Don't believe the hype! (Lush Blonde Solid Shampoo)

Member Name: Delicate_Orchid1

Product:	Lush Blonde Solid Shampoo
Date:	28/04/06 (1928 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: does not lighten hair, tangles hair, dries hair out

Disadvantages: gorgeous smell

There are some people in this world who can simply not fault a Lush product. No matter what Lush comes up with, they will endorse it and support it until the end of time. Whether it is the lovely smell of most Lush products - that I don't know. Whether it is the idea of natural ingredients in beauty products - that I don't know either. All I know is that I cannot support that blanket endorsement, because some products, even though they are worldwide bestsellers, are simply not up to scratch.


***The Blonde***

One of Lush's best-sellers is "The Blonde" bar. For a long time I kept tip-toeing around this solid shampoo bar, wondering what it would be like to use. The miracles users described. Baby-soft hair. Naturally-lighted hair. A divine smell. Well, only one of those claims really holds true for me.

"The Blonde" is of a bright yellow colour, which contains bits of straw and lemon peel. The main ingredients, chamomile, lemon and marigolds, are intended to lighten up your hair and make it silky smooth, take away the straw-like feeling of your hair. If you think the bar looks slightly odd, any doubts you may have are throw out the window once you have a sniff of its lovely citrus smell. The main notes are certainly orange, tangerine and lemon, but you can also detect a whiff of sunflower, gardenia and sand, which gives the bar a distinct summer feeling to it.

When I bought my shampoo bar, which was approximately 150g heavy, the salesperson (who herself had lovely blonde hair) told me that the shampoo bar did wonders for her hair, naturally lightening it. She also told me that the shampoo bar would last at least 2 months. At a price of £3.25 for 100g, this seemed to be indeed a little bargain.


***My experience***

I took my little shampoo bar home and could simply not wait to use it. The salesperson had told me that I could use the bar two ways - either by running the shampoo bar through my hair or my forming a lather up in my hands and applying that to my wet hair.

At first, I tried forming a lather in my hands to apply to my hair. This worked quite nicely, however, I then found myself at a loss as to where to place my slippery shampoo bar in my tiny shower while "getting rid" of the lather on my hands. I therefore decided to run the bar straight through my hair. I was suitably impressed - as I used it, I could feel a nice lather forming on my hair, equally as good or better than conventional shampoos. I also found my hair incredibly soft once the ingredients were in my hair. But the softness did not last. The minute I washed the ingredients out, my hair became very knotted and had a distinct plastic-feeling to it. During a second wash, the soft feeling did not envelope my hair like it did during the first wash.

I loved the citrus smell that surrounded me after I used "The Blonde", a smell that lingered in the bathroom hours after I had washed my hair. But my troubles really began once I left the shower and tried to style my hair in some way. I have very long and thin hair, hair that tangles very easily. After using the shampoo bar, I found it absolutely impossible to brush through my hair. I had to take individual strands and comb through them very slowly, a process that took me about ten minutes.

Blow-drying my hair was slightly difficult as well, as it felt hugely unpleasant to touch with that plastic-feeling it suddenly had. In addition, my hair still kept tangling more than usual, adding at least another 5 minutes to the drying process.

Once my hair was dry, I looked at the results. While I was not disappointed at the results, they were far from spectacular. My hair did appear a little more shiny than usual, but certainly not blonder than when using my ordinary shampoo. This observation held true even after repeated use of the shampoo bar. The other slight annoyance was the texture of my hair - it felt a lot thicker, but contrary to what Lush promised, it actually felt a lot like straw and kept tangling more than usual, even when dry.

My positive reaction was to the smell - the citrus, sunflower, sand summer-feeling just integrated itself into each strand of my hair and lingered for a very long time. I often found myself pulling strands to my nose to have a little whiff of the lovely smell. My fiancé was equally impressed with the smell, commenting on it repeatedly.

I still use the shampoo bar from time to time, but my opinion has not changed much. One of the things I noticed as I am nearing the end of my shampoo bar, is that little bits of straw keep coming off the bar and tangling themselves in my hair, which is slightly annoying. I now use substantial amounts of conditioner after I use the shampoo bar to get rid of the tangles. Some of the plastic-feeling still remains when blow-drying, but the issue of tangles is largely resolved that way.

The other thing that I noticed about the shampoo bar is that it by no means will last you two months, unless you restrict your use to maybe once or twice a week. The shampoo bar becomes very soft very quickly, and so substantial amounts dissolve every time you use the shampoo bar in the shower. It is recommended to keep your bar in a dry place, but even though I have kept it dry and in an airtight container, it simply does not assist much. I wonder how quickly it would disappear if I simply let it lie around?


***The verdict***

This is not the worst product I have ever used, at the very least, I have to admit that the smell is absolutely gorgeous. My issues with it are the blatant inaccuracies in the claims as to the effects that this shampoo bar is supposed to produce. No, it does not lighten hair - at least it has not done with mine. And no, it does not soften everyone's hair, on the contrary. In the case of my hair, it just turns it into straw. While I am slowly using my current shampoo bar up, I don't think I would buy it again - other than perhaps to create a lovely scent of summer feeling in my bathroom.

Summary: For gullible blondes only.