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Five of the best shampoo bars

— by Alyson Walsh

Davines shampoo bar

 

To reduce the amount of plastic in my bathroom cabinet, I’ve been trying out shampoo bars. Easy to use – rub the bar between your hands and then work the lather through your hair – and apparently, longer lasting than a liquid (I’ll confirm the latter in six months time), they also take up less space. And, I can imagine shampoo bars would be great for travel, being lighter to carry and less likely to spill all over your best silk kaftan. Summer 2022 can’t come soon enough to those of us stuck on Plague Island… Anyhow. Here are five of tried and tested shampoo bars:

 

White Hot Hair Gloss Shampoo (two bars in a paper pack for £16)

The first solid shampoo I tried, set the, er,  bar high. It smelled good (natural coconut oil and marshmallow root extract), lathered up nicely and left hair squeaky clean. Definitely the best for grey hair.

 

Garnier Ultimate Blends Shampoo Bar (£7.99)

French hair giant Garnier has four shampoo bars, I opted for ‘delicate oat’ because it sounded like the least smelly option. The scent is a little synthetic but this bar is good on suds and good on value. Designed for sensitive scalp and fragile hair (the other bars are: ‘revitalising’, ‘hydrating’ and ‘strengthening’). And, silicone-free.

 

Davines VOLU Naked Shampoo (£14)

I’m a big fan of Italian family-owned brand Davines hair products – they’re effective, eco-friendly and always smell lovely. There are four different silicate, sulphate and preservative-free formulas: MOMO for dry hair, LOVE for frizzy or unruly hair, DEDE is a delicate shampoo bar for all hair types and VOLU is for fine or limp hair. Not the cheapest shampoo bar on the beauty shelf but it lathers up a treat and is the one I keep coming back to. My pick of the bunch.

 

Faith in Nature Shampoo Bar (£5.79)

A bit more elbow grease is required to lather up this shampoo bar but the coconut shea butter formula has a light scent (I really can’t stand anything too pongy) and leaves hair feeling really clean. It’s well-priced, vegan and paraben-free. I might try the Lavender & Geranium…

 

Lush Shampoo Bars (£8)

The sustainable beauty brand that’s been championing zero-waste, natural options for over-25 years. Their shampoo bars are highly recommended by my friend’s sister who uses ‘Honey I Washed My Hair’ and the ‘Seanik’ bar (both £8). Though, I have to be honest, when I worked around the corner from a Lush store, I did find the strong smell, emanating from inside, quite off-putting…

 

Lush Seanik

 

And finally, I’ve recently discovered the American beauty brand By Humankind dedicated to reducing single-use plastic. Aveda has launched a Shampure shampoo bar (£14) which I’d like to try. And the ‘best name award’ for a shampoo bar goes to Nut & Noggin.

 

 

Can you recommend any shampoo bars?

 

 

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