elsewhere. That and I’m thinking every other week alternating conditioners and shampoo! Help! 

Do you use shampoo and conditioner bars? Have they worked for you? Please share in the comments how!