Raising the bar

BENGALURU: Bringing about change on a large scale can often be intimidating. Which is why small steps go a long way. So when Kopal R wanted to do her bit for the environment, she felt the best place to begin would be at home - her shower cubicle to be exact. The 25-year-old recently purchased her first shampoo bar, which is similar to a bar of soap, except that it is meant for the hair instead of skin. “I was a little hesitant because rubbing a bar on my hair felt weird but the amount of plastic packaging I would be avoiding motivated me to give it a chance,” says Kopal. “I’m not sure about how it will go but I am excited,” she adds. 

Other Bengalureans too are picking the trend. And it isn’t just youngsters who are being conscious. Usha Aroor, a 75-year-old resident, has just converted to shampoo bars to avoid harmful chemicals and is impressed with how this option requires her to use less water while rinsing her hair out. “I use 6 to 7 mugs fewer as opposed to when I’m using a liquid shampoo and there’s no unpleasant residue too. Moreover, it doesn’t dry out or over-moisturise my hair or leave it looking unnaturally bouncy,” says the retired director of publishing at Orient Blackswan. 

Suchita Ullal, from whom Aroor has purchased her handmade shampoo bars, says she started selling these four years ago. “Earlier I sold just four or five a month. Now, I get an order for a shampoo bar almost every day,” says Ullal, who is the founder of Suchi’s Handcrafted Skincare Products. While she started with two variants, a third is on the cards soon. The bars comprise a mix of vegetable oils like coconut, sesame, mustard, kokum butter and hibiscus leaves, among other hair-friendly ingredients. “When I was younger, we used shikakai for our hair. I think shampoo bars are a preference among people because it revives that practice and is chemical-free,” she explains. 

A common complaint with shampoo bars, however, is that it leaves one’s hair feeling dry. Aparna U, says coconut oil before the hair wash and a leave-in conditioner have probably helped her avoid this. Now having discovered this alternative, she doesn’t want to return to bottles or liquid shampoo anymore. Dhwani Kathotia believes it takes some trial and error to find the right fit. The 27-year-old found an option that worked wonders for her hair in Goa but the same one didn’t gel well with the water in Bengaluru.

She too turned to this alternative for its packaging and cleaner ingredients (most shampoo bars avoid harsh chemicals and sulphates). “In the beginning, it feels like your hair isn’t clean. But that’s because the shampoos we are used to overclean the hair and strip it off its natural oils. That extra squeaky clean feel is not good,” explains the founder of Distil, which is a conscious creative studio. “It takes a month for your hair to get accustomed to this change. It’s a much more rewarding experience and a small effort to make if you want to be more eco-friendly,” she says.