I hated it so much I went back for more…
After thoroughly trashing Lush products in my previous post, I naturally decided to go back and try more of their stuff.
Clearly Lush is a successful company that doesn’t need me to tell it what to do, but what it needs to do, is fire whoever names its products.
As noted earlier, in anticipation of my trip and my goal to bring as little stuff (and liquids) as possible, I bought a $5 sampler of Trichomania “bar” or solid shampoo, which in latin, or greek, or some historical language no one uses anymore except Latins or Greeks, means “excited about hair”. Well, that’d be a totally cool name if wasn’t pretty much already the name of both a sexually transmitted parasite, Trichomoniasis, and a disorder that causes people to pull out their own hair, Trichotillomania.
At first, I wasn’t crazy about the shampoo, but since I had paid five good dollars for it, I kept using it. And then…it kinda grew on me (not literally, that’d be gross!). Plus a few people actually commented they thought my hair looked unusually good, so I thought hmmm… The convenience factor for traveling is really high, if the product isn’t intolerable, it might be worth re-considering. The thing I didn’t like was that I would still have to use liquid conditioner because my hair was still all course and tangly without it.
Unless…
So, I go back to my local Lush store and find another obscenely nice salesperson and ask if they sell bar conditioner, and (this will come as a total shock to you, so brace yourself) they do! She takes me over to the section and shows me their product called … Jungle. My response…
A blank stare.
Now, I suppose the marketing person who thought of this was thinking “tame your wild jungle of hair!” (not very environmentally “pc” as shouldn’t be we leaving jungle as it is and not trying to domesticate it?) or perhaps they thought “will work on the most jungle-like hair!” but for me, all I could think is “use our product and your hair will be like the jungle!” Once again, this does not inspire me to buy this product.
So, having splurged $5 last time on a bar-of-soap size chunk I thought I’ll be even more conservative and I asked for a $2 piece. That request got me…
A blank stare.
And then… “why don’t I just give you a sample?”. In my infinite wisdom I’m thinking “yes, please do give me a $2 sample.” In her oh-so-sweet-salesperson wisdom she’s thinking “cheap bastard — just give her some for free and maybe she’ll leave me to paying customers.”
So, next morning I try my new bar conditioner and it is rather potent smelling. I’m not really sure what it smells like, it just … smells. Not crazy about it, but it doesn’t make me gag or anything. Also, the smell really stays in my hair – to the point where I can smell it every time my hair falls in front of my face. Now, I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. Maybe people will think it is perfume? (potentially good!) Maybe people will think it is a medication for a fungal infection? (definitely bad!). On the website people describe it variously as smelling “green” “forest-like” and “patchouli”. I don’t know what “patchouli” is, but it sounds New Age incense-like.
As far as conditioning, it’s OK. Not the ecstatic response other people have had (which I must include a sample quote here as these crack me up):
holy crap!!! since my previous review, my hair has dried and ascended to absolutely divine heights i can’t even speak of!!! if my hair could serenade, it would be singing about lush! i know i sound ridiculous, but i have used every hair product known to human kind, including outrageously expensive hair products that cost 80 bucks a jar. my long, thick, wavy hair has NEVER felt like this… it feels like silk, waves and shimmers, and smells so good i could just sit and sniff and stroke my hair all day. my hubby came to snuggle and i told him to back off, i was snuggling with my hair! I’M NOT EXAGGERATING! i don’t care how difficult this product is to use, it is WORTH IT. oh, and lush, please bottle up this scent and make it into other types of wearable cosmetics? THANK YOU.
See, I want to be like this person. Well, no, I really don’t want to be like this person, but I’d like to to feel that strongly about a consumer product one day. But I don’t. It’s just… slightly weird conditioner.
Verdict? Jury is still out, but the convenience of the bar might outweigh the weirdness of it all.
Tags: Africa, Getting Ready, jungle, lush, Preparation, shampoo
snarkyinla
You went to IU Bton. Trust me, you know what patchouli is.
I couldn’t help but laugh at this post. I did the exact same thing, except that I ordered mine over the internet and paid them five dollars in shipping in addition to their exorbitant prices. I wanted so badly for the products to work miracles, but alas, they just made my hair even frizzier. I took them to India anyway, though I ended up tossing both out after they became slimy blobs of goo at the bottom of their respective plastic bags…
My advice is just to buy some shampoo and conditioner when you get to wherever you’re going (I’m not sure why I didn’t think this myself)–unless you plan to shower in the airport, that is. Good luck with your trip, though! I miss those days of madly collecting gear and getting butterflies of anticipation.