One of the newspapers did a feature on expensive shampoo vs cheap shampoo. In most cases, the cheaper shampoo came out top. The general consensus was that a 75p shampoo is just as good as a £119 shampoo.
Personally, I would never, ever spend £119 on a shampoo! That’s a really steep amount for something to clean your hair, but over the years I’ve found one or two cheap shampoos that do the job but mostly, I find mid-priced shampoos perform better.
I checked with a formulator a while ago whether shampoo is all the same – he was absolutely firm that it is not (more ingredients, and better quality). I used to use Pantene and I don’t know if you remember there was a big outcry in the US mainly when Pantene went claggy in people’s hair. A residue built up. This never happened to me, and it continued to suit my hair just fine, but it did happen to my daughter! She ended up with an oily, waxy, stuck together patch and it took us nearly forever to work out what was causing it. I suggested she wasn’t rinsing properly, she spent hours in the shower as a consequence and eventually had to go to the hairdresser to get it properly removed.
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So, the newspaper feature is all very well, but that build up took a long time to develop. I really don’t know why I didn’t get it but she did.
I change my shampoos and conditioners up quite a lot for review purposes but the ones I come back to left to my own devices are Aveda (Pure Plant Clove, more recently Pure Abundance), Ojon Detox and my newer discovery of Bumble & Bumble Sunday Shampoo. They’re completely reliable and no matter what any feature says, do make my hair feel fabulous – there’s a difference between hair feeling washed and feeling lush, clean and soft. I spent a long time using Kerastase which I can’t fault but it’s fallen by the wayside of late in favour of other brands.
So, although I’d suggest that if you’re spending £119 on a shampoo, my brows would rise a little (but it’s not my money so none of my business really!), I do have faith in ‘posher wash’ because they continually, in my experience, out-perform a £1 wonder. I never like to recommend products that are stupidly over the odds – I think, way back, I tried a £60 shampoo and loved it but found it too rich for every day use, and there are some great performers on the more budget scale but it’s not the same blanket reliability. In the end, you can only go on personal experience.
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