There are a few reasons why you should stop buying shampoo in a bottle but personally, my biggest reason is to eliminate plastic from a necessary purchase. Shampoo is something that I will always have to buy, but I hate the unrecyclable plastic bottles that shampoo and conditioner come in.
That’s why I decided to start using plastic-free shampoo and conditioner bars.
When I made the switch, I learned a few things about zero-waste shampoo bars that changed my perspective on hair care as a whole. So if you’re wondering what you should know when using shampoo bars, this post is for you!
This post contains affiliate links which means I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you should you click through and make a purchase.
Here’s a list of bar shampoo and conditioner tips you should know.
I’ll be talking a lot about Unwrapped Life’s shampoo bars since they have the best shampoo bars I’ve tried so far. This isn’t a sponsored post – I just love this company!
1. It takes about a week for hair to adjust to shampoo bars
First and foremost, something I noticed after making the switch to shampoo bars is that your hair needs time to adjust to the new shampoo. So if you’re brand new to shampoo bars, don’t dismiss them in the first week.
It takes about a week for your hair to fully adjust to the new shampoo, and in that timeframe, your hair may appear greasy. Stick with it. It’s not forever. It will pass.
I went through it when I tried Unwrapped Life’s shampoo bar for the first time, and I experienced it again when switching to a Lush shampoo bar after.
2. SLS-free shampoo bars is a must (I think)
Unwrapped Life’s hair bars are SLS-free, and because of that, I’m almost certain that this is the reason that I didn’t have to wash my hair as often as before and why my hair seemed so clean and healthy.
I went from washing my hair every 2 days minimum with liquid shampoo, to every 3 days, sometimes even 4, with Unwrapped Life’s bars.
When I switched to the Lush bar afterwards, my hair wasn’t getting cleaned nearly as well. I waited a couple of weeks for the transition period for things to change, but they didn’t. The washing of my hair every 3 days went back to 2, and 2 was borderline. It was as if I switched back to liquid shampoo.
One day, I was researching why I was losing so much hair in the shower, (because it seemed worse than normal,) and came across an article by Tree Hugger that mentioned it could be my shampoo.
The article mentioned that SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) may cause hair loss, and when I checked the ingredients on the Lush bar I was using, it contained SLS whereas Unwrapped Life uses a gentler surfactant called SCS (sodium coco sulfate).
Talk about a little epiphany.
This led me to really dive deep and look into sodium lauryl sulfate. Basically, SLS is used in cleaning products and it’s what makes soap foam and lather in order to help wash away dirt, but they may be too effective and instead strip away your hair’s natural oils.
So now, I will only be using SLS-free shampoo, and I’m currently reviewing another shampoo bar that is SLS-free so I will share my results here when I find out!
Honestly, I could be completely wrong about the SLS and SCS and it could be another ingredient in Unwrapped Life’s bars that made them so amazing, but for now, this is my assumption.
3. A little bar goes a long way
Another tip I learned using shampoo bars and is something I feel everyone should know is that a little soap goes a long way.
You know when you’re washing your hair and it gets all sudsy and you consider that a good thing? Not really.
If your hair has a lot of suds when lathering, it’s probably just the SLS.
What I noticed is that having a lot of suds when lathering your hair with SLS-free shampoo actually means you have too much soap.
I tested this by washing my hair with less soap, less suds than I typically do. My hair was just as clean as any other day when I washed my hair.
After that realization, I started using less shampoo when I washed my hair, and every time my hair was never greasy.
I tried this with Lush’s shampoo bar that had SLS and did not have the same results.
4. Hair bars are actually less expensive
The upfront cost of shampoo bars is generally more expensive than liquid shampoo, but the bars last a lot longer. Unwrapped Life states that the bars provide around 50-75 washes with proper care and storage, which replaces two to three 16oz bottles of traditional liquid shampoo.
I actually calculated this after I finished up my shampoo bar to see if their estimation was accurate and I definitely got at least 75 washes from it.
If I multiply 75 by 3 (the number of days I went before washing my hair) it equals 225 (days). Divide that by 30 to get the number of months, and that equals 7.5 (months), which is pretty spot on to how long my bar lasted me.
It’s also worth noting that conditioner bars last even longer. In my experience, conditioner bars can last about two shampoo bars, which is pretty incredible!
5. Lather the shampoo bar in hands
There are two different ways to use a shampoo bar. You can rub the bar directly on your head or you can rub the bar in your hands and then apply the soap to your hair.
Since a little goes a long way, I prefer rubbing the shampoo bar in my hand rather than rubbing it directly on my hair.
By rubbing the shampoo bar in my hand, I’m better able to judge the amount of shampoo I’m applying to my hair. The way I use the shampoo bar is by rubbing it in my hand and then into my hair four times, in different sections of my scalp.
I also do the same thing with the conditioner bar but I don’t put any on my scalp.
6. Rinsing hair properly is essential
Like any soap, you want to make sure that you rinsed all of the product out of your hair or else your hair will be greasy with soap residue.
I truly learned this when I somehow forgot to rinse the conditioner out of my hair.
This is an important bar shampoo troubleshooting step.
Now, I always shampoo and conditioner my hair at the beginning of my shower so that after I give my hair a brief rinse, I continue to passively rinse my hair as I do the rest of my shower routine.
7. Storage is important
Another important tip for bar shampoo and conditioner, and one of the reasons that I’m sure allowed my shampoo bar to last almost 8 months is ensuring proper storage.
Shampoo and conditioner bars need to dry between uses.
Since I live with roommates, there’s a lot of showers getting taken and therefore I didn’t want to leave my bars exposed to the constant moisture.
So what I did to ensure the bars didn’t get wet is I stored them in soap bar dishes under the sink, and every time I showered, I would take them out from under the sink, and return them when done.
In the beginning, I forgot to take them out a couple of times prior to getting in the shower but it soon became an easy habit.
Find out what type of storage works best for you, but just ensure that it can stay dry.
8. Shampoo bars are an easy zero-waste swap
Lastly, when switching to shampoo and conditioner bars, I learned that it was one of the easiest zero-waste swaps I’ve ever made.
I realized that it was possible to get a natural haircare option that had no plastic packaging, and that was also a better option money-wise.
Final thoughts on switching to shampoo and conditioner bars
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge advocate for Unwrapped Life so I highly recommend their shampoo and conditioner bars. They’ve also got some bars specifically for kids!
Unwrapped Life also ships their products completely plastic-free. My order came shipped in a tiny cardboard box with paper tape, and the bars themselves were simply wrapped in brown paper. Absolutely no plastic.
I’d recommend saving or bookmarking this post just in case you find yourself having some issues with your shampoo bar and need to do some troubleshooting. Just come back to this post to see if there’s anything you can change!
If you want more ideas to help cut back on plastic, check out my post with easy ways to use less plastic at home.
