Dawn Images

I’ve been trying to incorporate more local products into my beauty routine and the one item I struggled with was shampoo. I didn’t see a lot of good local options because while I want to use local stuff, I don’t want to use it at the risk of all my hair falling out. I ended up trying out Conatural’s shampoo line and it’s become a staple in my beauty routine.

I hadn’t tried Conatural’s shampoo before but I knew it was pricey — think over-Rs2,000-for-a-small-bottle pricey — and I didn’t really want to spend so much on a shampoo, especially when you have conditioner to buy too. And of course, this was in comparison to the price of a big company shampoo, which was well under Rs1,000.

Conatural’s Hair Repair Shampoo costs Rs2,745 and its Hair Repair Conditioner costs Rs2,199. That’s a lot for 250ml of product each.

I bought the shampoo and conditioner in March and I estimate that it took me around two and a half months to finish the shampoo. I’m still using the same conditioner. Part of the reason for this is that I cut my hair quite short in February, so I no longer use a lot of conditioner — in fact, I skip it entirely on many days. I’m currently on my second bottle of shampoo, so it’s worth a repurchase to me. If I math it out, it’s about Rs1,098 per month and that’s not too bad.

On to the actual shampoo — I quite like it. It has a subtle scent and is not a shampoo that’s going to lather up and produce tonnes of suds. A little goes a long way — especially because of the price — and I find that if you stop using globs of shampoo, you’ll see that you only need to use a coin sized amount. I learned that I was actually quite wasteful in my shampoo usage before this.

The most important thing is that it makes my hair feel clean. There are some shampoos that are just too gentle for me and they don’t give me that clean feeling after I get out of the shower — thankfully this isn’t one of them. It’s free of sulphates, SLS and a bunch of other things that I know nothing about.

I suppose all that is good for your hair, but I honestly only judge it based on how my hair feels after, and it feels great. For a while, I was just using the shampoo, no conditioner, because I felt that the shampoo was enough. I definitely don’t feel that way with a lot of other locally-produced shampoos.

It was easy enough to cut out the soda and fast food when I wanted to switch to local products, but local alternatives for cosmetics or self-care products aren’t exactly priced cheaper than their foreign counterparts. In many cases, as is the case of Conatural, it’s more expensive than foreign alternatives, which makes it difficult for consumers to pick up a bottle to try.

A slightly cheaper alternative is their Hyaluronic Acid Shampoo, which is priced at Rs1,999. I’m not sure why it’s cheaper than the regular Hair Repair Shampoo, but it works just as well. There’s one annoying thing I noticed on the Hyaluronic Acid Shampoo bottle — a typo! It wants you to massage your hair into a leather instead of a lather.

The shampoos are available via Conatural’s website and at large grocery stores. I picked mine up from the store near my house.

I’m giving it a four out of five, with a point removed for the price because it really is expensive for a shampoo.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

This article is part of an ongoing series on supporting local products. All the products are independently evaluated and reviewed by a member of the Images team and reflect their personal opinions. If you’re a local business and would like to be featured, reach out to us at imagesdawndotcom@gmail.com.