Product Review: Burt's Bees Shampoo & Conditioner

I have wanted to try doing product reviews for you, but just haven't gotten started on it until today. As such, please feel free to provide constructive criticism regarding my review, what makes a review helpful to you, and suggestions on how to be a more effective product reviewer at the end of this post.

Burt's Bees Very Volumizing Shampoo & Conditioner with Pomegranate

About the Product: The Burt's Bees brand promotes natural skin care, lip balm, and hair products, just to name a few. (You can read more about
their commitment to creating and providing natural products at burtsbees.com.) This specific Burt's Bees shampoo and conditioner tout "99.0% natural," and "sulfate free." If you read ingredients like I do (even on hair products!), you'll notice some differences between this product and other brands of non-natural shampoo and conditioner. Just for an example, I compared the ingredients of Burt's Bees shampoo to two different Suave shampoos and a Head & Shoulders shampoo. In the Burt's Bees shampoo, it did not have PPG-9, Blue 1, Red 33 (all colorants), sodium laureth sulfate (foaming agent/synthetic soap, ref: www.acs.org), cocamidopropyl betaine, dimethiconol, methylchloroisothiazolinone, and other ingredients with really long names.  I'm not saying that all of these ingredients are bad, but that Burt's Bees made their shampoo without them. I also think it is important to note that it is possible that some of the ingredients in Burt's Bees shampoo are just another variation, or a non-synthetic alternative, of those ingredients used in "non-natural" shampoos.

Why I Chose This Product: I like to think that I am a bit of a green, clean living, organic type of person, though not hardcore at this time. I have wanted to try Burt's Bees hair products for a long time, but could never justify the cost. When I cut my hair short last year, I decided to try it. I chose the "very volumizing...with pomegranate" because I thought it might add a little body to my hair, and I liked the smell.

Cost: $7.97 for 10 fluid ounces (for each individual product) at my local Wal-Mart.

Use: When I started using the products, I noticed two things: it seemed to take a lot of product to fully shampoo all of my hair, and it didn't suds up. Now, I personally don't think you have to have suds to get something clean. After using it a few times, I started to notice that after my hair would dry, it would be sticky, though not quite greasy, and it seemed to be "clumpy" in one area. (At that point, I was only washing my hair every 2-3 days.) I originally thought that I wasn't getting all of the product rinsed from my hair, and started taking extra care to thoroughly rinse. The clumpy/sticky/greasy issue continued, though it was not always in the same spot(s). It was even visually noticeable to other people. I tried using a different conditioner with the Burt's Bees shampoo, but the issue did not resolve. I then used a different shampoo with the Burt's Bees conditioner, and the clumpy/sticky/greasy problem was gone. One thing for certain, though, is that this shampoo and conditioner do not add volume to my hair, but my hair is pretty darn straight to start, so I wasn't surprised by that.

Conclusion: This Burt's Bees shampoo is not the right shampoo for my hair/scalp needs, or something. It either leaves a residue, or it does not thoroughly clean my hair; I'm not sure which. This Burt's Bees conditioner, however, works just fine for me.

Would I recommend this product to others? I am undecided, as every persons hair and scalp needs are different. I would say that if you tend to have greasy hair/scalp issues, this specific Burt's Bees shampoo product is probably not for you. I would like to try another Burt's Bees shampoo before I completely do not recommend this product.

Feedback: If others have used Burt's Bees shampoos and conditioners, I would appreciate hearing about your experiences, and if you recommend the product.

Disclaimer: I am not a biologist, or chemist, and have not done extensive, reputable research on the ingredients listed, or in this product, at this time. I also do not believe that Wikipedia is a reputable site to be used as ones main, or only, source for researching information, so if you would like to make a researched claim about my review, please list your reputable source.

*I, nor A Journey Thru Pictures Blog, was not reimbursed, paid, sponsored, or given free products for doing this review.*

If you actually read this entire post, I have a secret to share with you. Since I plan to do product reviews regularly, I wanted to give you a heads up that my next product review will include a giveaway! It will be one of my favorite things, so keep an eye out for the next product review for a chance to win!!!