The Shampoo Bar Thread

[Rushli]

Summer Sunshine with ACV rinse (1c water, 1.5 Tbs ACV, 1tsp honey and lavender and rosemary essential oils) worked well for me. It lathered very easily. The smell did not last once my hair dried.

I did slightly oil my length while wet but it is much softer than it has been these past few months and I was oiling then as well. The ends are not perfect, but not as dry as before. My hair is frizzy, but not the dry frizzy it has been. My hair does have more volume than it has been this past week with BS wash, but not really more than with my old shampoo. Roots are a bit flat but not greasy or waxy. The odd thing is that the underside of my hair that normally is mostly straight is wavy and my wavy front went mostly straight.

Now about 7 hours later, my hair is starting to get staticy and it really is only now that the tips are starting to feel dry. I know I should wait another day, but I think I want to try another one tomorrow! (and I am usually only a 2x a week washer!)

Oh and my skin felt super soft after using carrot, milk and honey, though it is starting to dry up again. :/ does not surprise me though. Everything is dry right now!

How did it go with your bars Curlsgalore? What one did you use?

[curlsgalore]

How did it go with your bars Curlsgalore? What one did you use?

The only new one I used was the loofah one for now as I'm trying to finish up the piece I'm currently using (babassu marshmallow). It felt great on my heels and elbows. Next I will try a facial one and the conditioner bar.

[Rushli]

My hair got really staticy so I tried Ayurvedic Herb today. I prefer Summer Sunshine so far. I am also making a blog post with more details on each bar and how it reacts to my hair. (so exciting, I know) As soon as I can evaluate my dry hair I will have it up.

[SeaPhoenix]

About a week now on shampoo bars again (I wash daily) - using chamomile & citrus CV bar, with a follow up mix of their blonde tea rinse and a cap full of ACV in a glass. Lathered twice, rinse, pour half the glass over my hair. Do other shower stuff, and pour the other half over it. I don't rinse out the mixture - just leave it in my hair. Hair is super soft and silky - and no more itching or tight feeling on the scalp. Plus, I can see a little bit of my roots coming in, and it looks a pretty golden light-ish brown, that could probably easily edge into a dark blonde either with honey - or just given enough time to grow out and lighten from exposure (if I decide to grow hair out again).

I don't need any conventional conditioner anymore - and this is the first time that's happened. I think the trick is leaving the tea/acv rinse in my hair. In the past when I rinsed out ACV, I always needed to follow up with conditioner.

[millyaulait]

Just used my first shampoo bar today! I gave Anita Grant's Babassu & Amla a try. I have a lot of samples to try from various brands so I just picked this one at random.

Waiting for my hair to dry now, I made sure to use a good ACV rinse too. I'm excited to see how it turns out and if it actually cleaned my hair effectively. It did pull a lot of dye out (which I'm totally fine with) so I'm assuming it at least worked to some degree.

[Loviatar]

Millyaulait, now I know you're a UK person, what's your water like? I've never tried Anita Grant, but London water is so hard that my CV bars need a pretty strong rinse.

I always find that unless I'm using henna, bars pull out a ton of dye. I lost almost all my new red colour a couple of years ago in one wash. They're so very alkaline, and a lot of dyes (especially deposit dyes like SFX, Manic Panic) like acidic environments. Loving bars is the reason I've never dared try the 'keep-me-acid-please!' dye that is Elumen.

[millyaulait]

My water is soft but I used a strong mix anyway since my hair seems to love acid, but after trying this bar I feel like some of my hair is clean and other parts are soft but left with a definite residue. I think maybe I just need to focus on getting more suds on the length rather than just the scalp area. Hmm.

I may have to be careful with these though... I didn't realise quite how much dye it stripped off until it dried. I've basically gone from almost-black red to dark reddish brown in one wash, which is... um... quite impressive considering I use permanent dyes.. It's a good thing I wanted to remove it a little, I like the result anyway!

[Loviatar]

Lathering the length was something I didn't know about to begin with either. But it helps a lot. I lather the bar over my scalp directly, then run my fingers through the length, gently rubbing the soap through. I got that tip from Calista who wrote the 'how to enjoy a shampoo bar' article. If I don't lather the length, I get slight residue/waxies.

[Aderyn]

Been using shampoo bars since May of 2013 and it's been a lovely journey. For reference, I've never used a vinegar rinse, just the shampoo bar. No conditioner, no heat, no styling products, no coloring, 100% virgin hair, etc. Prior to using a shampoo bar, I used a non-sulfate, gentle shampoo and conditioner (Acure Organics - Moroccan Argab oil and + Argan Stem Cell) and I had just cut off ~4 inches of my hair at the time (wanted to start growing out my hair with a "fresh" hemline - so the damage had been removed). My hair was just barely BSL at that time. Once or twice a week I'll put a little bit of coconut oil on the ends of my hair. Very rarely I'll use a little bit of coconut oil on the whole length of my hair before shampooing. The water around here is quite soft. Light finger-combing every day, more thorough detangling with a brush every week or two. I shampoo my hair about twice a week.

I started off with J.R. Liggets original shampoo bar and that was a disaster.. it left my hair so painfully dry and crunchy, especially the ends. After a couple weeks of this, I switched to a shampoo bar from Green Kimono on Etsy and immediately, my hair was instantly feeling nicer. I think the J.R. Liggett's disaster was primarily just my hair not liking that particular shampoo bar, rather than being primarily an "adjustment period" that many people's scalps have to go through. My hair never felt gunky from the get go and my scalp was fine, as I see a lot of people remark about, especially since the instant I switched shampoo bars the issue was resolved. I might have also used a little bit too much shampoo from the J.R. Liggett's bar which probably didn't help Though I've used the same amount, if not more during a wash with later shampoo bars I've tried with no ill effects, perhaps the formula of the previous just doesn't bode well with using a lot of it. I kind of want to try the J.R. Liggett's shampoo bar again, though, to see if that really is the case and if it will still dry my hair out as it did before.. but I think I'll pass.

After the one from Green Kimono ran out, I tried another Etsy shampoo bar, this time from Sweet Creek Herbal Care and my hair was just lovely using that one as well. I then used a shampoo bar from Prarieland Herbs and that was lovely as well.

Recently, I decided to use a more moisturizing and conditioner shampoo bar from CV (carrot milk and honey) and my hair feels even more moisturized and smoother than it has with the previous shampoo bars (not that the previous ones were bad, by any means). I'm really liking the way my hair feels with this one (not as squeaky clean and I think when I purchase more shampoo bars in the future (after I get through my current stash ) I will look into the more conditioning ones as I love how soft it makes my hair.

I have also just ordered a Henna Chestnut shampoo bar from CV as I'm eager to see how the coloring of my hair may be affected by that. If it'll be a tiny bit darker, whether I'll see some highlights come out, etc.

As an aside, I am pleased with how little I am spending on shampoo bars compared to bottled shampoo and conditioner. For the former, I spend maybe an average of $3-4 a month, and with the latter that would be more like $20 dollars a month (due in large part to my being rather picky about the shampoo/conditioner I used before)

[ExpectoPatronum]

Well...I'm jumping on the soap bar train. I haven't tried it yet (I will tomorrow) but I think regular shampoo is causing some issues I've been having skin-wise.

First of all, my scalp has been itchy and flakey as of late. I used head and shoulders and while that helped, it dries out my hair. Also, for years now, my back will be covered in red splotches and even some hives. It's not from soap since it happens even if I don't use it. It was really really bad today....which also happened to be a day I shampooed twice. Hmm...Maybe there's a connection?

I was at the local grocery store looking through their body care stuff, which is all natural and organic since it's a health food store, when I saw a Neem oil shampoo bar. Another woman came up and picked up two of them. We got to talking and she asked if I had a problem with itchy scalp or dandruff. I answered yes and she told me the shampoo bar was the way to go for solving that problem. Her hair looked very nice, by the way. It was a lovely back color, a little above BSL and very shiny and healthy looking. The look on her face told me that she swore by the two bars she grabbed, so I grabbed one too to try. I'll report back tomorrow after I shower. For tonight, I'm going to read up on how to use this thing.

I like what I see on the ingredients list. Olive, coconut, castor, neem, avocado, and shea butter oils. Scented with tea tree oil and peppermint oil (It smells really good!). It's also vegan and its gluten-free. My skin has been doing extremely well with 100% natural things so maybe my hair will follow suit.

ETA: I did my first wash today. So far, I kind of like it. I washed twice as seems to be the magic number for a lot of people and it seems to be fine for me. I will admit I do NOT like how my hair feels as I'm rinsing. If you've ever used an alkaline scrub on your hands, that's exactly how my hair felt...which makes sense since shampoo bars are alkaline. It made me worry because I really want this to work out. But never fear, my hair felt much better once I did the ACV rinse (thank god!). I used a dilution of one and a half cap fulls to one coffee mug of water (so precise, right? lol) and that seemed to work very well. I might do two full caps next time just to see. I then put a tiny bit of my favorite conditioner on my ends. I watered it down first and let it sit while I did the rest of my showerly duties. I rinsed it out and got out the shower.

Now my hair is drying. It feels way different than when I use liquid shampoo. It's not bad at all, just different. I ended up applying a tiny bit of oil to my ends, which actually absorbed into my hair and so they now feel very soft. That NEVER happens. I also added a liiiiittle bit of my cone-y serum because my hair had absolutely no slip. It's sitting in two braids right now and I have to admit. It looks and feels....not bad. Again, it's a different feel but it's not a bad feel at all. I think this can work. I'm eager to see how it looks dry.

ETA one more time lol: I forgot to mention a couple things.
1. My hair was a little tangly when I went to comb it out. However, the fact I lost maybe one hair while detangling makes up for it. Usually running a comb through my hair would result in a few hairs coming out each time, despite there not really being any tangles.
2. The shedding in the shower was also less. Maybe 10 hairs. But I did just wash my hair yesterday, so that could be it.