Shampoo bar questions

[yoghurtflavours]

I decided to give it a try so I bought an Ethique shampoo and conditioner bar, which is said to be the best ones for hard water areas as I live in London. I've tried three times now and it's okay, but I'm still not 100% happy with it. It gets a bit greasy and sticky, and the conditioner feels greasy too.

Is it worth trying another brand like Kinkind, which I've read good reviews of? Or are they all basically the same at this point? I don't want to use the Gruum ones as they don't make a scent-free conditioner.

I'm just wondering if it's worth perservering with trying different brands, especially when they're quite expensive for something you don't carry on with?

Ethique made my hair greasy too.
Earth Kind was better, it left my hair feeling nice but I couldn’t continue with it because it didn’t control my dandruff.

I use Lush shampoo bars (conditioner bars aren't 'strong' enough for me). I have a break between bars with a month of ordinary shampoo. Seems to be a good combination. I always take the bars on holiday.

I really like ethique but notice that both shampoo and conditioner don't work as well in hard water areas.

Please post if you find something that does!

@LittlePinkPill So what did you do in the end? Did you go back to normal shampoo?

Sadly I had to go back to bottles. The misery of an itchy flaky head wasn’t something I could put up with whilst trying possibly several different bars and wasting £££

I use Garnier shampoo bar. No conditioner. My hair feels really nice afterwards and we live in a hard water area. I've also tried the Eco Warrior bars which were good but they don't sell them in my local supermarket anymore.

Unfortunately all the Garnier ones contain perfume.

I tried out different shampoo bars during lockdown. I'm in London too, so have hard water. You need to kiss a lot of frogs before finding a prince! They vary a lot - some leave your hair claggy with residue and I had one truly awful one that was so hard it wouldn't lather (used once and never again - and I notice it's no longer stocked in Sainsburys).

The two I've settled on are:

• EarthKind
• Garnier Ultimate Blends Shampoo Bar (which surprised me, coming from a large company)

Both available in my large Sainsburys and sometimes on offer, so if you get the timing right you never have to pay full price.

The first acceptable bar I found was Eco Warrior (also in Sainsburys but strangely not next to the other shampoo bars) but I now prefer the two above.

I tried Gruum when it was on offer but wouldn't buy it a second time.

I've actually given up on conditioner now and haven't noticed a difference, as the shampoos leave my hair soft. But I have straight hair and don't use heated products on it. I did try EarthKind conditioning bar and it was OK, but I'm finding my hair is actually OK without conditioner.

I live in London and use Faith in Nature shampoo, haven't tried the conditioner.

Been using it for about a year and very happy - you have to give it quite a few rubbings around the head to get a lather going! I wash my hair twice a week and the bar lasts for months. It's about £6 and sometimes on offer at £4 on Ocado.

I live in a hard water area and use the Little Eco Shop shampoo bars- they are great.
I keep it outside the shower and use it every other hairwash, with a normal liquid shampoo on the other days so the bar has time to dry out and not go smushy. They are really nice and everyone that I have had from there has worked well

@Plexie @Westfacing thanks - unfortunately all those brands contain perfume so I can't use them.

I am in a hard water area and have found Faith In Nature and Gruum to be the best.

The ones that leave your hair feeling sticky, sometimes all it needs is the occasional rinse with a bit of lemon juice or cider vinegar to stop the residue buildup.

I tried bars but didn’t like the result on my hair so now I use refillable shampoo bottles. I use Fiils bottles and recyclable refills but I think Khiehl’s also do similar.

I've read about the vinegar rinse thing, but it seems a bit silly to need such a thing. If the product was good then you wouldn't need to do that?

Are you allergic to or just don't like perfumey smells?

I suffer from allergic rhinitis and never know what will kick it off - so far I've been fine with Faith in Nature.

Try the one from Poundland, it's really quite decent!

Yes, that’s why I prefer brands like Faith In Nature where you don’t need one. I thought it was worth mentioning in case anyone has a bar they don’t want to waste the rest of, even if they won’t be buying another.

Sorry have to post and run, (wash n go!) as am parliamentary petition watching, @ Update the Equality Act. Please consider clicking this and voting on International Womens' Day. Dont know how to link, but its on Mumsnet.
I live in a soft water area and this bar includes condish and is better than at least 3 others i have tried that were all far more spendy.

I've got a small hexagonal coconut one, with good results on normal/dry hair. I've lost the box so forgotten the brand. Think it was cheap... perhaps from Savers

Just looked at Savers website. It was the derma v10 one.

I've used Lush's Seanik shampoo bar for about four years now and I love it. My husband and son now share the same bar. It cleans our hair well, doesn't leave it greasy and doesn't build up either. Also great for going abroad as it doesn't count towards liquid allowance.

KinKind are good shampoo bars- use them quite a bit. No sticky residue at all.

struggled with lush bars tbh.

Absolutely loved the lush ones, however, they could strip the colour from my hair so effectively I'd need to re dye in a fortnight.
Great things, useless for coloured hair.

I didn’t get on with the Little Eco Shop bars but the Faith in Nature ones are great for me (hard water area).