The first shampoo bar from Ministerstwo

Our first shampoo bar took its time, and the story of how it came to be is anything but dull.

You started asking about shampoos a good two years ago, pointing to the market pioneers and strongly encouraging us to create our own take on this modern, less-waste wonder. We got down to the formula fairly quickly, because let's be honest - if you want to be a smart, responsive brand, you pick up the phone when the customer calls. The work went slowly though, because once we dug a little deeper, it turned out that online opinions about shampoo bars vary a lot: some bars fall apart after a few uses, others soak up water and dissolve quickly, are inefficient or barely lather. Launching a product with a list of flaws seemed (and still seems) completely pointless to us. So we set out to do proper research on hair washing bars and began an incredibly long journey of developing our own shampoo, entirely from scratch.

A friend worth their weight in gold

It took us two years to build a base of ingredients (and to keep expanding it with ever newer offerings from raw material producers). We tested them in millions of combinations on ourselves, our families and our staff, while the initial formulas were developed with the help of befriended external technologists and drew on our own trips to industry courses and seminars.

It went on and on, and we were beginning to think we would never get the bar right, when a desperate Ania called our friends at Miodowa Mydlarnia, asking the owners for help - their shampoo was already doing well on the market and we liked it a lot. You can probably guess what happened next :). Ula and Marek from Miodowa helped us completely, sharing drafts of their own recipes and consistently refusing any payment for the favour. Once again we saw that small Polish producers live by more than just numbers - there is friendship among us that makes it possible to get through even the hardest moments together.

Then came another round of tests, trials and studies, adjustments and small tweaks, which ended with a bar that we consider a fair compromise.

A shampoo bar is a compromise of sorts

Why is a shampoo bar a compromise solution?

We appreciate it greatly when travelling - it has proved indispensable wherever light, liquid-free luggage is key (no liquids allowed in carry-on baggage!), as well as at summer camps of junior soap makers, where one small bar serves as soap and shampoo in one and there is no risk of it spilling in a backpack (enough of bottles tied up in plastic bags with a knot the child cannot untie afterwards ;)).

It can certainly be a less-waste product, but that depends on our individual need for lather. Why? Because surfactants of natural origin do not foam as well as the SLS crowd, so you need to apply more product to your hair to get a rich lather - which means the efficiency lies in our hands.

The fundamental problem (unsolvable for now) is the paradox of how shampoo bars work. For a shampoo to apply easily, foam up quickly and produce plenty of lather, the mix of surfactants (i.e. the cleansing substances) must combine with water quickly. In regular shampoos these agents are already dissolved in water in well-calculated proportions, where surfactants make up a dozen or so percent of the formula (rather than several dozen, as in a bar).

So the bar needs to be soaked properly, so that the cleansing substances dissolve a little and can be applied straight from the bar onto the hair. "Dissolve, little bar," we say, and rub the shampoo into our hair. But when we leave that same formula in the shower or on the soap dish, after the bath we want it to stop dissolving immediately (why should it soak away pointlessly, leaving part of the product on the dish and making the next application excessive?).

Efficiency or quick lathering?

Should a shampoo bar lather quickly or slowly? It cannot be programmed to switch modes depending on the current need. So we choose a compromise between efficiency and easy lathering. A compromise between effectiveness and the risk of irritation when we start rubbing the bar hard against the scalp (which we do not recommend, out of respect for its delicate skin), because that makes it lather faster. A compromise between nature and laboratory inventions, because for a shampoo to close the hair cuticle nicely, leaving the hair smooth and soft, a cationic conditioning additive is needed - and the best ones are not fully natural.

We did everything in our power to make our first shampoo bar - Milk-Honey-Oat - a reliable, refined and well-thought-out shampoo. We are constantly working on expanding the shampoo family with new additions. On board you will already find the moisturising, humectant-rich Hibiscus and Green Tea - universal bars that will wash not only your hair but also work as a cleansing bar for the whole body (Green Tea together with the Green Tea oil makes a complete care set for every man ;).

We are keeping our fingers firmly crossed for all of them!

If you are looking for the perfect less-waste shampoo bar - click the link below. There you will find all the shampoo offerings from Ministerstwo Dobrego Mydła :).