How do you use a shampoo bar, and does it suit your hair?
A shampoo bar is, at Boozyshop, the same idea as regular shampoo, only without the water and without the bottle. That saves plastic and space in your suitcase, but it does ask for a different move in the shower. Use a bar the way you would a bar of soap and you end up with a half dissolved block, thinking the product does not work.
Below you will find how to use one, how long it lasts, what is in it instead of sulfates, and which bar goes with your hair.
How to get lather out of it
The block needs to be wet and so do your hands. Hold the bar under the stream for a few seconds, then rub it between your hands until you have lather, and apply that lather to your scalp. You can also rub the bar straight over your wet hair, but then you spread it less evenly and it runs out faster.
Two things work differently with a bar than with a bottle. You need less product than you think, because there is no water in it diluting things. And you need to rinse for longer, because the lather is denser and settles into the lengths. If your hair still feels heavy, that is almost always under rinsing rather than the bar.
How long does a bar last?
Kitsch states roughly a hundred washes per bar, which at two or three times a week works out at eight months to a year. That is the brand's own figure and not something we measured, and how long it lasts for you depends on your hair length and on how you store it.
Storing is where most bars go wrong. A bar left sitting in a puddle of water on the edge of the bath simply dissolves. Put it somewhere the water runs off, or outside the shower in a dry spot, and it easily lasts twice as long.
What is in it, now that there are no sulfates?
The bars in this article clean with sodium cocoyl isethionate and sodium methyl cocoyl taurate. Those are milder cleansers than the sulfates in liquid shampoo, and they give slightly less lather for the same amount. There is nothing to fix there, because lather says nothing about how clean your hair gets.
One thing that causes confusion: the conditioner bar lists behentrimonium methosulfate. That word ends in sulfate, but it is not a cleansing sulfate like SLS or SLES. It is an ingredient that makes your hair easy to comb. So a conditioner bar with behentrimonium methosulfate is not a bar with sulfates in it.
Do not expect any of the bars in this article to be fragrance free. All seven have a fragrance or scent ingredient in the list, from citrus oil to limonene and linalool.
Which bar suits your hair?
For normal to dry hair the Rice Water Shampoo Bar by Kitsch is the most neutral place to start, and the bar we hold the most stock of.
If your hair is damaged or dry at the ends, the Repairing Argan Oil is the richer of the two.
If your hair gets greasy quickly or your scalp needs attention, the Tea Tree and Mint Clarifying is the bar that cleans more deeply.
On blonde hair the Purple Toning Solid Shampoo Bar with biotin works, countering yellow tones the way a purple shampoo does.
If you have curls, the Curly Secret Shampoo Bar is the one built for them, with green tea and macadamia oil.
The full range is in the shampoo bars collection.
And the conditioner, also as a bar?
You can, and with curly hair it is half the story. You use a conditioner bar differently from a shampoo bar: you rub it straight over the lengths and the ends, not over your scalp, and you leave it on for a moment before rinsing.
The Curly Secret Conditioner Bar is the standalone option here.
If you want to try shampoo and conditioner in one go, there is a Kitsch set with both blocks on coconut oil.
Liquid versions are in the conditioner collection.
Your hair can feel different for the first few weeks
If you are switching from a shampoo with sulfates and silicones, your hair can feel heavier or stickier for the first few washes. That is because the milder cleansers do not strip the silicone layer from your old products in one go. It passes, and one clarifying wash speeds it up.
If it still does not feel right after a month, then the bar is not the right one for your hair and the format is not the problem. A drying bar on dry hair will keep feeling dry, whether it is liquid or solid.
In short
- Wet the bar and your hands, work up lather in your hands, then apply to your scalp
- Use less than you would with liquid shampoo, and rinse for longer
- Let it drain somewhere dry, because standing water dissolves the bar
- Conditioner bar on the lengths and ends only
- Expect a few washes of adjusting if you are coming off silicones