Nobody wants to try shampoo bars unless they're free...

[Gaisy59]

Hey my hair is curly and colored and i can tell you i love my shampoo bars. I haven’t formulated a conditioner yet but i just noticed recently that if i don’t use conditioner I don’t have the frizzies and my scalp doesn’t itch anymore. It’s great!

As for hairdressers…i see TaniaJane here in Winnipeg who was specifically trained to cut curly hair by a master stylist in Vancouver so yes curly hair is a different animal and needs a trained stylist. I love my cut since i started seeing her.

 

[Arimara]

I don’t have super kinky Afro hair, but I have been told by more than one Black woman, “You have Black people hair!”

Needless to say, my hair is very dry, thick, curly, and frizzy. Having just spent the last ten days in a very humid area, it’s also HUGE.

Anyway, my handcrafted syndet shampoo bars and conditioner bars work great for my hair - it is noticeably softer and more manageable. I did specifically formulate for dry hair when I made them.

@kittyclark53 I have family members who love them, and they get my stuff for free or cost. But so far, I haven’t had any friends willing to try them, let alone pay the retail price for them. As others have noted, changing shampoos can be so scary for people. Hopefully when they see how good your hair looks, they will take a chance!

Afros come in all textures and you don't necessarily have to be black to have one, natural or not. My main concern is moisture rentention, aside from how well a shampoo cleans my hair. My hair needs the most but it likes to hate a lot of product too.

Show them these pics….she pays $150 for a haircut!!! (She’s nuts) She uses them when she has color as well.View attachment 67075 She uses my shampoo bars regularly!!! Those are all natural curlsView attachment 67074

$150 sounds about right for that type of hair when outside NYC. It's actually worth it too if the the stylist cut curly types of hair right. I've seen some curly hair pics...

 

[Rsapienza]

$150 sounds about right for that type of hair when outside NYC. It's actually worth it too if the the stylist cut curly types of hair right. I've seen some curly hair pics...

That’s what she (my daughter) says. She says, “The struggle is real Mom. Be thankful you don’t know”. LOL

 

[daisychain]

9) How do you store the bar between washes?

I see this one a lot on forums, like it's some great mystery how you leave a soap-like bar to drain. I've seen people share the strangest suggestions for this. It makes me wonder... am I really that old? Is a soap dish now some antique device?

3) It will ruin my coloured hair

I know many people aren't really swayed by logic, especially when they have entrenched ideas, and kind of hate if you throw a whole lot of scientific references at them (which I don't understand ). So I don't know if you can really convince them with facts. But there's a lot of misunderstanding about what 'protects' hair colour. A lot of claims are just marketing and many 'colour protecting' shampoos really aren't anything special (I know consumers would hate to hear that though).

Colour protection is not even about pH or how gentle the surfactants are, as some DIY sources claim (the latter can matter a bit but not as much as believed). The number one thing that strips hair colour is... water! So it's hard to avoid losing the colour. A few ingredients protect the colour, like dimethicone and cationic polymers. There's also a study showing Coco Glucoside or Cocamdipropyl Betaine can reduce colour fade, especially the latter, and especially if combined with dimethicone or a cationic polymer. If you use any of those ingredients, you can tell people you have colour protectants in your bars.

1) My hair is long and thick ( and I guess there's an implication that it won't do the job?)

I have long, thick hair and was skeptical about using shampoo bars. I can't use, for example, thin shampoos that come in foaming bottles because they don't spread through my hair effectively. I thought the lather from a shampoo bar might be like that. But when I made my first shampoo bar, I was surprised how much I liked it. I don't use them for every wash but I do like them for a gentler wash between more clarifying washes.

One tip I'll offer is I've found adding a gum helps make the lather more viscous and easier to distribute through my thick hair. I especially like cationic guar for this, because you get both conditioning and lather thickening.

 

[Juggsy]

@KiwiMoose long time no see my fault.
are you interested in selling the foaming apple surfactant? I'll buy it from you!! I couldn't imagine post being outrageous between NZ + QLD as I send things to Hawke's Bay regularly.


also in reference to coloured shampoos. i formulate both blue and purple bars and my clients that use them love them.


But, I do think they are a hard sell but for different reasons. I find it hard to compete because there are so many.
and so so many bad ones.
I tried someone close to me's bar before I was formulating and it turned me off. big time.

Now, I know it was solely her bars.

but what I do is include an information sheet with common questions. basically similar style to what your post was.

"I have blonde hair and use..." and then the answer etc.

Plus, I have science to back me up. but, I sell more liquid shampoo then shampoo bars.

I find it good if you can get a mum hooked. I know that sounds bad. but, I always talk about my youngest and them going through a litre of shampoo and how when we switched the wastage stopped. But, I find mums are more willing to test on their children and husbands/wives then themselves. But when they do and they like the results they will try themselves.

And their hair is amazing. We recently were at hairdresser and she was surprised with how healthy Amélie's hair was because it's bleached to hell and back. She said we must use a good shampoo and conditioner. I took a sample the next day up to her. But A only uses shampoo and conditioner bars and does use a de-tangling/leave in conditioner a couple of times a week.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hi @Juggsy ! I'm holding onto my foaming apple come hell or high water - I imported it from the USA and it cost a ton! LOL. I will eventually work my way through it.

I recently ordered some items from Aussie Soap supples and it still cost $65 (AU) for postage. I use Varisoft EQ65 in my shampoo bars also, and the sole supplier of that in NZ has stopped selling it, so i had to go further afield.

I like your idea of information leaflets - maybe I'll do that.

 

[Juggsy]

Hi @Juggsy ! I'm holding onto my foaming apple come hell or high water - I imported it from the USA and it cost a ton! LOL. I will eventually work my way through it.

I recently ordered some items from Aussie Soap supples and it still cost $65 (AU) for postage. I use Varisoft EQ65 in my shampoo bars also, and the sole supplier of that in NZ has stopped selling it, so i had to go further afield.

I like your idea of information leaflets - maybe I'll do that.

varisoft eq65 is a favourite. they've only stocked it for last couple of years. I first had to get from USA and it cost a fortune to send. I was happy when ASS started selling it.

haha re: not selling, I wouldn't either - makes lovely face wash though. I have been using it in a sensitive face wash. I do like the foaming proteins and amino acids. They are great for sensitive skin.

unfortunate that I have to buy foaming proteins from USA or Canada. it costs so much. I would love to get an Aussie collective going. some things we just can't get here and some things are things I feel I can't live without like Buah Merah oil.