Shampoo Bars Vs Liquid Shampoo: Which is Best for Your Family?

Shampoo bars are growing in popularity, but are they all they are made out to be? As a family of five, our Squoodles family volunteered to discover if shampoo bars are truly better than liquid soap.

Or rather, Mrs Squoodles volunteered her entire family without their knowledge. But it’s the same thing really, isn’t it?!

Choosing Between Shampoo Bars and Liquid Shampoo

In the name of science, I volunteered my family’s hair to discover whether shampoo bars work better than liquid shampoo. I already knew the benefits a shampoo bar offered:

• reduced packaging, meaning less landfill waste
• less product travel, as most shampoo bars are made locally and not overseas
• lower carbon footprint, as more bars can be sent at the same time in a truck
• more washes per bar than a bottle of shampoo offers (I read this on the Consumer website)

What I didn’t know was how well (or not) a shampoo bar would work on our hair. I was also interested in finding out more about the ingredients in a bar compared with shampoo in a bottle.

So, I switched the shampoo bottle with a bar. I did tell the Squoodles boys that this bar was shampoo for their hair, just so they didn’t use it all over their bodies. Imagine putting that on your hair afterwards, ick!

What I found was:

• depending on the bar, you will need to lather the shampoo in your hand first before applying it to your hair
• there are fewer ingredients in a bar than in a bottle, and I could actually read the ingredients list on the bar’s packaging
• after rinsing well, our hair seemed shinier and cleaning
• we saved money, as there is less wastage with a bar and no ‘accidental’ squirts of liquid shampoo on the wall
• bars are preservative-free, with no nasties to irritate our skin

The Squoodles’ family verdict? We are shampoo bar converts!

Making Your Own Homemade Shampoo Bars

I spent some time looking into how to make a shampoo bar at home. There were plenty of recipes online, but instead, I chose to use the MakeKit Shampoo Bar Kit. It contained all of the ingredients the boys and I needed, together with some fabulous instructions, to make our handmade bars! I loved the quality of the bars this kit made so much, that I now stock it here at Squoodles so you can too. Head over to our Crafty Kids Body and Skincare section to order your family a shampoo bar kit too!

And if you’re wondering the best way to display your shampoo bar in the shower to keep it from going soggy, we recommend the Block Dock!