Who said that shampoo has to be a liquid just because people are used to it? Solid shampoos may be less common but they are quickly becoming popular. A shampoo bar looks like a regular soap but it cleanses the hair and takes care of it just as well as a liquid shampoo, sometimes even better. Ukrainian beauty brand Ambra presents natural handmade shampoo bars produced by the Lviv Private Soap Factory.
A variety of herbs that contain saponins (natural detergents) were used around the world as shampoos since ancient times. Liquid shampoo was invented in 1927 by German chemist and inventor Hans Schwarzkopf, whose name created a popular shampoo brand sold in Europe. Up until the 1930s, both shampoos and soaps contained the same naturally derived surfactants and weren’t that much different from one another. The first shampoo containing synthetic surfactants instead of soap was Drene.
To make a new and relatively unknown product more popular among consumers, shampoo manufacturers spent impressive amounts of money on advertising and developed new formulations to make their shampoos more effective and attractive. As a result, we now have thick, viscous liquid shampoos with a pearly shine and a nice smell.
Any liquid shampoo is 80% water which contains a surfactant (most often sodium laureth sulfate), a co-surfactant (such as cocamidopropyl betaine), emulsifiers, thickeners, preservatives, and other ingredients. Some shampoos contain herbal extracts, oils, hydrolysed protein and other natural and nature identical ingredients. Some of the common ingredients contained in liquid shampoos include polyquaternium-10 (a thickener and a conditioning ingredient), glycol distearate or glycol sterarate (an emollient), quaternium-15 (a bacterial and fungicidal preservative), and others.
On the one hand, solid shampoos are a more modern alternative to liquid products with synthetic surfactants. On the other hand, they are similar to the first shampoos that didn’t contain sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate and were formulated with mild, natural surfactants obtained from plants.
Solid shampoo bars don’t contain water and thus don’t need synthetic preservatives because most bacteria and fungi need water to grow. Such shampoos also don’t need thickeners or emulsifiers. As a result, shampoo bars contain only the most important ingredients: natural sufractants that gently cleanse the hair and scalp and conditioning ingredients that take care of the hair and keep it strong, soft, healthy and shiny.
High-quality solid shampoos typically are more expensive than their mass-market liquid counterparts because synthetic ingredients are cheaper than natural ones. However, they are worth every cent because they really take great care of the hair. Besides, there are affordable shampoo bars that combine high quality and a relatively low price (for a natural product). For example, the Lviv Private Soap Factory offers Ambra shampoo bars. They are handmade, formulated with 100% natural ingredients (carrier oils, essential oils, herbal extracts, and natural preservatives such as citric acid) and affordable.
Ambra solid shampoos are based on natural soap produced using cold process and cured for at least six weeks. Of course, they don’t contain any animal fat. Each shampoo bar made by Ambra is formulated with a blend of saponified vegetable oils including coconut oil, olive oil, maize oil, castor oil, and others. Due to slow, natural saponification the detergent based of solid shampoos is very mild and doesn’t irritate the scalp or dry the hair out.
Saponified oils are infused with natural ingredients designed to take care of the hair and prevent common problems such as dandruff, brittle hair, split ends, etc. These ingredients include carrier and essential oils, herbal extracts and juices, quail egg yolk, beer, and honey. Due to the combination of the mild detergent base and natural ingredients, regular use of Ambra shampoo bars helps to keep the hair clean and healthy, makes it soft, tame, shiny and silky. The brand offers Onion & Chili Shampoo against hair loss, Cashmere Shampoo for smooth and silky hair, Egg & Honey Shampoo for intensive nourishment, and Beer Shampoo for stronger hair.
Ambra handmade solid shampoos lather well, last long and make the hair squeaky clean. However, if you’ve never used a shampoo bar before it may take some time to get used to. Natural shampoo bars don’t contain silicones that smooth the cuticle layer so the manufacturer suggests that you rinse your hair with a weak solution of apple cider vinegar that will make it tamer and shiner (or you can use any natural hair conditioner instead). If you’ve only used mass-market shampoos with synthetic ingredients before, it may take 2 to 3 weeks before you notice the difference.
