Taking a Lush bath

[matgb]

OK then, hmm, question first, or praise for a shop first. I'll go with the praise.

After multiple (multiples) of you out there have suggested, harassed or just brow beaten me, yesterday I finally went into a Lush store to buy replacement shampoo as my Body Shop bottle was running low. Y'know how after 11 years in retail, with a company that praised itself on exception in store service and trained its staff incredibly well^[1] I'm a bit of a cynical git when it comes to shopping and find most store staff to be both grating and infuriating? Well, I got a pleasant surprise last night; pinkshifter pointed out there was a branch in Victoria likely to still be open when I groaned I'd forgotten at 5.30^[2], so I went in and had a scope around. Such a nice atmosphere, and the products are well displayed, clear and fairly well explained. Then one of the staff came to ask if I needed help. As I blatantly did, my heart sunk, as dealing with crappy shop assistants is the bane of my shopping life. Except...

She asked the right questions, demonstrated how to use it (I mean, solid shampoo bars? WTF? How can you use a shampoo if it's not a liquid?) and recommended two choices, based on my circumstances^[3]. She was friendly, helpful, useful and at no point did I get annoyed. Very impressive. And having just had a bath using the shampoo she suggested, I think she gave me good advice. Yes, my hair does smell vaguely of coal tar, but hopefully the London water inspired dandruff will die off soon. Hopefully.

Which brings me onto my question. I'm a shower person. My family are shower types, when Dad the DIY freak decided to turn the bungalow into a house by building a second floor, we replaced the single bathroom with three shower rooms, and they only put a bath back in after I'd moved out, and made my bedroom smaller in order to install a jacuzzi^[4]. The flat in Torquay only had a shower. So, ultimately, I don't really do baths. But the new place has got one, and it is quite nice to lie back, relax and read a good book while soaking for a bit.

So, given my complete ignorance of all things bath like, the question for those that take them regularly is...

How the hell do you wash your hair?

ETA:Thank you to Miss Freddie and silentgreeneyes for almost simultaneously suggesting the obvious thing I'd missed. Danke.
Bear in mind, for those that don't know me, that this is more of an issue for my more than 2 foot long hair than it is for the average bloke...

---

[1] That Games Workshop staff are well trained and the company service guidelines are very good does not of course stop many of the staff to be blithering idiots who think a) they know best, b) You really need to buy a boxed game and c) any games made by Other Companies are inferior, even if they themselves play them.

[2] For non-UK readers, most shops close at 5.30pm here, sometimes they stay open till 6, it's rare that you can go shopping normally after this. I'm given to understand this isn't the case in some other countries.

[3] I've moved from Devon, where the water is so soft it's almost pure, to London, where the water is both incredibly hard and, well, of doubtful purity; I'm definately very grateful for my Brita jug filter...

[4] This sounds like my parents are loaded. While Dad did negotiate a good retirement package, they were never that well off while he was working (public sector local Govt, think Mr Carnegie in Fawlty Towers and hey, that's my Dad's old boss...). But, Dad doesn't travel well, at all, so instead of going on holidays he'd do the house up. And they haven't moved since my sister was born, nearly thirty years ago now, scary...

Comments

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

I much prefer showers ot baths, but we only had a bath when I was growing up. You can wash your hair leaning over the side and using either a jug which you keep re-filling, or you can buy a dinky shower attachment thing to fit on the taps. it's not the same as a proper shower, of course, but it'll do for hair washing.

-x-

[matgb]

I also prefer showers, but figure there's nothing wrong with taking a bath every so often.

It's more a 'how do you wash your hair during the bath' question than owt else, maybe I'm being too optimistic; I trust our shower attachment very little currently, don't want to be scalding m'self...

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

A bloke writing about (the admittedly excellent) Lush products? Careful, Mat, you'll be turning into one of them metrosexuals that we get warned about here in the north.

Tin baths not good enough for you? Next thing it'll be the slippery slope to fruit smoothies, Sex And The City, exfoliation and low-cholesterol sunflower spread :)

[matgb]

Pah, was snapesbabe that put the most pressure on, and she's Yorkshire through and through, lives just down the road from you in Brighouse. Besides, smoothies are great, and [I've always preferred Flora to butter...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

* waves at fellow Yorksher person *

[mooism.livejournal.com]

Which part of washing your hair in a bath are you having trouble with?

Submerge your head underwater to get your hair wet, or when rinsing it. Apply shampoo/conditioner to your hair as you would in the shower.

The major downside of washing long hair in a bath is that loose hair float around in it afterwards.

[matgb]

Basically, I can get that far, it's cleaning it out afterwards, the suds in the hair mix in with the water in the bath, which isn't clean, and you've still got suds in the hair.

Short of getting the dodgy shower attachment working, I don't see how to rinse it off. I'm sure it's something blatently obvious that I'm missing, but, y'know...

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

Purchase yerself a small plastic jug to use as a water receptor to pour water over yer head. You can even run clean hot water in the sink and use that if you're worried about dirty water.

Cunning eh?

[matgb]

Far too cunning for me. Excellent. Not sure about purcasing though, I'll nick something fom the kitchen when I'm in the mood...

Danke!

[silentgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Lush are really fantastic. Their staff training is excellent (I got paid to go on a train to bristol which they paid for for a day's training and got freebies at the end.. over £100 of freebies.)
As for the shampoo.. guessing it's one called Soak n' float.. yes it does wear off.


Washing hair in a bath.. lay back and dunk *nodnod* I have that issue too. True my hair's not as long as yours, but our shower is broken here too.
Dunk after shampooing, then get some form of jug or bowl and fill it with clean water to rinse. Holding the end bits out the bath water helps too :)

[silentgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

as a PS, try their bath bombs.. no fluffy bubbles, and there are some man-friendly ones too.. try Avobath (very powerful lemongrass) or Big Blue (watch for the seaweed)



.. gods you can tell i worked for em...

[matgb]

Excellent, Freddie said the same as you typed this, but yup, that sounds like a plan. Külness. Knew someone on mty f-list also had a connection with them work wise, couldn't for the life of me remember who.

And snapesbabe is planning on indoctrinating me into the joys of bath bombs when go up to visit.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

I don't wash my hair in the bath, for the exact reason that you mentioned above to mooism. You rinse your hair in the water that is all soapy and it doesn't feel like you get all the soap out. I have a lot of hair, and it really doesn't work well. I just don't wash it when I take a bath. Baths are for relaxing, and showers are for cleaning. :-p But of course, I don't shampoo my hair every day anyway.

[matgb]

See, I don't take baths that often, so if I do it'll replace a shower, and I need to wash my hair regularly else it gets really greasy quickly, and hate it. I think the 'have a container for clean water' suggestion is a good one though.

[davidnm.livejournal.com]

[matgb]

Yeah, I see what you mean. Ouch. I'll delete the previous three, that was annoying.

[pinkshifter.livejournal.com]

[pinkshifter.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed I seem to be the only person who does it this way - run the bath (minus bubbles/goo)

wash hair in bath - i often do the lying down dunking head backwards thing - then when finished and tied up - put bath smellies in water

[matgb]

Ah, but then the bubble bath is no good...

But if you're using one of those bomb things, then yeah, that could work.

[malkavelli.livejournal.com]

I cheat slightly by washing and rinsing in the bath then rising again very breifly in the shower.

Also I find that an empty shampoo bottle always works well as the cheapskate style container if using that method.

[matgb]

I like that cheapskate option. Especially as I'm nearly out of the old shampoo.

[dream-electric.livejournal.com]

Someone else has prob said this (its my bedtime, dont have time to read all the comments) but I have more baths than showers - what i do is have a nice long relaxing bath, get out, drain the water, dry myself then wash my hair with the shower thingy, leaning over the bath :o)

[matgb]

See, that sounds like far too much work for me. I'll go with the bottle of clean water plan.

But I'm being increasingly sold on the idea of baths, especially with company...

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Wheee, Lush!

You can tell I'm a fanatic. *grins* I really do like their shampoo bars - I think I'm using the same one as you at the moment - once you get the hang of them, they're very useful.

But using them in the shower is definitely easier than the bath.

[matgb]

My conversion to their general usage is in no small part linked to my friends list going on about them a fair bit, I know you've mentioned them, SB does, Dot worked there, etc.

They actually remind me in many ways of the Body Shop from when I was your age, newish brand, still with energy and staff that were enthusiastic about the product, not just doing the job. Which is a good thing.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

I was born and bred in Croydon, where the water is white with chalk... when I go to Devon it's a case of "Hello? Flavour? Why is my water not flavoured?"

For washing hair in the bath, do it last of all; then use the tap to rinse it out as the water drains out the bath, so you don't have to rinse it out with dirty water. (Believe me, after many years at a campsite, I can tell you it is perfectly feasible to successfully wash waist length hair under a tap!) Good luck.

[matgb]

See, you're used to this flavoured icky water, I'm used to nice sparkling clean stuff. We just don't like change if we can avoid it, across the board.

But yeah, that sounds like a plan. And I know you can wash hair under taps and stuff, have done it in many places, but the point of a nice relaxing bath is to just relax, so work at the end of it seems wrong somehow. Ah wel, it's not like I'm planning on havig them regularly, shower works fine for the most part...

[fearmeforiampink]

Hmmm... I may have to investigate Lush at some point then.

Though the bath here is far too small, I could probably take it back to Hereford as I'll be spending a fair bit of time there over the next few weeks, so it'll be something to treat myself with in a reasonably sized bath.

[matgb]

Aye, they are actually a nice firm, and the product range is immense. Admittedly,t he marketing on the website is straight out of the innocent school of look how geeky and awkward and chatty we are, and it does seem a bit blatant, but it works.

And the girl that served me was reasonably cute as well...

[karis-uk.livejournal.com]

Bath bombs - fantastic - however, 2 important tips: 1) DO NOT GET THE ONES WITH GLITTER EVER - unless you want to spend the next six months washing glitter out of EVERYTHING you own several times over... and 2) if you find that the flora and fauna they contain is a pain in the arse to get out of the bath afterwards then get an old pair of tights from a female friend (or a dirt cheap pair from the chemist) and cut the foot off, tie the bath bomb in the tights and then drop in the bath - all the goodness without loads of seaweed/flower petals/strange other unidentifiable stuff to scoop out of the plughole afterwards :-)
And I strongly recommend Cerridwens Cauldron - it's a bath melt that comes in it's own little muslin sack, and it is absolutely divine :-)

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

... and you can save the muslin sack for future bombs ;)

&hearts: Cerridwen's Cauldron, even if it IS expensive. My skin is ALWAYS fantastic after using it.

Will be King of Skin today, though ;)