I’ve been on a mission to ditch plastic for a while. Once you start looking, it’s hard not to notice just how much plastic surrounds us and how much it’s part of our lives. At the same time, we read and hear more and more how plastic is suffocating our planet – our recycling centers are overwhelmed, even shutting down because they’re unsustainable, our landfills are overflowing with toxins leaching into our soil, plastic particles from our clothing are drained into our water supply every time we do a load of laundry, fish are ingesting our plastic and then we’re eating plastic in our fish. This blog series Saying No to Plastic will focus on choices we can make to replace anything we use that is plastic or packaged in plastic.
Which brings me to bar shampoo. If I can make the switch to bar shampoo and bar conditioner I’ll use 8 less plastic bottles this year. Add 4 more if I can convince my husband to replace his 2in1 brand, and we’re up to 12 less plastic bottles a year in this household. That’s a bathroom sink full of plastic that doesn’t have to exist. I’m determined to find a bar shampoo and conditioner that I can live with.
What Brand of Bar Shampoo to choose?
There are dozens of brands out now, ranging from under $10/bar to over $30/bar. I bought two brands, worried that I would hate at least one of them, so that I wouldn’t quit in frustration and return to my preferred plastic bottles, I’d be forced to at least try the bars for two consecutive washes.
Say no to plastic with bar shampoos! 
First try at bar shampoo 
Shiny and Soft!
I first tried HiBAR in their Maintain line for color-safe high shine for “normal” hair. It suds-ed up easily by rubbing the top flat side of the bar on wet hair a couple of times then adding more water to lather. The scent is fresh and sweet but faint, it reminded me of the honeysuckle bushes in our backyard when I was growing up, but there’s no mention of a fragrance on the package besides ‘natural fragrance’ listed in the ingredients, so I don’t know what the scent is. I was surprised how easily it lathered but also how easily it rinsed out, my hair was squeaky clean but felt like it really needed conditioner – I had lathered my hair into a rats-nest! A couple of swipes with the conditioner bar and I was able to comb through my hair easily, it rinsed really quickly as well, leaving less of a film than most conditioners. My hair felt clean, soft, completely de-tangled in about 20 seconds. A normal blow-dry and wow, super shiny and soft! Is it possible to find my perfect bar shampoo on the first try? This went so well I can’t wait to try the 2nd brand!
Three days later (a day longer than usual) my hair felt ready for another shampoo. Humby Organics has a nice variety of fragrances and I chose Pink Hibiscus for both shampoo and conditioner. I rubbed the flat side of the bar on my hair, maybe because it’s a larger surface than the HiBar, this lathered up twice as much.
The hibiscus scent is more noticeable than the HiBar fragrance and pleasant. My hair rinsed well but wasn’t squeaky like it was with HiBar. The conditioner bar had the same lovely fragrance but didn’t de-tangle quite as easily as the HiBar. Probably about a minute of rinsing before it felt rinsed enough. My hair was super shiny and soft after blow-drying though and the day after I washed it I couldn’t help but say out-loud into the mirror, My hair looks freaking fabulous!
What makes these bar shampoos so good for my hair?
So, what is it that my hair loves so much about these bar shampoos? The all natural types I tried are cold-processed shampoo bars (typically made by home crafters and natural products companies). They’re packed with natural oils, which help condition your hair, and are typically free of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS).
The HiBar boasts no sulfates, parabens, phthalates or silicones at all and credits shea butter & honeyquat for that extra shine and softness. Humby uses Sodium Coco Sulfate, derived from coconut oil, as a substitute for petroleum-based SLS because it makes the bars lather, and the Humby did lather like crazy. Both brands are:
- Vegan
- Cruelty-Free
- Earth Friendly
- SLS Free
- Palm Oil-Free
- Preservative-Free
- Paraben-Free
- Gluten-Free
- Responsibly Sourced Ingredients
- pH balanced
- Handmade in the USA
- And Free of Plastic Packaging
How do I keep my shampoo bar dry?
Shampoo and conditioner bars need to be kept dry when they’re not being used and leaving them on the side of the tub leaves the same soapy residue that leaving a bar of regular soap would. I’m on the search for a pretty, non-plastic and non-breakable soap dish that will fit both bars.
Economical, Great Hair and Plastic Free
These brands promise that their shampoo bars last at least as long as one 16 oz bottle of shampoo or conditioner (HiBar) or 50-75 washes (Humby). At $10 to $12/bar they are on par with most of the bottle shampoos I use, and I think my hair is healthier, shinier and more manageable with bar shampoo. And, I’ve convinced my husband to make the switch too so our household is 12 plastic bottles less pollutant than it was last year!
Does switching to Bar Shampoo Save the World?
On it’s own, of course not. But if every American used bar shampoo that would save us from approximately 1,308 million plastic bottles a year (based on each person going through 3 or 4 bottles of shampoo, not counting conditioner, a year). That’s 1,308 million bottles that wouldn’t be clogging our recycling centers, piling up in our landfills or polluting our beaches and oceans. And, we’re only one country – think about if no-one on the planet used plastic bottles for their shampoo? It’s really not that crazy a thought considering that, before 1946 when the first commercial plastic bottle (a spray bottle for deodorant) was introduced, no-one used plastic bottles for anything!
I love bar shampoos. I started using them about 8 years ago but switched back to plastic bottles and can not remember why. I’m wondering if there weren’t as many options. Now, I see them more options and have thought about going back. I’m doing it! Once our current container (whole family uses same soap and same shampoo) is empty we’re going to try going back.
Wanda, we just ditched paper towels too. Gone to rags and hand towels. I feel like we’re the last to do this but we’re finally doing it. We are still getting used to the transition. We are down to two rolls of paper towels a month. This is huge for us. We were using (family of 3) about 2 to 3 rolls a week. Now we’re down to 2 a month! My goal is none by summer.
Love hearing about your ideas!
Jenn
Thank you Jenn, and awesome news on the paper-towels! I never bought them, I guess because my mom didn’t and I didn’t understand their purpose, but Johnny’s a paper-towel guy! And he tends to leave used ones on the counter because “he could re-use it when the need arises”, tiny pet-peeve, but anyway, he buys them and I don’t know how many he goes through, I need to start paying attention!
Thanks for the review! The issue of liquid soap-in-a-bottle vs. a bar of soap is something that I’ve been thinking about. You have to think there must be a reason why the soap industry has worked so hard to train us consumers to “prefer” the new liquid soaps, of every kind. Think of all the soaps that did not used to be in separate liquid bottles: hand soap, dish soap, dishwasher soap, laundry soap, body wash soap (male and female bottles), hair wash soap (male and female bottles), conditioner (male and female bottles), shaving cream (male and female). You didn’t even mention in your blog the transportation efficiency gained by not driving all that water in those bottles all over the country, nor the real estate to market them, nor the expense of buying all of these varieties in a less efficient form factor, nor the fact that a full squirt of soap is likely much more product dispensed per use that a old-school spin of a soap bar on wet hands.
But liquid soap dispensed in a tidy blob in your hand has usability advantages and I think in some cases it may be useful to install some improved and purpose-designed bar-shampoo holders to increase the usability and cleanliness. One thing I purchase a couple of years ago and have liked the efficiency of using is putting my soap bar in this nice little cotton soap bag. The soap bag acts as a protective cover around the bar, yet also allows all the suds to come through the cotton weave when it is wet in the shower. It greatly reduces the soap bar loss from too much water hitting it, and acts as a bit of a wash cloth action on the skin as well. It’s also very easy to throw a small soap heel from a nearly-used bar in there with the existing bar and have that soap nub go to work all the way to zero instead of throwing away 10% of the bar due to annoyance.
Scott can you send me the brand of your soap bag? I’d love to look it up. I’ll have a blog-post out shortly about replacing single-use plastic bottles for reusable glass and using concentrates for cleaning products like dish-soap, all purpose cleaner, etc. Thank you for your comment!