In December I looked into how to make more ethical choices with the shampoos and conditioners I bought. You can catch up on all the ethical questions I considered here.
I’ve now nearly two months into this particular ‘ethical change’ so I thought it would be good to do a little bonus update because I’ve always wanted this blog to be honest about the challenges of attempting to be ethical.
I started out using Body Shop (my reasons are here). While the products were great, and I’m sure would be perfect for a lot of people, I found that I was increasing frustrated with how my hair was feeling. My hair is thick and curly and it felt like the shampoo wasn’t really cutting it. My hair is the one thing I wear everyday so I was determined for it not to be a source of annoyance plus surely ‘settling’ for a product just because it was ethical was never what this blog was about?
I decided to take a trip to Lush to see what they had to offer. I came away totally converted! Lush should really be offering training on their secrets of customer service because they excel at it. The staff were SO friendly, really helpful (and not in a pushy way) and above all refreshingly honest about their personal opinion on products. I was directed to Daisy because she has similar challenges with thick curly hair. She gave me her tips on what worked for her and walked me through the ethics of Lush (I’d explained about this blog).
I walked away with;
– a bar of shampoo – using a solid bar has been really interesting but quite fun! Does include SLS which is another ethical minefield but Lush explains why they use it really well here.
– a ’Big Solid Conditioner’ – strange to use after getting so used to the silkiness of liquid conditioners.
– Jungle conditioner bar – smells AMAZING!
– R&B hair moisturiser – used after washing as an extra treatment.
I probably spent more than I normally would in one go however I’m hoping these will last me a while, the shampoo bar claims to do 80 washes which is the equivalent of 3 bottles of shampoo. The result – well my hair is feeling lighter and cleaner. The combo of Jungle and R&B means is feels a little more tamed without relying extra styling products. I know my hair will never be described as ‘under control’ but this is definitely helping!
All of this has taught me to persevere and look for the right product rather than sticking with something just because it’s ethical.