Review: Green Beaver Hair Care
Recently I tried out Green Beaver’s “Rejuvenating Cranberry Shampoo and Conditioner for dry, damaged or colour-treated hair” (two separate bottles, to be clear). Picked these up from Topia Greenstop (Clyde and Woodward) right here in Ottawa, Ontario. These products are 100% natural, biodegradable, vegan and gluten-free. They do not contain: Paraben or hydantoin preservatives, sulfate detergents, artificial aromas, fragrances or dyes, phthalates, quaternium, EDTA, propylene glycol or petrolatum. All kinds of awesome, especially considering my hair colour.
I dye my hair regularly. But I don’t use just any hair dye — my hair, as many of you have noted — is quite a bright, fluorescent, unnatural red. Most over-the-counter pharmacy/grocery store shampoos and conditioners cause my hair colour to bleed out significantly. Because of this I usually limit myself to one good shampoo/conditioning per week. This plan works well, but isn’t ideal as by the end of the week my hair is getting oily enough that I can’t wear it the ways I would like to because it’s heavy and unmanageable.
I gave Green Beaver a shot because I figured that maybe, just maybe, the chemicals in ‘normal’ shampoo/conditioner are what strips the colour from my hair.
Green Beaver’s Rejuvenating Cranberry Shampoo and Conditioner for dry, damaged or colour-treated hair are made from wild PEI cranberries, indigenous eastern Canadian carrot and organic Prairie seed emollients that they claim will “moisture and rejuvenate dry, damaged or colour-treated hair.” They don’t mention anything about protecting the colour of colour-treated hair, but it was an experiment I was willing to run.
The back of the bottle:
The majority (>95%) of the ingredients used for our new products (shampoos, conditioners, body washes and lotions) are organically grown or ecologically wild crafted here in Canada. A small minority of the ingredients do not come from Canada (<5%). Why? Certain essential ingredients such natural preservatives are simply not grown in Canada. We utilize natural preservatives from citrus fruits. We have not been able to find an effective natural preservative that comes only from plants grown here in Canada but we are working on it.
I started out with hair that hadn’t been shampooed or conditioned in several days so it was quite oily. My hair is quite long so I used a generous amount of shampoo. The first thing I noticed was that there were no suds. None! I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. After using pharmacy shampoos for so long, I was used to associating suds with ‘it’s working’. I was pretty amazed at the results though:
My hair was squeaky clean and smelled wonderful – kinda like those little rocket candies. And the colour? Well, the colour did still bleed a bit, but not nearly as much as it did with my previous shampoo brands. The conditioner was very silky and unlike pharmacy conditioners, it was actually easy to rinse out.
All in all I was very pleased with the results of the Green Beaver shampoo and conditioner and will definitely be using it again. I’ll just have to get used to not having suds in my shampoo!
If you’re in the Ottawa area, you can get this product (and other Green Beaver products) at Topia Greenstop (Clyde and Woodward)!
Related posts
Tagged with: 2009 • chemical • conditioner • craft • Green Beaver • hair • idea • Ontario • review • shampoo • Topia
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Hi Bambi
Loved reading your experience with this shampoo, as I always wondered if I was the only one who loved their products so much.
I have tried at least half of what they offer, and really I only use their products for any of my personal care needs. It is good to know that a company like this exists – local and natural – doesn’t get any better than that in my view!