I’ve been washing my hair with a shampoo bar for three months now. I’d given up bar soaps for body wash years ago, but even before then, I never knew it was possible to shampoo with a bar. Shampoo was always, and has always been (or so I thought) liquid. I’ve been on a “real soap” kick as of late, thanks to Dr. Bronner’s, so out of curiosity, I ordered three sample bars from Chagrin Valley Soap and Craft: Chamomile & Citrus, Rosemary Lavender, and Lavender & Spice.

I was kind of surprised they didn’t come with instructions. I mean, how is one supposed to shampoo with a shampoo bar? At first I just rubbed the bar directly on my hair, but that tended to create uneven lather and a lot of hairs stuck to the bar. Now I just rub it between my hands and then work the lather into my hair. Even though it doesn’t always look like a lot of soap in my hands, it usually lathers up quite nicely. Each of the sample-sized bars (pictured above) lasted about a month and a half of daily use.

The only downside (compared to traditional shampoo+conditioner) comes when I’m washing the shampoo out of my hair. As soon as it’s gone, my fingers stick to my hair, kind of like skin against wet rubber. So rather than running my whole hand through my hair, I just comb the tips of my fingers through. It makes me wonder if any of their other samples are less “sticky”? On the upside, I found my hair easier to style outside of the shower—more willing to hold whatever shapes I twisted it into.