Zero Waste Hair Care. Switching to solid shampoo.

Before we start digging into this subject I would like to explain that I have the very thick, frizzy, long hair. When I used “normal” shampoo and conditioner I would squeeze as much conditioner into my hand as I could. If my hair didn’t feel 100% covered and silky I would throw more on.

With that in mind, and the fact that I didn’t know very much about solid hair products until recently, the transition to using them didn’t happen over night.

The first few times I used the lush shampoo bar I thought it was great. However, after a few washes I didn’t feel like it was cutting the mustard and would switch to and fro from bar to bottle.

At this time I also gave the Lush conditioner a go and quickly stopped, my hair felt awful.

Slowly over 6 months or so I would reach one day for the shampoo bar and one day for the bottle, slowly reaching more and more for the bar until suddenly I realized I hadn’t used the bottle in weeks. This could be why I never really noticed “the transition period” people talk about.

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A pinnable image of shampoo bars balance in the palm of a hand. Caption “How to switch to solid shampoo bar.”

What is the transition period?

Traditional shampoos contain a number of chemicals. These chemicals effectively strip your hair of its own natural oils, leaving their own chemicals and residue in your hair. Without your natural oils your hair will become increasing dry and damaged, which is why we then use conditioner to fix that. In a way it’s giving you a false sense of beautiful soft, shiny hair.

The “transition period” so many people talk about, is therefore your hair building back up its own natural oils. We all know the ‘No Poo’ idea. The idea that if you stopped using shampoo completely after a while your hair will sort itself out. Well in theory its like that except you ARE washing your hair.

Many like me may never really notice the transition period. Maybe because I made the switch over a long period of time or maybe because it’s not really a thing?

The Ethique products I now use, claim that the '“transition period” doesn’t actually exist and is only a myth told to us so we keep using a product that isn’t right for us. Looking into it there’s not much evidence for both theories so I can’t tell you for sure which I think it true. However, I did go through a sticky hair phase when I was switched to difference lush bar to what I had been using. Ethique claim that if the PH is wrong for your hair this is why you could face problems. This did for me prove to be true so I’ll leave you to decide for your self but I will advice that if one bar doesn’t work for you it is worth trying another. Lush staff are really great at helping you pick the right bar and if it doesn’t work will exchange for another to try, Ethique have a online questionnaire which is also worth doing.

You may also hear some people talk about an ingredient called SLS. This can be found in some shampoo bars but also liquids as it’s the ingredient that helps the shampoo foam up. I have sensitive skin and find this makes my scalp a little itchy so if your the same as me it might be an idea check and buy a bar without.

Now for Zero Waste Conditioner

As I mentioned above the conditioner didn’t work for me at all in the beginning but after going full time with a shampoo bar I thought I would give it another go. And amazingly it worked.

At first it did take me slightly longer to rub it all over and for a short period of time my hair didn’t feel quiet as soft until I had dried it but the longer I used both bars the better this got. I couldn’t make sense of it at the time but since reading that regular shampoos could have been stripping my hair I guess I now didn’t need all the extra moisture going back into my hair.

One year down the line I seem to use less and less conditioner all the time and my hair is the best its ever been.

The Benefits of zero waste hair care.

1.Cutting plastic out of your hair care.

One bar equals three regular bottles of shampoo and the conditioner bars can be the equivalent of up to SIX bottles. The bars may seem to be more expensive but seen as how they last so much longer there really isn’t much difference. .

2. Cutting out the chemicals and using a natural products.

This has meant that my hair is gaining back its natural oils AND it’s natural curls. It’s gone for fizzy to tamable. I could never really wear it au natural before because it was just a wild mess.. I kid you not one day Mat asked me to step away from the wardrobe in case my brother Aslan came to take me back to Narnia. I still do get the odd Mufasa comment but at least I don’t have to spend hours taming it. I’m literally just letting it dry naturally and adding some Moroccan oil to help it slightly. It’s been a REVELATION!! .

3. I’m washing my hair far less.

I’ve gone from having to wash my hair everything 3 days MINIMUM to washing it once a week. It no longer gets greasy so I could definitely go longer but it starts to feel a little limp and yuk and I enjoy that freshly washed feeling.

Your hairdresser will tell you not to wash your hair to often.

I just wish I had listened to the hair dressers I worked with years ago when they told me I didn’t need to wash my hair more than once a week. Think of all the time and energy I could have saved.

One tip I did take from them however, that I still follow today, is to shampoo your hair twice. They told me that shampoo doesn’t really foam up on dirty hair so to wash it once to get the yuk out and then a little bit again to get it lovely and fresh. I don’t have the scientific facts on this and it may be wasteful but it’s what was done in this particular hair dresses and if it helps if you with a shampoo bar that isn’t foamy like you maybe used to it could be a handy tip. Wash once and then again to get that soapy clean feeling.

what Zero Waste Products to buy for your Hair

I happily used Lush bars for the first half of last year and found they did the job just fine but have since discovered Ethique. I think Ethique products are just AMAZING and don’t think I’ll even be trying any others as these are the ones for me. If your in the UK Holland and Barrett stock all the Ethique range.

The reason I first gave them a go was down to the fact that they sell a baby friendly product. I did use bar shampoos on Reeva before after talking to the Lush staff who said as they weren’t especially made for babies so they couldn’t recommend them specifically but as they were a natural product there was no reason why I could not use them on her if I was happy to. However, I did feel much better finding a plastic free, natural product made for babies and its so lovely I started using it too. The baby bar, like their other shampoos is 12.99 which may seem a lot but I still have half of it left and it’s lasted 6 months so far.

Are you thinking of making the switch to a solid shampoo? Or have you already made the leap and found it wasn’t for you? Have I made you want to try or try again?

Let me know how your plastic free, chemical free hair care journey is going. I love to hear your comments and I’m always happy to give advice.

Hannah xx