ANSC: Shampoo Bar Review
As I often talk about trying to get more environmentally friendly options for daily use products, I stumbled upon the concept of shampoo bars.
I bought this shampoo bar from Flora and Fauna and they also sell a range of other shampoo bars from other brands, but the cheapest option with a few reviews was this Solid Shampoo from ANSC for oily hair. The great thing about ANSC, is that they offer shampoo bars formulated for normal hair, sensitive scalp, for dry hair but don't offer any conditioner bars (my conditioner bar is from Ethique and will be posting a review of that too!)
Shipping is free for Australian orders over $50 AUD, but is only $8AUD for standard shipping, or you can pick these up from their Sydney warehouse for no extra cost!
I also want to give a bit of attention to the huge range of shampoo bars you can use if you're wanting to swap over to a more environmentally friendly option - brands like Amor Luminis and Ethique offer shampoo and conditioners for color toning (purple shampoo), curly hair, for volumising, fine and oily hair, dandruff, dry frizzy hair, for repairing, for shaving, and even for babies.
If you're typically put off shampoo bars because of the limited range of products available for specific hair situations, check these out because I'm sure there's something for everyone.
Here's an official description of the product:
"The Australian Natural Soap Company Solid Shampoo for Oily Hair, to Naturally Cleanse Your Hair.
These new solid shampoo bars are beautiful, effective and have captivating natural scents derived from essential oils. Australian made, palm oil free and in biodegradable packaging, they have been crafted to deliver exactly what you need.
This shampoo for oily hair will thoroughly cleanse your hair of build up and add volume and shine to oil deadened strands. Sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil and coconut oil are packed full of fatty acids, minerals and vitamins, all necessary to nourish and protect your hair. Tea tree, lemon oil and lemongrass work together to combat an oily scalp and leave you feeling refreshed.
All Australian Natural Soap Company's soaps are handmade in Australia, vegan, cruelty free, paraben free, sulphate free, detergent free and palm oil free. They are also biodegradable, as is their beautiful packaging. Certified Cruelty Free."
The ingredients list:
saponified sweet almond oil, saponified grapeseed oil, saponified coconut oil, himalayan cedarwood oil, tea tree oil, lemon oil & lemongrass oil.
I bought this from Flora and Fauna for $12.95AUD, and the shampoo comes with 100g of product.
Often you hear a lot of talk about how typical shampoos contain sulphates, silicone, parabens and other not so great things for your hair and scalp, and how you can swap over to natural alternatives, or even go shampoo free.
The good news? I really like this, as a great natural alternative because it works just as well as my favorite Apivita While Willow and Propolis shampoo.
It actually does give a good clean, and it makes my hair feel great and fresh, it strips off all the oil and the tea tree and lemon oil has been really good at keeping my oil down as well.
I really have been surprised that a shampoo bar has been able to do the same thing as a liquid shampoo, and it feels really comfortable as well - to the point where I used my Apivita shampoo in between washes and felt like it wasn't cleaning my hair enough.
I also had zero transition days with this shampoo too, sometimes people take a bit of time to readjust to natural alternatives, but my hair was great and just took to this amazingly.
I have used this with a few different conditioners, including ANSC's own conditioner - which is a bit different from normal ones because it does lather, but I've noticed that brushing out my hair with the lather also works without needing extra conditioner (although it does make your hair more prone to attracting dust).
I've used this a few days - Originally I would lather the soap up in my hands and get a good amount of lather and then lather more in the hair. After a bit of practice, I've noticed that I can apply the soap directly to my scalp as well - but try to get enough of a lather going so you don't end up directly applying the soap to your hair and ripping a bit of it out. This definitely takes a while to get used to, but direct application definitely will waste less of the soap as well.
Also: the great thing about shampoo bars, is that you have paper packaging for these, and you can even bring these on the plane because they're solid instead of liquid. Additionally, the ingredients are 100% composed of oil, so there are less synthetic components when you eventually rinse these into water (minimal pollution).
I really like this - not only is it a great environmentally friendly alternative, but it actually is a great product to use as well.
I wholly recommend this to anyone thinking of transitioning over to solid shampoos, especially this bar if you have oily hair, or you can also check out the rest of the ANSC catalogue to see which might suit your hair type best.
I purchased the ANSC shampoo bar and ANSC condoning bar for oily hair. I have long fairly thick fine hair that gets oily at the roots and decided on these bars based on online recommendations. For years I have been using a organic shampoo and conditioner with no nasties in it and I don’t use any other hair are products, although I do colour my hair. So my hair is in good condition. Despite loving my bottled organic haircare, for convenience I tried an organic shampoo bar (different brand) with no sulphites, parabens or silicone. I liked how my hair looked, felt and smelt. But it was made in China and I wanted to try something more homegrown so purchased several different Australian or NZ brands to try. My trial with ANSC began. I started by using a clarifying shampoo to ensure my hair was clean. Day one after using ANSC my hair looked greasy and felt damp although I had washed it that morning and this was early evening. My hair felt like it was thicker but had a waxy coating. I persevered for five more days with the same outcome, I thought maybe the Chinese made shampoo bar was not as organic as marketed so maybe my hair was transitioning. With a job interview scheduled I had to wash my hair with normal shampoo (I used one of those hotel samples). My hair was somewhat back to normal although a bit dry. I decided to try ANSC again. Over the next week I made sure to get a good lather up and not just at the roots. I rinsed for what felt like 10 minutes to make sure no residue remained. I tried not using the conditioning bar but using a ACV rinse instead. Still greasy although less so but it also dried my hair out. I went back to my organic bottled haircare two days ago and immediately my hair was back to its normal self. Today I used a different Australian made shampoo bar, it is combined shampoo/conditioning bar for volumising and my hair feel and looks great. Not very volumising but hey that really is the life of a fine haired gal! I have two other brands of shampoo bars that I will trial to see what works best. Basically I commented here to say not all shampoo bars will suit everyone so if you don’t get a great result maybe try another brand before giving up.
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