The Chagrin Valley shampoo bars are definitely my most cherished shampoo of all time. I have long hair that can be very frizzy after it is washed with tons of flyaways. The shampoo that works best is Chagrin Valley. I have tried all of their shampoo bars and most of their soaps. They are all good products. I mean it, they are all good. Some I like better than others. If you have never used shampoo in bar form - it's easy and worth it; just rub the bar on our head or lather it in your hands and spread through your hair. My favorite shampoo bar is the Olive & Babassu, I also love the Nettle, and the Soapnuts & sunflower; and the Butter bar conditioner shampoo bar is amazing. Try the Mud & Clay shampoo bar - it really makes your hair feel so nice. If you have healthy hair that isn't dry you won't even need a conditioner after you use these. Sometimes after i'm done shampooing I squirt some Bragg's Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (that I put in a squeeze ketchup/mustard bottle) on my scalp and hair to restore the ph balance and to seal the cuticle and WOW!!!! It makes my hair SSSOOOOOO soft! Then I rinse it and that's it! No chemicals. The very best way I can describe it is.....for the first time I felt my hair in its true state, how it really is and how it's supposed to be without any build up and not totally stripped. Just REAL. Like a child's hair feels kind of. The shampoo bars leave my hair soft, full, just beautiful. I am very thankful for this product and I don't know what I would do without it. continued >>

I wanted to try their shampoo bars for a few weeks before reviewing them. I've tried a few different ones. I think you do need to get the ones that are best for your hair type, but that's the same with any hair product. These bars clean well and lather up well, they leave your hair soft and clean, bouncy and with some volume. However in general I didn't find that they gave me any shine. I also found that over time, using nothing else but these shampoo bars (foregoing conditioner and any other styling product), that it made the hair harder to detangle and it got more and more tangly between washes too. But I have waist-length, thick, coarse, dry, wavy, chemical-treated hair, so not the easiest hair to take care of. Using only shampoo bars gave me dry, tangly, fly-away hair. In the end I still have to use something to *weigh* the hair down, I guess that was what silicones used to do. So if I use something, a natural serum, leave-in conditioner, oil, etc., only on the length, it makes a WORLD of difference! I now have soft, silky, bouncy hair and with the serum or conditioner, it's also shiny, no longer dry or fly-away and with the curls well-defined. I tried using the vinegar rinse but it left me with very dry, straw-like hair, so that didn't work for me. Now I just use a shampoo bar and comb with a wide-toothed comb before rinsing away the shampoo, then after the hair is dry, I smooth on an oil or serum just on the length, and those are all the products that I need and I have amazing hair. I used to have very dry, straw-like hair using chemical shampoos and conditioners and now I don't have that problem anymore.

I have tush-length highlighted blonde 2b wavy hair, which I used to maintain with Kerastase products. But as the price of Kerastase continued to increase, I finally threw in the towel. No way could I keep spending US$50 a bottle for those products.

A friend of mine on Facebook told me about Chagrin Valley products, and that they actually worked better for her colored hair than Kerastase or Redken. I was skeptical, but at her urging, I ordered some samples. My main problem was detangling this long fragile hair.

The Chagrin Valley babassu oil shampoo bar seemed ideal for my hair, so that's the one I tried first. It was a revelation. The shampoo bars do require more rinsing, but they are wonderful. My hair did in fact tangle much less and for once I wasn't left with a straw-like feeling. Combined with the Chagrin Valley flax-seed detangling tea and a little vinegar as an after-shampoo rinse, my hair was perfectly detangled and felt softer than it had in years.

The sample bar has lasted me 10 weeks, but I only wash my hair once a week. My husband tried another of the samples (Extra honey beer) and also loved it - no conditioner needed for him now, so it simplified his routine.

We're saving lots of money with Chagrin products and also reducing the amount of chemicals in our lives. I highly recommend Chagrin Valley shampoo bars. They really are better than Kerastase for me.

Not my thing at all... I have the Butter conditioning bar, and maybe it's just wrong for my hairtype, but it leaves my hair feeling rough and greasy. Strangely enough it doesn't look greasy :)! I understand that you need to use it for a few weeks before you can really judge if it works or not, I just couldn't take it anymore... I have long and really thick hair, if it's not feeling right I just go crazy ;)! So I'm not giving it just one lippie but a neutral 3, as I have not given it a proper try. I think this is really something for someone who has very dry hair and a bit more patience than me :).

I have been a big fan of Chagrin Valley Soaps since 2006. I am so glad they still offer the herb garden shampoo bar. I have scalp issues which most stuff just irritates it, in addition to hair loss. This stuff makes my scalp feel clean and fresh and happy. It's a keeper for me! Love the customer service too! They are fast to respond and ship (remember they are closed Fri-Sun). I received a package from them for 2 herbal tea samples and her garden shampoo bar. Someone had ripped my package open and stole the shampoo bar! I was so upset. I sent CV an email and they sent me a replacement no charge!

LOVE THESE PEOPLE & PRODUCTS!!!!

PS: The sample bars look small for the price but they do last a looong time. Just make sure you put it on a dish that has openings on the bottom so it can drain and air dry at the bottom as well. Much soap is wasted because it's in a regular soap dish and well it "melts" when wet. continued >>

I love eco friendly companies & I really love Chagrin Valley! Took me a while to find a couple shampoo bars I really like but thats why they do samples! So far my hair responds really well to Cafe Moreno which is very moisturizing but not the most moisturizing bar they have. Smells strongly of cloves but I like that & it goes away after rinsing. I alternate this w/ the Nettle bar which is more cleansing. All depends what my hair feels like that day. I dont have to wash my hair every day (which is healthier for your hair) b/c the shampoo bars help balance out hair & scalp. I wash every 3 or 4 days. Still have more bars to test but these are keepers. Remember your acidic rinse and no need to use conditioner after your hair has adjusted. Took me about 2 weeks to get my routine down & washing scalp/hair with baking soda before starting shampoo bars helps a lot just be careful. Using products with 'cones' in them will cause build up on scalp & hair & it may take several uses to remove everything chemical out of your hair. Be patient cause its worth it.
EDIT!! I have since used Herb Garden and really like this shampoo bar. It might be my favorite. Nice herbal smell and really nice balance between cleansing and moisturizing. More reviews to come! continued >>

I have found CV shampoo bars to be excellent for my fine, oily, fragile hair. Whether they do all the amazing things claimed I can't say, but they clean my hair thoroughly and gently, leaving it shiny and soft. I did not have any adjustment period when I started using the shampoo bars, I just made sure to lather my hair well and never was greasy. Although the bars are gentle they clean very well and will even remove a heavy oiling with shea butter, olive oil and coconut oil.


My favorites so far for my hair texture are Olive Babassu and Chamomile Citrus. I actually find that the complexion bars are excellent shampoos that don't weigh down my hair -- the Carrot complexion bar is one of my favorites and I also use Honey Butter soap.


I feel that vinegar rinses are overhyped and not good for everyone; I have soft water, so soap rinses clean from my hair very well, and when I used a vinegar rinse my hair was left flat and lank as if it had a film. More vinegar made the film worse rather than "clarifying" it. If you think your hair's not getting clean enough, ditch the vinegar before you give up on the shampoo bars.


The bars are bigger than practically any other handmade soaps I've seen, and they last a long time. I use a third or a half of a bar at a time to reduce loss from incidental wetting, and keep them out of the water as much as possible. They last for weeks and weeks, so even though the price per bar may seem steep, it's a good value.


Many of the bars have strong hippie-herbal scents. Attention to the ingredient list can help avoid this if you prefer lighter-scented products. Many of the bars have no added scent at all, and others have citrus-orange or lightly floral scents. Peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree or neem are very strong and take over a scent blend almost completely, and lavender smells headshoppy to some people. Olive Babassu, Carrot Complexion, Honey Butter, Nettle and Grapeseed Shea are some very lightly scented or unscented bars, and Chamomile Citrus has a fresh citrus scent without herbals.

This review is for the Nettle shampoo bar. I tried this for about a week but I could not make this shampoo bar work for me. No matter what I did, there was a gross, waxy film on my hair. The vinegar rinse didn't help. I had to use clarifying shampoo about 4 times to get rid of the scum. I tried to use this as a body soap just to use it up and it really burned my skin. I love other products from Chagrin Valley, but I would not buy this again.

I have been using the Cafe Moreno shampoo bar for about six months now. After some bad hair days during my learning period, my fine, curly hair now air dries into smooth, gentle curls without any help from styling products. Frizz (which used to plague me unless I used a 'cone based product) is now minimal, and the only styling I need is to comb out my damp hair, and twist pieces in my fingers to organize the curls.

In the early weeks, I flirted with a couple other flavors of sample bars, but found Cafe Moreno to be the most balanced. I didn't think the coffee used in the bar would have much impact, but after a couple of weeks, I had people asking me if I had tinted my hair darker - so it was great to get the extra color without razing my hair with chemicals. It took a while to learn how to use the bar to it's best effect, and it was a originally a shock to switch to the bar from normal shampoo. The bar doesn't contain any of the compounds that smooth the cuticle, so you don't get the nice, slick feeling. Don't panic when you can't run your hands through your hair! It doesn't mean that the bar has actually stripped your hair of oils.

I have gotten the best results with the following: I shampoo my hair about every six days. Before getting into the shower, I pour a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar into a plastic cup, and take it into the shower with me. Wet hair, rub bar in hands and create a lather, then apply to hair and comb through, trying to touch my hair as little as possible since it's so tangly at this point. Rinse with water, then fill cup to brim with water on top of the ACV, then pour diluted ACV through my hair and comb through again before a second water rinse. That's it! A couple days later, I usually condition (without washing) with Elucence Moisture Balance. And my hair is healthy! It rarely breaks, doesn't get greasy (until day 7), and my hairdresser was surprised at the great condition of my ends - three months after my last hair cut. Will use this for life.

CV Shampoo bars are great for people who try to be as natural with their hair as possible. However if you use a lot of serums, gels, hair sprays and dyes, CV Shampoo bars might not be for you, because the cleansing is very very gentle.
Whether or not you have hard water, chemically treated hair, and what types of rinse/conditioning you use could all effect your results with these all natural homemade shampoo bars.

I love the "lighter" bars best, like the rosemary lavender aloe, soapnuts and sunflower, and coconut. They leave my scalp feeling clean but not stripped or dry. I have soft water, used to dye my hair but haven't in months, and use Suave Naturals Coconut conditioner. Every once in a while I use a clarifying shampoo when I feel like I need it.

For anyone who is curious about trying these bars, read through everything on the Chagrin Valley site about hair and buy a few sample bars. Give each bar about a week or so before you decide if you really like/dislike it.