Product Review: Babylon Tree Pina Colada Solid Shampoo

I have been looking for a decent solid shampoo for some time.  I get very dry hair and find that even baby shampoos dry it out so that it looks like straw and takes lots off serums and oils to calm down again.  In the past I have found that solid shampoo bars are a gentler alternative to shampoo and kinder to my hair.

I came across Babylon Tree on a visit to the Dunton Boot Fair a few weeks ago.  The company had a stall set up dominated by bath bombs and soaps.  I was drawn by the colour and lovely smells and ended up stopping for a minute because of the enthusiasm of the owner.

He showed me the two types of solid shampoo Babylon Tree sell: Pina Colada and Mango.  I decided to try the Pina Colada after seeing that it contained coconut oil.  The kind man on the stall explained that he had made the solid shampoos because customers had requested them, so he had found out how to make them and the best ingredients to use in them. 

The products are alcohol free, and vegan friendly with natural colourings.  The soap comes in thick paper packaging, with a thin plastic wrapper protecting the soap.

On trying the soap, I found that the first thing that you notice is the smell.  The soap smells really good and only on thinking about it did I realise that the smell was pineapple extract.

The soap lathered nicely in my hand but took a bit more work to apply to my hair.  I soaked my hair and rubbed this across my scalp until it worked up into a light lather.  You don’t get the sensation you do with liquid soaps of having squeaky clean hair, but this usually means my hair is going to be coarse and dry.  Instead you get a gentle clean which is very easy to rinse out.

I still followed up with conditioner, but I suspect I might not have needed it after this.  I have used it a few times now and have found that my hair doesn’t dry out, which is a first for me in many years.

I think I would buy this again and try out the Mango variation to see if I like it any better.  This is not the best solid soap I have ever used, but it is definitely one of the better ones and probably top of my list for solid soaps right now.