NaturOli Soap Berry Shampoo - Normal to Dry 16oz - All Natural Hair Care Sulfate Free - Made with Soap Berries - Gluten Free - Vegan

So, you can read any of the other reviews in order to get an idea of this as a shampoo. However, there is an off label use for this that has really surprised me and made me very, very, and I'm going for it, VERY happy. I use this for shampoo, obviously, but also as a face wash for horrific acne which I am pleased to write is barely noticeable at this point. Read further if you want more information and don't if all you wanted to know is what the off label use is. NaturOli Soap Nut formulas are among an increasing number of "clean" or, rather, chemically safe shampoos and body care products. However, like most natural companies, they make liberal use of allergens like lavender and chamomile as well as, tragically, limonene, which is a known irritant, rosemary (another irritant), horsetail (yup), random essential oils (fragrance, which is extremely irritating to skin) as well as some tree nuts like shea and coconut, all of which spell disaster for acne prone skin. I found their hand and body soaps, facial creams and other body care to be unusable, including their normal to oily version of this very shampoo. And, yet, somehow, this formula is free and clear of all known irritants and allergens, which means it won't drip down your forehead causing comedones and ruining your appearance. Just reading the ingredients lets you know how safe it will be (in terms of avoiding cancer) but a closer look also reveals its safety for acne sufferers. The Normal to Dry formula uses a soap nut powder base (where nut is a misleading term because soap nuts are actually berries) and an olive oil castile soap alongside a lathering cleanser (lauryl glucoside) which is very mild and light. The three lead actives in this cleanser work together to mildly cleanse hair without stripping it (if used appropriately, that is to say, by someone who knows how to wash hair properly, which most people don't and I'll cover that later). The extracts provided here are nourishing, ginseng and green tea, olive leaf and water cress, but of greatest importance are hair tonic ingredients used successfully for shine and scalp health the world over, including aloe, glycerin, hibiscus, jojoba and panthenol. Having read through this list I figured it couldn't hurt to try it and purchased a bottle. Before my first wash, I used a clarifying shampoo to remove the silicones from my other shampoo which I gladly have given away and the next day set to using this. First off, I noticed that the dime-size amount I use to wash my hair was successful in covering my scalp and coating the hair shaft of every strand. Second, there was no itching, tightness, watering of my eyes five minutes after the hair has been rinsed clean, or any unpleasant odor or sneezing due to allergenic fragrances. Third, my hair dried and was clean and soft but not stiff or dingy the way it is when I use a pure castile soap and also not too fly away and frizzy like when I use a Paul Mitchell detergent shampoo. After a few days, I noticed a fourth benefit, my hair was getting dry (which did not mean the shampoo is bad but, rather, I was using too much, too often). I started washing with water only every other day and using this only on alternating days. Immediately, I found my hair softening and moistening (sorry) back up into the well conditioned shine I had enjoyed with my dirty shampoos (but without the cancer causing ingredients). And then, about two weeks later, I noticed a fifth benefit, my favorite one by far, when I saw that my forehead was clearing up. I took a chance and began using this as my face wash having used a simple soap for years and found that, after another two weeks, the low level of olive oil in this and the different cleansing agents had pulled the oil to the surface in a series of very mild breakouts (no worse than what I was fighting already) and left my pores clean and tight. I have one pimple right now, small, barely visible, instead of too many to count. My face is not red (I thought I had rosacea) but has a healthy pink glow and my capillaries are starting to fade such that I don't have so many fine red lines on my face upon close inspection. I had tried acne cleansers, benzoyl peroxide (which causes cancer) and various soaps from castile to detergent based. I had tried washing my face more, washing my face less, sleeping on my back to keep my face away from the pillow, not letting my dogs lick my face, what feels like hundreds so is probably more like fifty or sixty different face and hair products and nothing helped. Coconut oil in conditioners left me a mess (causes oil plugs) and detergents over-dried my skin causing runaway oil production in my own oil glands to compensate. This shampoo works as a shampoo, sure, but who cares if you have horrible acne. I find that, though I am using this as a shampoo, it is a very effective facial cleanser and, on the occasion that my tantrum-prone crazy skin acts up, it lends itself to blending. I can add a drop of olive oil to my extra dry winter skin and a drop of a simple detergent cleanser when I've exercised into oily nightmare world. So, if you have acne, maybe try this as a way to clear it up and certainly switch to a different shampoo and conditioner, even if it isn't this brand, as shampoos and conditioners cause acne more than your pillowcase or dog ever could. As to washing of hair with this shampoo, for best results, prewash with water. Work water all over the scalp for about two minutes, gently massaging your scalp. Then add a small amount (dime sized for shorter hair and a quarter at most for longer hair, unless it is halfway down your back) to your palm. using your fingers, dab the shampoo quickly in key spots around the crown of your head, on the scalp, not the hair. Massage it into a later, quickly but gently, with the goal of cleansing your scalp. You will notice the shampoo lather is making its way down your hair shafts but at the end, you can work it over your hair for a few moments (no more than ten seconds of actively working it through the hair). Then, after no more than two minutes from the application of shampoo, rinse it off. I like to comb through with a wide toothed comb rather than trying to work the lather into the hair because it distributes evenly, coats, and makes rinsing easier. Once hair is rinsed, it won't be dry unless you left the shampoo on too long or used too much. If you have very dry hair, add a bit of olive oil (a small amount) or work olive oil into the strands of your hair before washing (leaving it on for a few minutes). I do this occasionally but mix it with aloe vera gel so I can work it in evenly without using too much. If your hair is still oily, use a little more and work it on the hair a few moments longer. The key to getting this right is, as with all products, start with less and remember that less usually is more which body care products. If you've ever sneezed your way through a meal with your grandmother who is covered in perfume, try to remember that this is what you are doing to your head every time you over-wash and leave your shampoo on for five minutes. I like to keep it under a minute but I'm too slow and often hit one-thirty. Most people I've asked get the best results from whatever shampoo they use if they keep it under two minutes. So, I hope this helped and, if you try this product, I hope it works as well for you as it has for me. I'm going to go let a dog lick my face. Good luck.

You can see my review for the 'Normal to Oily' formula here: NaturOli Soap Nuts Natural Shampoo - Organic Hair Care - Sulfate Free! - Ayurvedic Ingredients - Normal to Oily Hair - "EXTREME Hair" - Unscented - 16oz. Made with USDA CERTIFIED ORGANIC Soap Nuts / Soap Berries! This is, by far, the best natural shampoo I have tried, and I've tried a bunch of them. For reference, I have thick, shoulder length, color treated hair, that I thought was somewhat oily, but the 'Normal to Dry' formula works really well for me. This shampoo is expensive, but I find that a bottle will last me about 2 months, washing my hair about 5 times a week. I do occasionally still use conditioner, but not every time I wash my hair. The price is worth it to me, since I know that there is nothing harmful to me, or the environment in this product. This shampoo does not leave any kind of weird film on my hair, doesn't weight my hair down, doesn't smell like anything at all, and doesn't make me break out. However, this shampoo does rinse clean, make my hair soft and shiny, last quite a while, and lather really well. I dont think I'll ever bother even trying another shampoo. I LOVE Naturoli :D

This is the best shampoo I've ever used. Main plusses: it's unscented and non-toxic. A little goes a long way. I have long wavy (white woman blonde-grey) hair that I wash at most once a week (I opt for their normal-to-dry hair formula), sometimes I go for 2 weeks between shampoos. My hair never gets greasy or hard to brush using this (I have used shampoos when I was younger that made me need to shampoo every day or else my hair would appear greasy). I first bought this brand to use at my tiny house where my grey water goes out onto the ground, so bought this for the ingredients: soap nuts. I now live with a septic tank and still will never switch to another shampoo as long as they make it!

AWESOME SHAMPOO. NaturOli Soap Nuts Natural Shampoo - Organic Hair Care - Sulfate Free! - Ayurvedic Ingredients - Normal to Dry Hair - "EXTREME Hair" - Unscented - 16oz. Made with USDA CERTIFIED ORGANIC Soap Nuts / Soap Berries! It doesn't fade colored hair But it also Doesn't make natural blonde hair darker either. It leaves hair clean shinny and my hair sparkles as does my friend's with colored hair. It is a miracle in a bottle. It doesn't have any smell only a very light one in the bottle not bad. And all of our hair is clean soft and conditioned and looks health without being over conditioned or flat or sticky or goopy.

As a shampoo, I like this product. It made my hair feel super clean and though there's barely a scent to the shampoo, it left my hair smelling extremely fresh. I wouldnt hesitate to use this every day, but my experience has been that i do jump around between types of shampoo depending on my hair's behaviour on a given day. It could be that daily use would make some people's hair dry out. I did buy the cream rinse that goes with this, and it's quite satisfactory but nothing to write home about. This Soap Nuts Shampoo doesnt have a bunch of artificial ingredients in it, which is good for people wanting to limit chemicals in their lives, and in the world. Worth noting, it doesn't suds up like crazy, but if you apply it to very wet hair, and use flat hands (not fingertips/nails) to foam it a bit, then add more water, you can get it to lather more. It rinses out easily, too. Unfortunately it took two tries to get this delivered. It was "sold-by-shipped-from" Amazon, and the "first" bottle of shampoo was inside of a zippy bag, broken lid, contents leaked entirely into the zippy bag, and all of that was stuffed into the product box. This and the cream rinse (packed normal, unaffected by the other product leaking) were shipped in a regular shipping carton. It was resolved to my satisfaction with a fast delivery of a replacement bottle. Kind of boggles the mind tho, trying to figure out the thought process of the person who made the decision to use a zippy bag to contain a leak that was certain to occur, given the broken cap. So, FIVE STARS for the shampoo, minus one for the serious fail of packing/shipping issues. (Unless it was drop-shipped from the manufacturer, which i don't think is the case.) At any rate, I will definitely buy it again, except probably through the company next time, pretty sure they ship free if you buy a certain dollar amount.

I switched to this from WEN, which I used for 4 years and my hair was healthy and amazing. I loved WEN, but it's not that pure, and I fell in love with a henna hair color that unfortunately WEN strips out. So thus began my quest for a natural cleanser. I want to love this product. I am very concerned about toxins in my environment, and I like feeling healthy and natural in all my health and beauty products. But since I've started using this 4 weeks ago, I've lost tons of hair, have gobs of breakage (so bad I need it cut), and it's still an unmovable mat after washing. My hair feels and acts stripped. It may be a natural soap, but I'm certain it's actually stripping my hair. It's very dry now. I switched to the shampoo for dry hair, bought the serum (which works great), treat it extra carefully when wet and do weekly hot oil treatments (I've tried Ojon, Argan and Jojoba), and my hair still is brittle, breaking, falling out, and super dry. I will finish the bottle just to see if I can make it work, but I'm already thinking of going back to WEN at this point. I went from healthy, luscious hair to sad straw hair! WTH?! I'm trying to be patient with the detox, but my hair is now seriously damaged and I'm worried. It has gotten very slightly better with being one gigantic mat after washing, but not by much. Scalp to mid-shaft is fine, but the lower half and ends seems to have been bombed! And, the hair near my scalp gets SUPER oily now every 2-3 days, whereas with WEN it never did. (It would just eventually get dirty, but it never forced sebum production like this does. Which is another indication to me that it's stripping my hair.) Does anyone have ideas or feedback? I'm gonna try to make it through the bottle, but at the rate it's breaking, falling out, and splitting, I'm scared how much more damaged it may be by then! Does it really get better? Is this a normal detox? Is anyone else having these problems and figured something out? Help! UPDATE - I finally gave up and went back to WEN, and with more hot oil treatments, my hair is massively improved, now. I still have to cut out the damaged part--about 4 inches off the length. I think my hair just does not do well with soaps of any kind, even if they are natural. My hair does better with a cleansing conditioner that cleans with essential oils only and no soap. I made it through half a bottle for dry hair, which took 6 weeks. (I have thick hair that goes mid-way down my back.) I do like their hair serum (which you have to purchase from their website) a lot, and will continue to use that for gloss and shine. And I do like the company's laundry soap/house cleanser, but not so keen on soap nuts in my hair. I think they are an amazing company and have outstanding products, but unfortunately, this shampoo did not work for me. UPDATE 1/10/2012 - It's been a few months since I've stopped using this shampoo. I've done a number of hot oil treatments and been using a deep conditioning shampoo and conditioner. My hair has never returned to normal. When it's wet, it still mats up like a hunk of wet straw, in a giant, unmovable mass. It doesn't tear as easily when dry, now, but it's never returned to normal. I'm going to have to get the damaged portions cut out. My hair was beautiful and healthy before using this product. Now it's so damaged I have to cut the damaged parts out. I'm a little bitter over this. I believe there are many people here who this shampoo worked wonders for, but I think that for long, thick, coarse hair, it's not a good match. I was also using a superb product before hand, and my hair was in excellent shape. Maybe if you start with a really bad one, this is a step up. I know some people on the comments section mentioned I should have watered it down, but really, it's too late now, and it was no where in the instructions that I would need to do that. I really, really wanted to like this shampoo, based on the company's excellent reputation and all the positive reviews. But for me, it seriously and permanently damaged my hair.

This shampoo could not be more natural, clean and easy to use. I have pretty thin and short hair, the rest of the family ranges from so thick I could cry to long silky and fine. We all use this shampoo and it works beautifully. My daughter is a manic panic user, so keeping that in her hair is a nightmare. But when we use NaturOli Soap Nuts shampoo it stays longer. That is a huge plus. My hair, though thin and fine due to cancer feels fluffier and appears fuller. It does not grow hair nor does it say it does. But my hair is nicer, more like it was back in the day. I appreciate that. We are next going for the Soap Nuts liquid laundry detergent. Tiny bottle and huge number of loads, am hoping for excellent and clean results on that product too. If you are on the fence due to price, don't be. It's worth it.

I started using soapnut powder a while back for washing my hair, it worked well but made a lot of mess in the shower. I tried few other alternatives for soapnut shampoo over the years especially the ones at indian stores but eventhough they have good content of soapnut there is still extra harsh regular soap in them and all of them dried out my hair too much. I tried this almost about 3-4 years ago and eventhough its a little bit on the pricy side compared to the other shampoos but its worth every penny and I just need to use it once or twice a week to get the benefits. I first wash my hair with Paul Mitchells tea tree and then with this soap nut shampoo as more pure soap nut shampoos do cling to the hair and don't leather very well on the first wash so using paul mitchel takes out the dirt and then washing with soap nut cleanses and heals the scalp very well. I used to have severe dandruff problems before using soapnut in my hair for washing and I never have dandruff anymore unless I stop using soapnut for few months. I think its slowing down the greying of the hair as well as I have very few greys compared to people of my age and most of grey hair I got in the past one year when I stopped using soapnut shampoo and my multivitamin supplements. Also I like putting henna in my hair and lot of people get itchy skin after washing henna out, this soapnut shampoo doesn't make my skin itch after one or two washes otherwise I can't tolerate henna.

Honestly, I thought I bought a dry shampoo spray but it ended up being shampoo. The shampoo is really nice though. I was having troubles with dandruff and my dandruff is mostly gone and my hair texture improved.

Very nice shampoo. Cleans well but not too harshly.