Why I Switched to Bar Shampoo
/I'm Reese, and I have a problem. I impulse buy shampoo and conditioner. How can you resist those brightly colored bottles promising you DNA-defying bouncy goddess hair after one wash?! Forget the fact my hair has looked the exact same for 31 years, you will find me in the bath aisle holding a tube of John Frieda aloft while having an existential crisis. Am I a Brilliant Brunette? Could I be a Brilliant Brunette? (Logan sacrilegiously refers to this product as "Basic Brunette".)
Hope springs eternal in the shower, y'all.
However, my litter pick up experiment has made me increasingly aware of how much plastic we have in our lives, and considering that plastic basically never biodegrades like, ever, "biodegradable plastics" are also apparently evil, and micro plastic fibers are found in 83% of the world's tap water - and a whopping 94% of tap water in the US alone - reducing one's plastic usage seems a logical choice.
Side note: I'm aware a lot of people had this idea way before it occurred to me, and I'm not pretending this blog is reinventing the wheel. It's about a personal journey and learning the art of personal environmental accountability.
Looking at my recycling bin and trash can, the majority of what's in there is currently coming from kitchen and bathroom products. While recycling is a great thing, it also isn't a flawless process. It takes A LOT of energy, and recycling plastic often degrades the quality of the plastic in the process, so it can only be reused for very specific products.
Let's attack it from the front end! My friend Nicole used to work at Lush, which has somewhat of a cult following due to their badass practices with the planet, animals, people, etc, so that's where I started. Apparently, shampoo and conditioner is also available in bar form, and you know how excitable I am when it comes to soaps.
Imagine my delight as I stood surrounded by tiny, plastic-free, vibrantly colored bars of shampoo and conditioner, each promising wondrous locks and packed with incredible scents! AWESOME. The price? NOT AWESOME. I left with a bright yellow citrusy cleansing hockey puck and a blue one promising beachy hair (...am I a beachy brunette? Could I be a beachy brunette?) that looked like it contained particles from my kitchen sink drain catch.
...that looked like it contained particles from my kitchen sink drain catch.
I won't lie, I did not know what to do with these do-hoppies in the shower. Like... how does it work? Very easily, turns out. It's just like washing the rest of you with a bar of soap, but like, on your scalp. Being of the overthinking persuasion, however, I proceeded to lather excessively and then panic. The conditioner was more confusing, if possible, because it didn't lather. Was anything even HAPPENING? Spoiler alert: yes.
Am I now a beachy
brunette?
...No.
Not in the slightest.
My hair is clean and fluffy and lovely in every way, so the bar is probably here to stay. I'm probably going to pursue cheaper options than Lush, however, like this one from Apple Valley for literally half the price, or this equally cheap one that's supposedly available at Walmart.
The important part, though, is that my shower has gone from this level of plastic...
To this:
