March Goal: Shampoo bars

One of my goals for this year was to test out shampoo and conditioner bars as an alternative to using bottled shampoo and conditioner. Although I originally planned to do this as my April goal, it got to the first week of March and I found myself running out of shampoo - so I decided to swap my March and April goals around. 

For about a year I've been toying with the idea of giving Ethique products a go. Ethique is a New Zealand brand that promotes ethical, sustainable hair and skincare products. It sells shampoo and conditioner bars as well as bars of face and body wash, and even bars of moisturizer and makeup remover. According to the Ethique website, one shampoo bar (which costs around NZ$22) is equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo. If everyone switched to shampoo bars then we could prevent a lot of plastic waste! The bars come in compostable packaging, and you can buy containers to keep them in for easy storage. There are more reasons to switch to a shampoo bar than just plastic reduction - Ethique shampoo bars are also vegan, cruelty free, and palm oil free.

There are heaps of different types of shampoo bar out there and I didn't want to commit to buying a whole one just yet - I have a sensitive scalp, so not all shampoos work well for me. I decided to try buying a sample pack of 4 mini shampoos and 1 mini conditioner so that I can test out some different products and see what works best for me. I suspect I'll end up liking the kiwifruit one as it is aimed at people with scalp problems, but it'll be good to try several before settling on a favourite.

Of course, Ethique isn't the only company that sells shampoo bars. Lush also sells these and they look pretty amazing! I might have to give the Lush versions a try once I get through my Ethique sampler pack. Once I have tried a few solid shampoos I will definitely write up a review of what I think.