Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Sun_Addict

I’m always amazed by how much product there is still left when I cut open tubes. My bugbears are those pump bottles where the the last bit doesn’t pump out. I end up turning the bottle upside down and shaking it out. I like screw top jars best as you can use every last drop. 

Cheery_Daff

Excellent efforts in using up your toiletries! What a shame about the conditioner bar 🙄 I wonder what went into it? I've only started experimenting with shampoo bars fairly recently and I confess I've been pleasantly surprised and am a complete convert. I've not used a conditioner bar yet though. My current one is a shampoo and conditioner in one supposedly, and also I have some leave in spray conditioner that I must have found in a charity shop a while back. 

My bar was £1 I think, from one of the bargain shops 😂 I'm going to get back into soap making this year, so I'm planning to have a go at bar shampoo too. I'm not sure what goes into it to distinguish it from soap so need to do some investigating!

foxgloves

@Cheery_Daff, I don't know what the problem is with them. I thought I'd love them, but the ones I've tried just leave me with hair like thick sticky string. 
@Sun_Addict, I get annoyed with pump bottles too, especially foundation. I usually find that when the pump stops delivering any, there's still a week's worth of product in there. I remove the top & scoop it out with a coffee-stirrer stick (I salvage a few extra from coffee shops now & again to keep for this purpose).
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joedenise

I'm glad it's not just me that finds the shampoo bars leave my hair feeling thick and sticky @foxgloves.  I've given up using it and now using shampoo from a bottle again.  Just wish we had one of those zero waste shops near us but our nearest one, about 50 miles away!, closed down at the start of the pandemic and I haven't found another one yet but will keep looking.

Absolutely agree about pump bottles there would be so much wasted if not scooped out - I tend to use cotton buds to get stuff out, hadn't thought about coffee stirrers - think that would be better for some things!  Thanks for the tip.

scandimore

Happy new year and new diary foxgloves. Must admit to being a shampoo bar convert once I tried a lot of different ones and found an easy foaming one which actually cleans my hair (it's rather long and thick) but the ones I get are about a tenner and last 6 weeks washing every other day, so not sure they beat buying traditional shampoo and if you can get refillable, even better. If anyone's interested the brand is called eco living. 

Honeysucklelou2

Great to see your new diary @foxgloves. I missed a couple of weeks on the last one and haven’t ever caught up, so very glad you have started a new one as I enjoyed reading your tips and ideas.

Tescodealqueen

Have to say I love the idea of shampoo and conditioner bars but have had to admit defeat. The shampoo was fine for a while and then suddenly I couldn’t do a thing with my hair. Couldn’t get on with the conditioner at all I looked like a had rinsed my hair in chip fat. I am back with the large 900ml Tr******me which I find suits my hair better than more expensive brands but I decant into smaller bottles in the bathroom and a bottle lasts about three months. It’s cheaper than the bars I was buying especially since it is often On BOGOF and I don’t feel I need to cover my head with a hat when I go out

Dottles1

Another one here who can't get away with shampoo bars.  I've tried several but always end up with hair that feels "coated".  I wonder if it is different for different hair types, mine is quite fine so thought that might be it.  I have given up wasting money by trying now and will be off to my newly discovered zero waste shop nearby as soon as my current bottle runs out.
bye the way, loving the new diary Foxgloves.

EssexHebridean

Tescodealqueen said:

Have to say I love the idea of shampoo and conditioner bars but have had to admit defeat. The shampoo was fine for a while and then suddenly I couldn’t do a thing with my hair. Couldn’t get on with the conditioner at all I looked like a had rinsed my hair in chip fat. I am back with the large 900ml Tr******me which I find suits my hair better than more expensive brands but I decant into smaller bottles in the bathroom and a bottle lasts about three months. It’s cheaper than the bars I was buying especially since it is often On BOGOF and I don’t feel I need to cover my head with a hat when I go out

I tried a shampoo bar too but again - just didn't find it was for me - MrEH used it up in the end as he washes his hair every time he showers so he didn't find the residue it seemed to leave behind was a problem. I also buy those huge bottles of shampoo and conditioner - mine last absolutely ages as I rarely wash my hair more than once a week - thankfully it's not greasy and dries out on the lengths if I wash it too frequently. Plus a hairdresser I knew once told me that most folk use far more shampoo and conditioner than you need to - I now use about a 50p sized blob for the first wash - just on the roots - then a smaller one for the second - roots through to ends, and that amount leaves it positively squeaky clean. I've now worked on the theory that as I use so little of it, I'm not going to feel bad about the plastic! It certainly works out an awful lot cheaper than bars would! 

foxgloves

Hello & thanks for all your comments. Welcome back to those folk I haven't chatted to for a long time, to regulars & lurkers. All welcome to contribute on here.
Re shampoo bars....yes, it's an odd one, this. Some people are evangelical about them, love them & never buy plastic bottles again. Other people (unfortunately me included!) have an utterly hopeless experience with them. I kept hearing that I had to give any bar time, as it takes a while to get rid of the residue from commercial shampoos, but I don't think this can have been the issue, as several uses in, my hair was so coated in sticky bar-gunk that I could almost take a chunk of it & bend it like a fat pipecleaner! Despite working up some suds while washing, my hair just never felt clean, always looked coated & dirty & I didn't want to go out looking like that. I have a couple of the aluminium refillable bottles from the BS for shampoo & conditioner and a back-up bottle I can get refilled at the local eco shop. We unfortunately lost our local branch of the BS several years ago, & running out of shampoo doesn't always equate with being able to get to the city centre to fill up the bottle, so using a mixture of their system & our local eco refill shop is the solution. Glad it's not just me who can't use the bars. I have been cutting out single-use plastics for a while & really, really wanted to change to the bars, but I couldn't bear the ucky coating they left in my hair (even with the vinegar rinse).
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