Lush Cosmetics Jumping Juniper Shampoo Bar

One of the most significant changes I saw when I was making the switch to more natural body care products was when I changed up my hair care regime.

As I said in my last few personal posts, I often found most mainstream shampoos to be very reactive, causing reactions like burning, itching, dandruff and even spots.

I'd been using Head & Shoulders for the longest time, as it was the shampoo that I'd have what I thought was the mildest reaction to.  

Even then, I was getting to the point that no matter how frequent or thorough I washed my hair, it was super greasy and lank.  I couldn't use conditioner or oils as they only made my hair look worse!

So I went into Lush in Liverpool and a lovely guy called James helped me out.

For greasy hair, he recommended the liquid shampoo called I Love Juicy, but I'm not so keen on fruity scents so I chose the solid shampoo bar Jumping Juniper.

Jumping Juniper contains juniperberry, lemon, rosemary and lavender.  I was sad I couldn't get a scent that wasn't so citrusy, as I feel like most grease targeted products are citrus and I'm not really a fan, but as I was so desperate for non lank hair I figured I'd at least give it a go.

 

The shampoo bar was actually too big to fit into the circle tin I'd bought for it!

The circle tin is also impossible to open once your hands are wet!  So I had to take it into the shower with the lid just resting on top of it so it wouldn't get covered in water.

To use, you wet your hair and then rub the bar onto your head.  Afterwards, just leave the lid off the tin to let the bar air dry.

It took about a week and a half of use, but finally by lank hair was gone and feeling a lot more balanced.  Irritation down my back completely went away too; it no longer felt itchy or had sore spots.

One thing I didn't like about this bar was the smell of it when it's dry :/

But when it's lathered up again it still smells as it should.

That aside, it did what it's supposed to do, to the point where my hair felt as if it needed a conditioner too.

I'll continue to use this one up, though I won't be repurchasing as there are plenty more shampoo bars to try.

Though if you're at your wits with greasy locks then maybe you should give it a go too :)

EDIT: So I'm getting to the point where my shampoo bar has begun to break up into smaller pieces as I use it up.  I had washed my hair with a small chunk of it and thought that it had all foamed up and gone.  At the end of a long day I realised that the small chunk had been stuck behind my ear!  The skin behind my ear was very irritaed, why is this?

Lush shampoo bars contain sodium lauryl sulfate, a surfectant used as an alternative to soap.  Although the shampoo bars can contain very high concentrations of SLS, the risk of irritaion remians low as only the foam is applied to the hair and scalp.  After rinsing, little if any SLS will stay on the skin.  So my ears might have had a little freak out because I had a chunk of SLS heavy product stuck to it all day!

If you want to find out more about shampoo bars I highly suggest that you visit the Lush website or pick up the current Lush Times which has an infromative article on their use of SLS.

- Kerry