Shampoo Bars are having a moment. There are brands that have been available for over 10 years and other options are popping up everywhere. But did you know that a shampoo bar is a concentrated product? You might not be using it properly.
The physical bar form is familiar so most people treat a shampoo bar like a bar of soap. There are many differences between them, but we're going to focus on one: detergency.
Detergency is an indicator of how powerful the product is. For comparison: an "Everyday Shampoo" has a detergency of 7-10%, a "Regular Shampoo" has a detergency of 10-15%, and a "Clarifying Shampoo" has a detergency of 13-17%. The detergency of these types of liquid shampoos will reflect how often you wash your hair, how much product you use in your hair, or how oily your hair is. A shampoo bar has a detergency of 50-80%. The Apothecuryous Nomad Shampoo Bar has a detergency of 61% for example.
Detergency is achieved with a blend of surfactants, but liquid shampoo is mostly water. It is harder to over-wash your hair with a liquid shampoo, generally speaking. If you're not sure what it means to over-wash your hair, imagine your hair with numerous fly-aways, kind of floating away from your head. That hair has been over-stripped of its beneficial oils. Just to be clear, liquid shampoo allows for a wider variety of ingredients to be included in the formula, and thus imparts different qualities to the hair and scalp.
The appropriate way to use a shampoo bar is to either: generate a filmy lather by rubbing the bar between your hands and applying it to hair, or apply the bar directly to hair and run the bar along the length of it. In order to avoid over-washing your hair, the single most important part is to remember that it's a concentrate. It might not generate foam or large bubbles. Remember : More is NOT Better. Be sure to allow the bar to dry between uses.
Apothecuryous is thrilled to now offer the Nomad Conditioner Bar which pairs perfectly with the Nomad Shampoo Bar! The conditioner is applied similarly as a shampoo bar. Personally I apply the conditioner bar more liberally and leave on longer than the shampoo bar.
Find these and other natural hair care products, formulated to the highest standards, at apothecuryous.com
