Dear Aisha,
First of all, thanks a lot for taking out your precious time to write such a detailed review of our Asian Black Shampoo Bar. We appreciate that and always welcome positive and constructive criticism, as it helps us improve our product further. Such honest and well-informed feedback tells us what our customers are experiencing after using our products, as well as their views about natural products when they do not meet up to their expectations.
Now to your concerns
1. You mentioned the high price point. Please bear in mind that this shampoo bar is a 100% natural product formulated from first cold pressed oils and premium quality herbs, and entirely handmade, thus the price, as we will never compromise on quality!
2. About the Shea Butter Conditioner , it may not seem earth-shatteringly amazing in the initial few washes, as again just like the shampoo bar, its an all-natural herbal formula made out of Raw Home Brewed ACV with mother infused in herbs and Raw African Shea Butter, but with regular use, it will only strengthen your scalp as it’s a complete food for the scalp. ( However, the results cannot be / should not be compared with the commercial conditioners as they are loaded with chemicals.)
3. The shampoo bar does not lather well. Again, if you compare it with any other commercial shampoo bar that has surfactants, then yes the suds will be less, as ours is void of any surfactants (not even mild ones).
4. Soap is melting. Since it’s a natural soap without any artificial thickeners, so can melt if not kept dry between uses. You need to keep the soap bar onto a breathable soap dish, so water gets drained fully. This will prolong its life.
5. Soap does not remove oil. This is proof in itself that the product is 100% natural without ANY surfactants, so you may need to apply it twice to remove oil, which is sometimes the case with commercial shampoos as well.
6. Shampoo Bar is drying hair. Yes it may initially slightly dry out the hair, and the reason for that is it’s a soap withhigh pH value (basic), while our scalp pH is low (acidic), which is why we highly recommend that you follow it with our Shea Butter Conditioner (which is a 2 in 1 conditioner, a pH balancer as well as an emulsifier). With regular use, your scalp will adapt to this natural change and this temporary dryness will settle down. This is just a phase shift towards an all-natural product.
7. Why are we using Lye in our soap making? With all due respect, here we would like to slightly correct you. Saponification is a soap-making process where an oil ( an acid) reacts with lye ( a base ) to form a soap ( or a salt), meaning it is not possible to make a natural soap without lye. This is how natural soap has been made for billions of years and our grandmothers used the same method to make soaps. They never had any hair-related issues, because the soap that they were making was natural, void of surfactants. Then came the 60/70s era and we got introduced to these liquid shampoos which were loaded with all sorts of nasty surfactants in the form of SLS, Parabens, etc. which played havoc with our hair. They may seem to make our hair super shiny and clean, but in the long run are extremely harmful to our hair as the surfactants present in them strip the hair of its natural oils and weaken the hair roots and follicles.
8. Not only that, these shampoos are not even eco- friendly, they may be coming in a plastic-free container, but the surfactants in them get released back into the water after we wash our hair into the soil and the oceans destroying the soil fertility and negatively impacting the marine life.
9. Lye is a MUST to make a natural soap, anyone who claims to make a 100% natural soap without using lye is either lying to their customers by hiding the ingredients or they are simply using surfactants to make soap.
10. Secondly, lye is only used as a raw material in natural soap making. After it enters into a chemical reaction with the oils, it gets converted into soap/salt (saponification), meaning lye is not present in the final product. A similar example would be the chemical reaction that makes the table salt that we consume daily ( a chemical reaction between lye (Sodium Hydroxide ) + acid ( HCL), when combined, the result is SALT! In themselves, lye and acid may be harsh but when they combine, the result is a natural soap/salt. Soap is made through two processes, Cold process (not cold press) and Hot process, and our soaps are made using hot processed method.
In a nutshell, our soaps are 100% natural made from a saponification process, by combining lye (which is a MUST to make natural soap) with the acid found in first cold pressed oils. This is the same method that has been used since human beings started making soaps billions of years ago. We are just reviving the age-old traditional art of natural soap making, to get the same healthy shiny hair that our grandmothers used to have. Any reaction that you may have felt after using our Asian Black Shampoo Bar is only temporary, and future washes will only improve the condition of your hair, so we humbly request you to trust the product and give it another try, you won’t be disappointed. The other alternative is a quick fix in the form of all those commercial shampoo bars, they may come in eco-friendly packaging, but are not truly eco- friendly, damaging our hair roots, as well as our environment in the long run.
Hope that helps! Feel free to reach us via email or whatsapp.
Stay natural and healthy always.
