A Curly Haired Girl's experience with The Body Shop's SLS-free Range

My shampoo and conditioner history is somewhat chequered.

When I was younger, my mum used to just comb the curls out of my hair and use any standard shampoo on me..

Then the Pantene ads with the vitamin capsule came about and my brother decided he would re-enact the advert at home.  Whilst I was sleeping, he took a massive bunch of grapes from the kitchen and split them so the "vitamins" fell onto my hair.  My mum was not impressed.  Funnily enough, the defence of "I tried to give her hair more vitality", didn't hold much water with her.

This was how the first bottle of Pantene shampoo came into my household.  My dad was of the thinking that to prevent any more grape related hair casualties, he'd just buy the real thing and the wannabe coiffeur in the house could merrily use that..

Before Pantene, all we used was Pears..I remember getting it in my eye because I was convinced you could use it as a facewash.  What a seven year old needed a facewash for, I don't know.

Then came the day that I saw Frizz Ease in the shops.  I was about 14.  I remember buying the shampoo and being so excited because the photographs on the front showed me exactly the kind of hair I wanted.  I used it a few times and it gave me lovely curly hair.  I dried it as per usual and had my usual frizzy mop.   

It took me until I was 24 to find a shampoo which gave me effortless frizz-less hair.  And it was a Pound Shop marvel..

Then came SLS-free shampoos and conditioners.  I was never really interested in these as I had found my perfect shampoo.  Had the SLS free situation come around before I found my perfect shampoo, you beter believe that I'd be there, front of the queue buying up every SLS-free shampoo and conditioner going.

I got my first bottles of SLS-free shampoo and conditioner from The Body Shop bloggers event.  I have the variants for dry hair, I figure that if my hair washes slightly frizzy with plain water, it needs moisture as if there was enough moisture, it wouldn't frizz, right?

What have I learnt from using these?

• If you have curly hair, it will take you a while to see any improvement in your hair.  You need to use it for about four or five washes before you see a difference.

• If you want effortless curls after washing, this particular range will not satisfy you.

• Your curly hair will feel a bit dry after the first use but as time goes on, your hair feels softer and softer.  No visible shine.

• If you have curly hair and straighten it after using SLS-free shampoos and conditioners, you will see a difference straight away.  Your hair will be easier to straighten, the comb/brush will glide through and your hair will look fuller, shinier and bouncier.  It will also look healthier, my hair is in terrible state at the moment and this makes it look salon ready, even with my split ends.

• The shampoo is tricky to use.  If you apply it directly to wet hair, it applies like glue, it sticks to the roots.  The directions tell you that you need to mix it with water in your palm.  I find this can be tricky because if you add too much, the shampoo slides out of your hand and if you don't apply enough, it sticks in your hair.  I found a way to combat this, I get my hair and hands really wet, apply the shampoo to the roots and then blast them with the shower head.  Ta da!

• You need to use only a tiiiny bit of each, I used to overdo it with SLS shampoo but with these you only need a tiny bit.

• You won't see bubbles and tonnes of lather.  SLS is the lather maker and you know that old saying "where there's SLS, there's lather".  Don't keep adding more and more in the hope of seeing lather.  I only saw lather when I used way too much.  It feels a bit odd at first having a shampoo that doesn't lather, I think we're conditioned to believe that if shampoo doesn't lather, it's not working.

• The SLS-free conditioner seems to be more similar to the SLS conditioner than I thought it would be.  When I've mixed SLS-free shampoo with SLS conditioner, I've had the same results as if I use both SLS-free variants.

Do you use SLS-free shampoo and conditioner? Have you seen a difference? Let me know which ones you use as I think I'm going to make the switch now that I've used up a lot of my other shampoos and conditioners.