Have you ever had to decide between maintaining your hair using products you love, and caring for the environment? Is a question a lot of brands are asking right now and one who definitely are making a lot of waves to change things is L'Occitane with their introduction of Solid Shampoo Bars.
Within the L'Occitane Solid Shampoo hair care range are three different options to choose from - Intensive Repair, Gentle & Balance or Purifying Freshness and each one of these is designed to suit specific hair types.
At L’OCCITANE, we have decided you shouldn’t have to choose, by giving you great sustainable beauty products that contain effective plant derived ingredients; cultivated with care for the environment and encapsulated in one sustainable and sensorial hair range. Discover the expertise of L’OCCITANE 5 Essential Oils Hair Collection in a new, solid, sustainable format.
These Solid Shampoos have not only been created with your hair and the planet in mind, the shampoo bars are made with 98% readily biodegradable ingredients, they are entirely plastic-free and their packaging is made from 100% recycled and recyclable paper making it the perfect sustainable option. Shampoo bars are not a new creation, they have been around for many years but over time, whilst some haven't offered many benefits at all for my hair, these offerings from L'Occitane are absolutely brilliant, not that you would expect anything less and not only do they lather with minimal fuss and faff, they leave my hair feeling refreshed, washed and not at all weighted down or like straw.
I was kindly sent two of the three Solid Shampoo Bars to try and the first thing I noticed was the incredible fresh scent which belonged to the Gentle & Balance Bar as I opened the box.
This Shampoo Bar is said to be suitable for all hair types and from this one bar you get around 20 hair washes. Free from silicones and sulphates, this shampoo bar is formulated with a prebiotic natural sugar complex which means it not only respects and maintains scalp eco system and pH, but it does all of that whilst strengthening skin natural defences.
This Gentle & Balance Shampoo Bar is enriched with the essential oils of Lemon, Orange, Rosemary, Chamomile and Lavender and as I have said already, it smells absolutely incredible, the kind of scent that is relaxing and calming, but its for your hair and not your skin, though I am tempted to use it on my body every time I shower. As it comes into contact with water its light, fluid texture offers a unique sensorial experience, while the exquisite fragrance awakens the senses, it lathers in just a few rubs between your palms and then you rub that lather directly to your hair and scalp, massage it around, L'Occitane advise that you should start from the bottom of your scalp and moving upwards to your temples with small circular motions and then finish at the top of your scalp before rinsing from your hair.
The second shampoo bar is the Intensive Repair Shampoo bar and this one is designed for brittle and damaged hair, so if like me you haven't seen the inside of a hair salon since January 2020, this might just be calling your name.
Again, packaged sustainably, the Intensive Repair Solid Shampoo is perfect for hair that is feeling dry, brittle and a bit damaged, be that from chemicals if you have been over-doing those home box dye kits or from heat styling. It has been designed to help to revitalise, strengthen and protect the hair from root to tip, the hair fibre is strengthened. Soft and radiant, the hair is full of life.
Again, this shampoo bar is really gentle and also has a silicone and sulphate free formula. The ingredients used for this option is a combination of oat amino acid whose job it is to repair, restructure and improve the hairs fibre condition and then we have a patented anti-breakage complex made up of five essential oils - angelica, ylang-ylang, sweet orange, lavender of course and then geranium with provitamin B5 and sunflower oil and together they work to protect and give softness and suppleness to the hair.
The scent for me with this shampoo bar isn't as strong as it is with Gentle & Balance, but there is definitely a light aromatic scent which lingers. Again, this shampoo bar should be used in exactly the same way and as soon as you form that lather and apply it to your hair and scalp and massage until you feel ready to rinse all of the suds from your hair. After using, again my hair feels really clean and rather than dry and frazzled, it soft soft and smooth.
These shampoo bars from L'Occitane are priced at just £10 and they are available right now on the brands website along with the rest of the collection. I am a huge fan of the hair care range from L'Occitane, particularly with the Almond Collection which gives my hair a whole lot of TLC when I need it. With these shampoo bars, which we have both been using for a few months, you really do get your monies worth.