Many of us have used liquid shampoo packed in plastic bottles throughout our lives and the mere notion that a shampoo can exist in a solid state can sound ridiculous or generate perplexity. How so? Solid?!? Yes, it’s true, they exist!
Looking back, the liquid shampoo industry is relatively recent, since bottled shampoo was only invented at the end of the 20th century; before that people used… soap (which yes, it is solid!) to wash their hair.
In recent decades, and particularly in recent years, the popularity of solid shampoo has resurfaced, and we can certainly say that today it is no longer simply a fashion, but a phenomenon inspired by various concerns, be it for the health reasons, sustainability, or even motivated by financial reasons.
So let’s take a look at our top 10 reasons to prefer solid shampoo over its liquid counterpart!
Have you ever spent a good deal of time squeezing that shampoo bottle to see if you can get one last drop of liquid out of it that you can wash your hair with, and then you realize that the package barely lasts a month, or at best, a couple of months? They disappear in a blink of the eye, don’t they?
Well, shampoo bars differs from its liquid counterpart in one very important respect – durability! A shampoo bar can last up to 3x longer than a conventional-sized bottle of liquid shampoo!
And for a very simple reason: it is a much more concentrated formula than a conventional shampoo bottle, the latter being greatly diluted in water. Try reading the label of any liquid shampoo and see what is the first ingredient that appears on the list. It’s water! And that explains why we have to squeeze so much shampoo out of bottles to get a proper wash.
With shampoo bars you’ll never have the problem of using too much shampoo, because with one or two swipes you get the effect you want – lots of foam!!
This means you only need to use a tiny amount of the shampoo bar in each wash (passing it over the wet hair a couples of times is enough) and it tends to last a lot longer than its liquid counterpart as long as, of course, we keep it in a dry place (it’s all about maintenance and taking care of our shampoo bar!).
Speaking of water, this leads us to our second good reason for using a shampoo bar!
The second reason is basically a consequence of the first. If the solid shampoo is more concentrated and lasts up to 3x longer than a liquid, that means you save money every time you purchase a shampoo bar! But let’s see why!
A typical shampoo bottle on the market has about 70 to 80% water in its composition, and some even more, to which the companies add detergent and some additives, essences or perfumes. This means that many of us are paying high prices for a bottle full of water and only a small quantity of other ingredients!
On the other hand, as solid shampoo has a very residual amount of water and it produces washing lather quite easily, it can provide you with 60 to 80 washes in total. If you wash your hair every day, it can last on average 2-3 months, and if you wash less frequently, it will last much longer!
And do you recall how you have to squeeze the shampoo bottle to get something out of it, and end up with too much on your hand or hair? Well, with a shampoo bar the risk of using too much and wasting is much lower, because you can easily control the amount you use.
Although the cost of a shampoo bar appears, at first glance, to be higher than usual, the reason why it’s actually a good deal is because it will last you longer! It will definitely save you some cash and trips to the shop!
This is our 3rd reason, but is one of the most important! Given the threat that disposable plastic poses to the environment, and especially to the preservation of oceans and marine life, the shampoo bar is one of those clever solutions that you can adopt into your everyday life, without much difficulty, and with high impact on the long run!
The shampoo bar obviously does not require the traditional plastic packaging, as it is a concentrated shampoo, and can perfectly be packed in paper or cardboard, which is easily recyclable, or can even be sold in bulk. In the case of VeganCare’s shampoos, they are all packed in recycled paper boxes.
You place your hand in your gym or travel bag, and feel that it’s strangely wet, and then you suddenly realize, with panic, that probably the damn shampoo bottle wasn’t properly closed and that it spilled some shampoo on your clothes and belongings. Is that experience familiar to you?
Or even worse, perhaps, being held at the airport’s security area, because the shampoo bottle is too large and you’re not allowed to take it with you, and you didn’t realize this immediately, because of confusing restrictions on the transportation of liquids, and which quantities are allowed, which always varies from place to place.
If any of these experiences are familiar to you, then it will be easier for you to understand the limitations of a liquid shampoo, and how it can become an object of frustration during our travels, whether to the gym or on holidays.
Fortunately, shampoo bars are exactly the perfect alternative for travelling. With its compact size and concentrated formula, this elegant bar can be taken with you anywhere in a box. And we also have the ideal solution to carry them, our CorkieBox!
If you think the shampoo bar is too big, you can even cut it into several pieces and carry with you just what you need!
What’s more, you have the bonus of being able to avoid those small plastic bottles of shampoo or soap they offer you in hotels, at great cost to the environment.
If you’ve used liquid shampoo before, you know the frustration of wanting to squeeze that last bit of liquid inside the bottle, or having to dilute it in water to enjoy every last drop! Sometimes you even end up wasting a lot of shampoo without realizing it! Instead of wasting hours trying to figure out how you’re going to enjoy these leftover shampoos with a Houdini technique, you have another solution!
The solid shampoo solves that problem, because you can use every last tiny bit of it, and even when it becomes difficult to pick it up, because it’s already very small and slippery, you can simply glue it to a new shampoo, and fuse it into one, without any waste!
Although solid shampoos are formulated for hair care, with a pH that is adequate to the scalp, they are also a versatile solution, and in situations where you only have a solid shampoo with you, such as when you’re on a trip, you can easily use it as soap for your body and face too, because it makes a lot of lather, washes effectively, does not dry out your skin, and has no harmful effect on it. It’s a super versatile and convenient shampoo bar!
Speaking of travelling, you also don’t even have to worry about carrying so many cosmetics in your bag for a short trip, you can simply rely on your solid shampoo bar!
Sometimes the zipper of your cosmetics or travel bag gets stuck and you can’t even close it without making a superhuman effort, because of all those irregularly shaped liquid bottles that simply take up too much space in your bags!
But thanks to the ergonomic and geometric shape of the shampoo bars, that is no longer a problem! You can take your concentrated shampoo anywhere, it fits perfectly in a little box and in your bag, and without taking up too much space!
Besides, if you’re into minimalism, your bathroom will look much neater and clean when you take all those bottles out, and choose to have a small solid shampoo bar instead.
If you were afraid that a solid shampoo might run behind in the foam department, you don’t have to worry! Thanks to a perfect combination of surfactants and organic oils and butters, a shampoo bar can make a sublime amount of soft foam. You’ll never find yourself wishing that your shampoo made more lather, and you’ll look forward to that moment of your day when you wash your hair. It’s a wonderful experience!
It’s true! One of the advantages of a Shampoo Bar is a consequence of the fact that it’s a concentrated shampoo formula, in other words, it contains no water! Yes, water, what you pay for in a highly diluted shampoo bottle.
Because solid shampoo contains virtually no water, we do not need to add any preservatives to your shampoo, so we avoid incorporating more unnecessary synthetic products into the formula.
On the other hand, the fact that the shampoo is solid allows us to more easily combine organic butter and oils in the formula, which help to nourish, moisturise and take care of your scalp and hair.
This is not an exclusive advantage of solid shampoos, but we must mention that all our elegant shampoo bars are 100% cruelty-free, that is, they have never been and will never be tested on animals, and they are also vegan, in other words, they do not contain any animal ingredients whatsoever! And this is something we are proud of!
