I’d been a fan of Lush Cosmetics for a while before I purchased one of their solid shampoos because it just always seemed like a big leap to make. But then I was planning a ten-day multiple destination trip that involved air travel and realized that bringing enough liquid shampoo with me would require a hefty checked bag fee and so I went out and got myself a solid shampoo puck.
There’s a learning curve to solid shampoo: how wet you have to get it before you rub it on your head, how many times you have to rub it over your hair to get the amount of shampoo you want, how to store it so it doesn’t melt away slowly because of water infiltration. It’s a lot like using soap but of course with the rise of body wash for both men and women there are fewer people using soap these days, too. I’ve got shoulder length hair now and about three swipes across my head with a damp shampoo bar is enough to get everything lathered up and squeaky clean. If I’ve got product in my hair or it’s particularly gross I’ll do maybe an extra rub over said grossness.
The pucks last a lot longer than any bottled shampoo I’ve ever gotten and they’re much more portable. I mentioned the air travel advantage already, but I also took these camping with my family and they were great for that too. They take up far less space than a whole shampoo bottle and you don’t have to worry about them bursting and ending up with either all of your shampoo in the plastic baggie you’re carrying toiletries in or all over the rest of your luggage. You’ll need to find a good storage container, soap dishes are good, especially if they have a way to drain excess water away since sitting in water will cause the pucks to not dry all the way and stick to the dish. A puck that’s been sitting in water will also spread more easily so you’ll get more shampoo in your hair per swipe.
If you’ve got a big trip coming up, especially traveling by air or camping, I’d definitely recommend giving solid shampoo a try. And who knows, maybe you’ll like it enough that you end up getting rid of some of those bottles crowding up your shower.
17 replies on “We Try It: Solid Shampoo”
My favorite is seanik, and soak and float once a week helped my dandruff crazy lots (although I’d second the thing about it stripping out hair colour).
I am…intrigued. I wonder how it would work with my hair.
I am a huuuge fan of Godiva, but the solid shampoos in general are awesome. They are also one of the few Lush products that seem to work out to be *wayyyy* more economical than their conventional druggists’ counterparts. Protip: punch a few holes in the underside of the tin with a hot nail or something so it has drainage. Your shampoo puck will last sooooo much longer.
Do you know how this compares to dry shampoo? Dry shampoo doesn’t seem to do much for my hair, and I’m nervous that bar shampoo would be the same.
Dry shampoo is meant to work without washing. Bar shampoo is meant to work like bar soap. You get everything wet and rub it around to make some lather and then rinse. It’s a totally different animal.
Thanks for clarifying that for me. I’m not very smart with hair stuff.
‘S ok. Outside of cleaning products I get kinda dumb about hair stuff too. I have just discovered hot rollers. They are seriously the bee’s knees.
Dry shampoo doesn’t clean, per se, it just make oil+grease less obvious.
Lush solid shampoos are great. Mr. B uses the red one with the cinnamon (I can’t remember the name) and I steal it when I want my hair to get super clean. If I weren’t so in love with Burt’s Bees new line, I would use it all the time.
Oh my god, I love love LOVE Lush solid shampoo’s! Â I’m a big fan of Godiva because it’s so conditioning, as is Trichnomania (which smells like coconuts). Â I also love Squeaky Green and Ultimate Shine. Â They have one for blonde hair as well that’s supposed to gently lighten your hair, or at least bring out the highlights a bit but I didn’t notice any difference. Â It was nice though.
They also have an amazing solid conditioner called Jungle. Â It smells so amazing! Â There’s definitely a learning curve to using it, but it’s awesome and great for travel.
If you’re not sure which kind to get, ask! Â The people that work there are amazingly helpful. Â Ask if you could get a little sample so you can take it home and see how it works on your hair. Â They used to do it all the time before they switched to the bar format so I’m not sure if they’ll hook you up but it never hurts to ask. Â And if you buy something and you don’t like it you can take it back! Â Save your receipt and they’ll give you your money back, or if you can’t find your receipt they’ll exchange it for something else.
Karma Komba and Squeaky Green are in my regular rotation. I bought Ultimate Shine this last time, but I’m going back to KK and SG soon I think. US is not for me.
Elfity – I’ve used Godiva, and Jumping Juniper. My hair is very fine and flat so I used to have to wash it every day to keep it from getting greasy, but with Jumping Juniper I’ve been able to push it a bit further because of how squeaky clean it gets my hair. I still use a light conditioner after to stop fly-aways.
Thanks; I’ll try one of those next! I’m such a Lush junkie, I’ll try any of their products once.
I love Lush’s solid shampoo, it’s always great smelling and does wonders for my hair.
I’ve used Soak and Float quite a bit, and it was fab for hair softness and hydration and de-dandruffing, but it stripped the dye out of my hair in a major way. I now use LUSH henna dye, so I’ll have to try it again, as very little seems to pull that out of my hair. It is fabity for traveling though. I cannot say that enough.
Which one did you try? I’m curious because I want to try it again, but I didn’t have the best experience with it last time. I purchased a green bar from Lush a couple of years ago and found that while it cleaned my hair, it also left my normal hair with dry ends and greasy roots by the day’s end. I also purchased one of their little containers to keep it in, which I don’t recommend doing because the bar kept getting stuck and I kept having to bang it out, resulting in much frustration and a heavily dented container!
We are great lovers of Lush’s solid shampoos. In fact we tend to get, uh, Jumping Juniper, as it happens. Thought it’s around £5 a bar, it seems to last forever. It’s also so lovely knowing there’s less packaging in the world, too. Also: solid shampoo has been fantastic with Juniper Junior, in that one swipe is all that’s needed and we’re not faced with heaps of lather. So very helpful over the years when it comes to hairwashing and little ones. Even Mr. Juniper is a convert!
Seanik is a great favourite, too!