Beauty: on silicones, sulfates and Yves Rocher Low Shampoo

Hi guys! It's Sunday night again, and I'm getting ready for the work week. My week wil be short and interspersed with days off, because my brother and his family have come over for a visit! We only see each other once every few years because they live in the US, and tickets are expensive. I love my family, so I'm determined to make the most of our time together. I'll share some pics soon!

But I also have an after-hours job: this blog. So let me get down to business :-) Today I'm reviewing a product I was very excited to try, Yves Rocher's Low Shampoo. 

Yves Rocher's Low Shampoo is supposed to be ultra soft on your hair, and contains no silicones or sulfates. This product was inspired by the no-poo movement, which preaches not using shampoo anymore to make your scalp stop over-producing oils, leaving your hair in a healthy state of equilibrium where your own oils nourish your hair without making it dirty. Well, I think the no-poo method might be nice for people with very dry, brittle hair, but if you have mostly straight and fine hair like me, it just doesn't work. I could wait years between shampoos and my hair would still be greasy rather than magically healthy and clean. 

However, I did learn a thing or two from the no-poo movement. F.e., to be mindful of sulfates and silicones. Sulfates are what makes your soaps and shampoos lather up, creating the suds that we are so used to. Silicones come in a wide variety of types, but most of them are supposed to coat your hair in a protective layer that, for example, keeps it from getting frizzy in humid conditions, or makes it silky and easy to comb through. Both sound pretty good right? Well, they are! In some cases. The thing is that silicones can build up in your hair, making it dull and dry. And sulfates are harsh on your hair, stripping it of dirt but also of natural oils. Additionally, using silicones makes it necessary to use sulfates as well, because some silicones are not water-soluble so you need the lather to get the silicone build up out. So if you want to stop using sulfates, you also have to stop using some silicones.

That's sort of the story. So. After experimenting with different shampoos and conditioners as well as not washing my hair for stretches of time, I have figured out what works for me and makes my hair look best. Basically, I alternate between washing my hair once every 4-5 days with one of my favourite shampoos, and maintaining volume and cleanliness with dry shampoo in between (I reviewed my favourite brand of dry shampoo here). For shampoos, I switch it up with Garnier's Vita Boost Fresh shampoo, which contains sulfates but no silicones, and The Body Shop's Rainforest Moisture, which contains sulfates nor silicones.

I generally pick Garnier for those days when I'm in a hurry, because getting your hair clean without sulfates takes more work - you really have to massage the product into your roots meticulously, or you'll still have dirty spots. My other go-to shampoo used to be Rainforest Moisture, but now I have a third favourite: Yves Rocher's Low Shampoo. 

The product feels amazing when you massage it into your hair and scalp: soothing, creamy, smelling of soft, sweet white floral. And yes, despite the lack of suds and lathering, it really does leave your hair just as clean as a regular shampoo as long as you make an effort to really massage it in. This gets harder if your hair is longer, though. I have a lot of hair, and when I use non-sulfate shampoos, I sometimes miss spots on the back of my head. That's the first downside of using products like these. The second is that you need more product to wash your hair, because a non-lather formula doesn't cover as much hair as your regular sulfate shampoo does. So you're likely to run out quite fast if you use the Low Shampoo. This means that I don't see myself making this product my one and only shampoo - it just doesn't cut it on those mornings when I'm in a hurry.

However, your mileage may vary - if you have less hair than I have, or a shorter haircut, this will be no issue for you. My boyfriend has totally fallen head over heels for this shampoo because it leaves his short, thin, wavy, fine hair soft but with body, and it makes it easy to style. I've noticed a huge change for his hair. Additionally, Yves Rocher's Low Shampoo functions as shampoo and conditioner in one, leaving your hair moisturized and incredibly soft. In general, I can totally recommend experimenting with time between washes as well as sulfates and silicones, to see what works best for your hair. Let me illustrate what a difference it has made for me.

On the left, I'm about 17, and at that time I used to wash my hair just about every other day with a pretty harsh shampoo. My haircut isn't that different from the one I'm rocking now, being long hair with some layers starting at chin length, but my hair looks so. different. More body, thicker, not as frizzy (seriously just check my frizzy ends in the left picture) and just all around BETTER. I don't even have to explain it, do I? My hair thrives when I dial back the sulfates and silicones and wash it less often. It also brings out the natural wave in my hair when I let it air-dry. So I can only recommend that you start experimenting yourself if you're not 100% happy with the way your hair looks!

Yves Rocher's Low Shampoo retails at 9.90€ and is currently marked down 50% online, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a sensitive scalp, or anyone with fine, thin, dry, brittle, damaged and/or short hair.