Saucy (Original Source Haircare Products in general)

Member Name: Diaz

Product:	Original Source Haircare Products in general
Date:	19/10/01 (272 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See op

Disadvantages: See op

In my never-ending quest to become grooming guru I present… Original source mint and tea tree shampoo.

Original source make a whole range of grooming products, from shampoos to shaving gels, but the one thing they have in common is the fact they all contain essential oils. Originally I thought it was an excuse to get a pun in, Mint Source, Orange Source etc. op writers would be cursing them for pinching their titular puns, but they have advanced since then and diversified the range of oils to lime, tea tree and a whole lot more.

There is more to this company than mere product punnery though they have an ethos, its always nice to have an ethos, unfortunately theirs is based around a bush hero with balls and were not talking Skippy here. I refer to the one, the only Ellen Wakeman…. Who??

Well this is the part of the op where I ramble on about the fallen lady that was Ellen Wakeman, I looked her up before I wrote this op to do a bit of additional research and to be honest there were no other entries other than the company line so I expect the Original Source version may well be the original source of the story. Nonetheless the back of the shampoo bottle makes for a diverting read when you’re killing time avoiding the moment you know you have to get out of the bath and start moving again.

Ellen Wakeman was an Australian missionaries' daughter whose exploits caused a ruckus in Australia’s polite society last century, I didn’t know there was such a thing as polite society in Australia during the last century so I’ll take their word on that. She even earned a mention in a bushmen's song as 'A Sheila with more balls than the blokes,' when she joined the Gold Rush in 1857.

She earned her living in barber’s shop pulling teeth and shaving whiskers but in the mean time she explored the herbal properties of the Outback plants. Her reputation grew for two reasons, her her
balism skills and the fact she took payment “in kind” for her cures, obviously a popular girl…

Not one to steer clear of scandal she married several times to increasingly wealthy suitors even some (quite possibly most) of which were bigamous. It is therefore not surprising that when her parents arrived to take her back to the UK she agreed, a window of opportunity not to be missed. It was on this cruise that her diaries and her herbal recipes were completed and it was also on this cruise that she met her untimely death at 29.
So now you know…

Another part of the company ethos, which I suppose goes hand in hand with their natural herby roots is that fact that none of their products are tested on animals. This of course means that all the ingredients have previously been tested on animals by another company back in the mists of time and Original Source have got the safety data without getting their hands dirty. Am I being cynical?

What can you expect from the shampoo then?
Well its green, probably because it’s meant to be minty, green and mint go hand in hand, everyone knows that!! Since it’s minty it smells very strongly of mint but it also has an undercurrent which I suppose you could describe as herbal, or maybe musty, this is Tea Tree, its’ not unpleasant but it might not be to everybody’s taste. Now the addition of the essential oils is what really packs the punch in this stuff, the mint in particular is quite literally sensational. If you haven’t tried it before imagine the fresh tingle that brushing your teeth produces in your mouth, that nice clean fresh almost icy buzz all around your gums. Got the feeling in your mind?? Now transfer that feeling to your head and imagine that cool tingly freshness washing all over your scalp. Nice…

Of course the addition of essential oils can be problem for some people particularly those with sensitive skin, but
I have skin like a rhino so I’m OK. The essential oils have other properties besides making your head tingle.

Tea Tree (melaleuca alternifolia) oil has natural antiseptic qualities. The Tea tree was named by my favourite explorer captain cook in 1770; he brewed leaves as a tea for his men to prevent scurvy. Clinical trials in 1923 proved its efficacy and it became standard issue for Aussie soldiers in WWII. Nowadays it can be found in most Australian households (if the Tea Tree oil producers are to be believed) as an antiseptic and anti-fungal. Tea tree oil is found within the cells of the leaf and so as a natural resource it is easily renewable, the fact that the Tea tree is a voracious grower only adds to its usefulness.

Other uses for the tea tree are as a natural detergent, a booster for the immune system, an anti inflammatory on cuts burns and bruises, muscle strains and an inhalation for sore throats. Also interestingly enough it can be used to kill lice and house dust mites a 1% solution in the washing will knock them off your bed sheets, this is a definite boon to asthma sufferers. This is only a fraction of the uses for more read NATURE'S CLINIC: Using Tea Tree Oil (Marshall Cavendish, Vol. 51 1995 p.65)

Now peppermint (Mentha piperita), the other additive in the shampoo has its own properties, some similar to Tea tree. After popping it on your head for long enough it becomes pretty apparent that it is a stimulant, but it is also used as a tonic, an anti-spasmodic, a stomachic, an antiviral, an anti-fungal, an antibacterial and a choleretic. The upshot of this is it’s good for stimulation, for your digestive system and for headaches.

Bear in mind though like any essential oil is must be diluted in the appropriate carrier oils, or maybe mixed in with a shampoo…

Lesson over…

The shampoo itself other than being stimulating, which is ideal for me in the morning, weR
17;re talking caveman territory here, gives a nice clean hair probably pretty sterile too I’d expect with all those anti-bacterials floating around in it, but it doesn’t feel like a medicated shampoo. Bad experiences of Vosene in my childhood…

It leaves the hair feeling clean and shiny, at least I think it does, to be honest my hair is pretty short so I couldn’t really comment on things like body, I have heard reports of static in the orange varieties but that would be something for the longhaired types amongst you to try out for yourself. Which brings me neatly onto freebies. Not only do Original Source make all this nice smelling stuff, they give it away too. You can go to www.originalsource.co.uk and get the shower gels for free, they do pretty much the same as the shampoos but you can smear them all over your body and get tingles where the sun doesn’t shine without feeling guilty about being a bit pervy. After all it’s shower gel!!

If you decide you really ought to pay for the stuff or you simply can’t wait (I must be whipping someone up into a frenzy by now, surely!!) then you can buy it from Boots, Superdrug, Tesco, Sainsbury, Safeway, Co-op, Asda, Waitrose, Bentalls Group, Selfridges, Morrisons, Shoprite and Somerfield £2.99 for a 300ml bottle or online at www.originalsource.co.uk.

All in all it’s pretty fine product and I’d recommend it to anyone, just bear in mind the stimulating effects it can have…

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