The Soap Mine Lavender & Orange Solid Shampoo

This shampoo works really well on my hair. Lathers up beautifully and leaves my hair feeling really clean. I've re-bought this several times now as it's such an easy eco swap and good value for money!

I've been moving toward a more plastic free bathroom and decided to jump in and buy a shampoo bar. After doing my research and finding out that there's a transitioning period when starting to use shampoo bars I felt somewhat prepared on what to expect. Boy was I wrong. The first time I used this shampoo bar it hardly lathered and I found it too big for my hands (I don't have small hands by the way, my OH half affectionately calls them lamb chop fingers). After "cleaning" my hair, it still felt dirty and like it had been dipped in candle wax. As well as being very greasy (the solid kind) it took twice as long to blow dry and my hair had a very 'off milk' sour smell to it.

Now you might think I'd give up here but I decided to persevere and at my next hair wash came armed with an apple cider rinse because I thought my hair felt this awful due to product build up from using shampoos with lots of chemicals in it for 30+ years. Nope my hair felt the exact same, if not worse, and when I brushed it, it left this white wax residue on my black hair brush.

Did I give up, no I did not because it's obviously my hair that's the issue right?! Wrong. I next tried a bicarb-soda rinse and this seemed to help and my hair felt less greasy but by this point adding all these extra components into my hair washing routine was tripling my time in the shower so not the eco-friendly swap I was hoping for.

I used this 5 times in total over two and a half weeks and for reference I have shoulder length, thick, dark coloured hair. I seriously considered going back to my plastic, chemical heavy shampoo as it really had an impact on how I felt about myself (silly I know). I was wearing hats every time I left the house, or had my hair tied up in a bun and having thick hair already, it felt twice as heavy and my scalp hurt by the evening. I didn't even want to cuddle with my other half because I was so self conscious of the way my hair smelled and felt.

If you've read this far, there is a happy ending to this tale. I decided to buy the Eco Living - Wild Fig shampoo bar and decided that if after 1 wash my hair felt exactly the same then I was going to go back to my old liquid shampoo. Happy to say that it lathered up so well and it genuinely felt like I was washing with liquid shampoo with the amount of lather I worked up in my hair. It rinsed out easily and my hair felt squeaky clean. It blow dried in the normal length of time and for the first time in weeks my hair feels clean, if a bit dry but I'll take it!

So in conclusion it was definitely this shampoo bar that was the problem and NOT my hair. If you're transitioning to shampoo bars then definitely don't use this one.

So I dropped a star from this product because whilst it's great that it has hardly any packaging, I didn't actually know how I was meant to use it. ( are you meant to leave it in, should it lather, do you use a lot or a little etc ) I ended up checking out babipur and the soap mine website for some more info. It does kind of just feel like I was washing my hair with soap as afterwards when damp it didn't feel too nice, But.. once dry my curls came through and looked lovely and I was quite impressed. The bar itself smells lovely and is a decent size for the price. My son used it and it worked well with his curls too. I liked that it is made locally too and when we can travel again this will be soo much more convenient than bottles.

I’ve been trying lots of solid shampoo recently trying to find what’s right me me, I know the first thing I was stuck with was getting the lather that you are used to with plastic bottles and chemicals!

Anyway this is the best foaming solid shampoo I have tried and it’s Devine! Not to mention huge and SO worth £6! I have seriously oily hair and it’s squeaky clean so really pleased, and eco and purse friendly swap!