Soap & Glory Glad Hair Day Shampoo

I'm a huge fan of the Soap and Glory range and was lucky enough to pick up a Pink Big tote bag from Boots just before Christmas for just £25. One of the items inside the box was the Glad Hair Day shampoo. I love trying new products and had never previously tried this shampoo so I was very glad to have it!

***Price and Availability***
On checking the Boots website it appears that the shampoo costs around £5 for a 250ml tube. As well as Boots, Soap and Glory products are available from ASOS and, occasionally, other retailers although I can't vouch for the availability of this particular product at a specific place.

***Packaging***
The shampoo comes in a tube with flip-top lid on the bottom. This means, hopefully, that it should be easy to get the product out. The packaging is pink with the usual black and white vintage picture of a smiling woman.

***Description***
The packaging states that the Glad Hair Day shampoo, an Ultra-shine Daily Super Shampoo, is designed to "give your moody mane the heave-ho". It states that the product is suitable for all hair types including highlighted and heat processed. The shampoo is made with a 'no build up' formula so that in theory you shouldn't need to change shampoos in order to remove residue and get rid of build up. The shampoo has been "expertly formulated" to gloss, smooth, repair and strengthen your hair.

***Ingredients***
The shampoo contains raspberry fruit vinegar to enhance shine, glycerine to add gloss and shine, panthanol and phytantriol to strengthen and protect, and pro-vitamin B5 to moisturise and strengthen. The shampoo is made from an 'ultra mild surfactant system' which is SLS free and derived from natural and renewable feedstocks including coconut oil. The shampoo is paraben free and as mentioned before was made with a no build-up formula.

***Fragrance***
The fragrance of the shampoo is described as being a fruity, fresh fragrance incorporating notes of the classic Soap and Glory fragrance with added peach. This rings true as the shampoo does evoke the classic scent of the Original Pink range of Soap and Glory products, but smells slightly different - in fact the smell reminded me of fruit tea.

***Use***
The shampoo is unusual in that it is clear in colour - most shampoos I can think of are creamy white. Perhaps this relates to the no build-up formula. I do have to use a reasonable amount to get a good lather - around a 50p piece and my hair is above shoulder length.

After using the shampoo for a while my hair seems in good condition and it is shiny, though how much of this is down to the shampoo and how much is down to the conditioner I use every time I wash my hair, I'm not sure. I haven't noticed any miracles regarding the condition of my hair, but the shampoo does a perfectly adequate job. I've noticed nothing to suggest the shampoo strips my hair colour: quite the opposite, it seems gentle and caring.

There are two things about this shampoo that I particularly like. One is the smell. The scent lasts all day, even occasionally overpowering my conditioner (and when my conditioner is Lush's American Cream, that's really something!). I love the smell so this is a positive, but be warned, if you don't like it this won't be much fun! The best thing in my opinion, however, is that the shampoo has calmed down my itchy scalp and much reduced dandruff. It's very rare for a non-specialist shampoo to do this, particularly one that is so heavily fragranced, so I am very impressed. I wonder if it has something to do with the absence of SLS - I've heard that this can irritate the scalp.

I'm going to give the shampoo four stars. I'm impressed with the shampoo's scalp-calming properties, scent and packaging, but it's not quite as moisturising as I'd like and it's expensive - and I do use quite a bit on each application. I would imagine this shampoo would be very good for oily to normal hair as it doesn't seem to produce build-up (my hair is dry and processed). I do recommend you try it out - but try and smell it first to make sure you like the strong scent!