Another happy customer! (Lush Big Natural Shampoo)

Member Name: mu_reviews4u

Product:	Lush Big Natural Shampoo
Date:	15/11/08 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleans very well, Leaves hair shiny and soft.

Disadvantages: A little strong for frequent use, Can strip coloured hair.

After such success with LUSH's conditioners and hair treatments, I decided to try out their shampoos too. As usual the sales assistants were a great help - asking me a few questions about my hair type and the effect I was hoping to achieve. After explaining to them that my hair was dry and coarse due to over processing and that I wanted a tamer, silky smooth finish they recommended me 'Big.'

'Big' is described as a 'sea salt shampoo for shine, softness and volume.' It uses sea salt to cleanse the hair deep down, coconut oils and a seaweed infusion to condition and add shine. Sounds a little strange - and smells it too!
The scent is terrible in the slightest, but it's not exactly nice either. To begin with I was trying to hold my breath whilst applying but fortunately I've gotten used to it :-)
It comes packaged in a large, 100% recycled black tub with a screw top lid. At £9.25 for 330g it's not the cheapest shampoo available but LUSH users are happy to pay for quality over quantity and that's exactly what you get with most of their products.
It has a very thick, coarse texture which feels quite strange to begin with. It's basically large pieces of sea salt in a clear, almost jelly like base. Upon feeling it first, it seems as though it could even scratch your scalp during use but thankfully this isn't the case!

To apply I take a small amount and spread it evenly through my hands, apply to the lengths of my hair then add the remaining amount to my roots / scalp. 'Big' lathers very effectively, creating a nice amount of 'foam' to work with. The salt granules can seem to get stuck in your roots and take some rinsing to ensure that they are all removed. Though the do give the scalp a nice massage in the process!
Once rinsed, my hair felt kind of dry / rubber so a good conditioner was required but once dried I loved the result. My hair felt extremeley clean, all traces of styling products were gone and my hair felt soft. Luckily the scent doesn't linger either :-)

However, after using 'Big' for a few washes it started to dry my hair out a little too much and I was left with unruly, coarse hair that was also prone to static. After drying / straigtening it would simply 'puff out' of it's style instantly - very unmanagable to say the least.
I also noticed that it was stripping the colour out of my dyed hair a little. I asked LUSH about this the next time I was in store and the sales assistant told me that 'Big' doesn't work too well on dyed hair and that I should have probably been told this when I initially purchased it.

Now I only use this a few times a month as a sort of 'clarifying' shampoo to really cleanse my hair deep down. So, although quite expensive to begin with, it has worked out great value for me in the end. Also, as I am now trying to go back to my natural hair colour this is definately speeding up the process!

Overall, a nice shampoo for really cleansing and softening your hair but I would not recommend using it too frequently or for those with already dry hair. And definately not too fans of vibrant, glossy (unnatural) colour!

Summary: Another good LUSH purchase :-)