Conditioned by society into using plastic bottles of conditioner? Break free from plastic without your hair breaking off. No need to resort to spilt ends, end your reliance on plastic and spilt up with the plastic bottles in your bathroom by using this solid conditioner bar instead. Wave your soft, shiny luscious locks around without your head being weighed down by the guilt of plastic packaging.

No plastic packaging and palm-oil free. These hair conditioner bars are also suitable for those following the 'curly girl' method of looking after your hair.

Switching your haircare routine is one of the easiest ways to cut down on your plastic consumption, so why not start here?

Jojoba Solid Conditioning Bar - 45g - For normal to sensitive skin, packed with vitamins to promote healthy hair. £7.99

Argan Solid Conditioning Bar - 45g - 'Argan oil is pretty much unrivalled in its ability to nourish hair and it works beautifully in this conditioning bar.' £7.99

Neem Solid Conditioning Bar - 45g – For sensitive and problem scalps prone to itchiness or dryness. Also good for frizzy hair. (contains no essential oils) £7.99

Camellia and Rose Solid Conditioning Bar - 45g - Smells divine. Luxurious rose for healthy, thick hair. Suitable for all hair types. £9.99

Apricot and Almond Solid Conditioning Bar - 45g - For extra shine and stronger regrowth. Smells sweet! £8.75

Lavender and Cedarwood - 45g - With the relaxing smell of lavender, this bar is good at helping dry, flaky scalps that are dandruff prone. Leave this conditioner bar on for a few minutes to gain the beneficial therapeutic effects. £7.99

Castaway Coconut Solid Conditioning Bar – 72g – Our new favourite! Heavenly coconut scent and leaves your hair gloriously conditioned with extra shine and softness. For all hair types. £9.99

Mango Bay - 80g - Another bigger bar for long-lasting conditioning. The new go-to for anyone in love with the smell of mango, delish! This solid conditioner bar adds extra shine, softness and promotes stronger healthy regrowth. Good for fine and frizzy hair. £9.99

Directions: ‘Stroke the bar directly over your washed and rinsed hair. Distribute conditioner through the hair to the ends and leave for 2-3 minutes, or longer if a more conditioning treatment is needed. Rinse - and marvel. These bars will last you at least 3-4 months if you keep it dry between washes.’

For best results keep it in a soap dish to let it dry out between uses.

Conditioner Bars

From £9.00

Quantity

The many, many plastic bottles and containers of conditioner. Just think of the haircare aisle in the supermarket. All that choice packaged in so much plastic. It’s the stuff of nightmares, honestly.
No plastic packaging! Just a paper packet. It also contains no palm oil and only needs a few ingredients to make your hair look glorious, unlike most mass-produced conditioner.

Solid conditioner bars are super easy to use, just rub them straight on your hair. They are also really handy for travelling with, no need to put it in your liquids bag at the airport, and no chance of leaking bottles either.
It may seem expensive, but this block of conditioner will last for ages and ages. A full block should last around 3 - 4 months at least if not more. The Mango and Coconut bars, which are bigger, will last double that!

You hardly need any of this stuff to coat your hair fully and detangle, so it has the potential to last much longer depending on your hair and how often you wash it. I tend to use too much of my conditioner bar as even after all this time I struggle to remember you don’t need to treat it like bottled conditioner, as even just a few strokes of the bar through your hair will detangle it marvellously.

I’m amazed at how well this stuff works, and I have tried a lot of solid conditioner bars in an attempt to find one that works properly. I have really fine hair, so conditioner is mandatory for me when I wash it, because there is no way I could pull a hairbrush through that knotted mess otherwise, and if I left it like that birds would attempt to nest in it. Most other bars I’ve tried gave me doubts as to whether they could be labelled as a conditioner at all, as they did nothing to condition my hair and I practically had to use a garden rake to detangle my hair afterwards. This solid bar is like the salon-quality variety of conditioner, as opposed to your £1 supermarket own-brand stuff. If conditioner bars were endorsed by top hairdressers and celebrities like plastic bottles of conditioner normally are, I am sure they would choose this brand. I love this solid conditioner!

The camellia and rose conditioner bars are a wee bit more expensive because the ingredients are more expensive. The castaway coconut and mango bay bars are more expensive because they are bigger than the other conditioner bars. Makes sense to me.
What are they made from?

Jojoba -
Ingredients: Simmondsia Chinensis (unrefined organic jojoba oil), Butyrospermum Parkii (organic unrefined shea butter), Vitamin E, pro-vitamin B5, Argania Spinosia (organic Argan oil), cetyl alcohol, btms-50 (extra mild emulsifier and detangling agent) natural green pigment (mica) Essential oils: Peppermint and Pine

Neem -
Ingredients: Organic Neem Oil, Organic unrefined shea butter, BTMS-50, cetyl alcohol, (baby mild de-tangling agents)

Argan -

Organic Moroccan Argan Oil, Organic unrefined shea butter, btms, cetyl alcohol, essential oils - Bay Berry

Lavender and Cedarwood -

Lavendula Officinalis (Lavender oil), Cedrus Atlantica (Cedarwood) Bark Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii Organic Unrefined (Shea Butter), BTMS 50, Cetyl Alcohol, Natural Colour (Mica).

Camellia and Rose -

Camellia Japonica, Camellia Oleifera, BTMS-50 (baby mild detangler), Cetyl alcohol, Organic meadowfoam seed oil, Essential oils: Organic rose absolute

Apricot and Almond -

Aqua, Organic apricot kernel oil, Organic sweet almond oil, extra added vitamin E, BTMS-50, Cetyl Alcohol. Organic unrefined shea butter, Natural colourant (turmeric/mica). Fragrance: body-safe fragrance/essential oils for sensitive skins.

Castaway Coconut -

Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Coconut Milk, Organic Unrefined Shea Butter, BTMS, Cetyl Alcohol, Distilled Water, Fragrance*, Sea Salt. *Coconut fragrance oil

Mango Bay -

Aqua, Organic Unrefined Cocoa Butter, BTMS, Cetyl Alcohol, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Jamaican Black Castor Oil, Organic Mango Seed Oil, Organic Papaya Seed Oil, Organic Hemp Seed Oil.

Where do they come from?

Handmade in the UK

Are they sustainable?

Jojoba oil – Is actually a liquid wax, not an oil. It comes from a plant native to North America and has anti-fungal properties. It’s used instead of whale oil which used to be a common ingredient in many cosmetics. Vegans and animal lovers rejoice in the use of jojoba as it saves the whale! Demand for jojoba oil is high, potentially outstripping supply. So maybe not currently sustainable in relation to this demand.

Shea butter - is great. It is a very sustainable and environmentally friendly in production because it does not grow in plantations, (it is therefore wild) and has no need for irrigation or pesticides. Unrefined shea butter is best.

Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Pro-Vitamin B5 – Vitamins come in many forms. Currently waiting to hear back on the exact ingredient these vitamins are from.

Argan Oil – The argan tree grows nearly exclusively in Morocco, but neighbouring Algeria as well as Israel have also started growing this crop as its popularity has increased. Very specific conditions are needed to successfully cultivate the argan tree, so there is not much scope for it to be grown outside of these areas, which could become a problem as demand is quite high and growing. The argan tree helps stave off the encroaching desert, stops soil erosion and protects water resources, so it is a very important feature of Southern Morocco, which has been made a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, who recognise the importance of this plant. The argan tree was nearing extinction, but demand for argan oil has actually helped save this tree from its vulnerable status. This doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be carefully looked after though, as its sustainability needs to be ensured and that is not guaranteed without careful monitoring of this useful tree. Only women are involved in producing argan oil, and the rising demand for this product has led to the formation of women’s co-operatives which make sure the women are paid fairly for their work. This has greatly benefitted the local Berber women and their economic prosperity has had the happy knock on effect of improving levels of girl’s education in the area as they can afford to send their daughters to school. Although this of course is not true for all of the women working in the industry, as there is still some worker exploitation apparent unfortunately, as not all employers are interested in supporting their workers. Because argan is a desert plant, its most useful properties are as a humectant and emollient. Which means it has the ability to absorb and retain moisture. It also has a very high vitamin E content. This is why it is used so widely in beauty products.

Aloe vera gel – aloe vera doesn’t throw up much as far as I can see in terms of problems with sustainability or environmental issues. So it’s cool.

Cetyl alcohol – A ‘fatty alcohol’ which is non-irritating, good for dry skin and helps to stabilise the other ingredients by thickening the mixture, stopping the ingredients from separating. Has emollient and emulsifying properties. This allows it to help the product sink in rather than sit on the surface (of the hair follicle in this case). The higher carbon content of ‘fatty alcohols’ gives it conditioning properties, unlike other kinds of alcohol which are extremely drying. It was first derived from whale oil when it was first discovered in the 1800’s but is now derived from vegetable oils.

BTMS-50 – A combination of behentrimonium methosulfate (which is derived from rapeseed oil), cetyl alcohol (see above) and butylene glycol (a humectant). BTMS-50 is an emulsifying wax which has detangling properties, especially good for a conditioner! It is good at detangling due to the long benhenyl chain of molecules. Mild and non-irritating. Most ingredient lists normally list the separate ingredients that make BTMS-50 rather than the combined chemical.

Mica – (Green pigment) A substance fraught with issues in places like India, where children have been known to work in mica mines… synthetic mica is becoming more popular because of the ethical problems associated with mined mica. (Currently waiting to hear which type this mica is. Juliet says 'The mica I use is 100% natural and I buy it from a company in the USA. I will check what their ethics are, but I'm 99% sure they're sound. I will confirm either way.')

Essential oil production generally uses steam distillation which has no environmental concerns, but it takes a lot of plant to make only a small amount of essential oil. Peppermint oil seems fine. Pine oil is a disinfectant and mild antiseptic, derived from you guessed it, pine trees. Can be made out of most parts of the pine tree, not just the needles as you would expect. It is basically a by-product of the paper making industry, which mainly uses pine trees. So no tree is felled due to the need for pine oil, as paper demand far outstrips the need for pine oil. This means less waste product which is good.

Neem oil – Neem is a hardy and fast-growing tree, grown in mainly arid conditions. It can survive drought quite well, which means not much water is used to grow this crop. Neem oil has around 100 biologically active compounds in it, some of which are helpful in contributing to healing skin, reducing inflammation and to alleviate dryness. (Which is why it is used in this conditioner!) Neem has many medicinal uses, as it is a natural pesticide and insecticide. (It is often found in treatments for nits because of this.) Neem oil is also used in animal feed for its high protein content and as a fertiliser and natural pesticide in growing crops too. There are plenty of uses for all other parts of the tree too, which means very little to none waste products from the crop. Neem is a very sustainable and eco-friendly crop that is both abundant and affordable. All hail the humble neem tree!

How about ethical?

Made in the UK by a small handmade soap business, so ethically we are all good here.

...Are they vegan? Juliet the maker says 'Yes they are entirely vegan. The synthetic ingredients are derived from rapeseed oil and there is absolutely no palm oil element in them.' Even better!

Extra good stuff:

Juliet says ‘All my soaps are made by hand by me, using natural ingredients and the highest quality fragrance oils and essential oils. My soaps contain no artificial colourants, parabens, SLS, SLES, propylene glycol, triclosan, phthalates, MIT or any other ‘nasties’ commonly found in mass-produced soaps. All ingredients are sourced from companies that are ‘green' and have a world conscience. None of my ingredients are tested on animals. All my fragrances oils and essential oils are of the highest grade and adhere to strict EU regulations. They comply with the 2013 legislation on beauty products made by the Panel of Experts of the (RIFM) Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, as well as reviewed by the IFRA (International Fragrance Association) Scientific Committee. My soaps are also packaged in 100% recyclable and bio-degradable material.’

Conclusion –

Let’s keep the Earth in as good a condition as our hair!