Why Shampoo Bars are Better Than Liquid Shampoos (Part 1)

It’s like asking which is better; Adele or your drunk friend on karaoke night. Shampoo bars are the Adele of haircare. In this piece, we get into exactly why shampoo bars are far better than liquid shampoos:

First, what is a shampoo bar?

A shampoo bar is a solid form of liquid shampoos. Instead of painstakingly squeezing shampoo into your palm, you simply wet a bar, generate lather and massage your scalp. Shampoo bars are as effective (if not more so) in cleansing the scalp, removing build-up and can be formulated to suit different scalp and hair types.

What shampoo bars are not: Soap.

Shampoo bars are not soap. They’re just not. Our scalp is acidic and has a pH of about 5.5 and even the most “gentle” of soaps have a pH of above 8. Soaps severely disrupt the scalp’s pH leaving it vulnerable to many issues like build-up, itching, inflammation. Shampoo bars, on the other hand, have a pH of 5 to 6.5 when formulated well. Shampoo bars are more in tune with the natural scalp environment.

Now that we’ve established why shampoo bars are better than soap, let’s dive deep into why shampoo bars are far better than liquid shampoos:

1. Plastic-free & Zero waste:

Liquid shampoos come in plastic packaging. While the shampoos over within a month or so, the packaging sticks around for over 500 years. In our lifespan, we use close to a 1000 shampoo bottles. There are over 7 billion of us doing this (7,000,000,000,000 bottles – that’s far too many zeroes).

Shampoo bars are solid, don’t require plastic packaging and once used, leave no trace. It’s the simplest way to create impact and drastically reduce the amount of plastic ending up in our landfills, oceans and then back in our food

2. Cost effective

Liquid shampoos are silly. They come wrapped in packaging that lasts forever but at the same time, they’re 80% water (a scarce resource), making the shampoo last for just a month.

One shampoo bar on the other hand is equivalent to 3 shampoo bottles and lasts for about 3 months (longer when stored properly), and leave no trace. Shampoo bars are a lot more cost-effective than liquid shampoos.

3. Lower Carbon Footprint

Liquid shampoos, a concoction of harsh chemicals (many are petroleum-based) and water, packed in petroleum-based materials, weighing about 300-350g per bottle, require a lot of space and energy to ship to retail stores or your doorstep.

Shampoo bars on the other hand are space-saving, weigh 70% less than liquid shampoos, and ultimately require less space and energy to ship. From ingredients, packaging to the energy needed to reach you, shampoo bars are far more sustainable.

4. Convenient

Rather than hoarding many shampoo bottles on the rack, there’s one shampoo bar to do the job. Not only do you save space, but you don’t have to worry about disposing it. Rather than painstakingly squeezing shampoo out, maybe even diluting it in water to create lather, you simply take a bar, wet it and massage your scalp.

5. Travel-friendly

I love it when my shampoo spills in my luggage and spoils everything – said no one ever. We all have felt the anxiety when checking in our luggage that “I hope my shampoo doesn’t spill”. Liquid shampoos are a hassle to pack, carry and cause a lot of anxiety while traveling. Shampoo bars on the other hand are travel-friendly and completely leakage-free and cause zero anxiety while traveling.

Why shampoo bars are ALWAYS a better choice over liquid shampoos?

Liquid shampoos, even when made with plant-based ingredients, are packed in plastic. Plastic, made with petroleum-based chemicals known to cause various health issues (from hormone imbalance, compromised immune system, cancer etc.), leaches these chemicals into the shampoo. Shampoo bars completely eliminate this risk.

What’s so special about The Switch Fix shampoo bars?

Yes, our shampoo bars are plant-based, vegan, plastic-free, zero waste, water-saving and free of harsh chemicals. What makes The Switch Fix shampoo bars so special is that they’re effective against new-age stressors such as pollution, heat, humidity, stress.