Welcome to this little series I have decided to call ‘Gearing Up for Shikoku’. In these posts I will write about some of the gear we are testing out in preparation for our trip.
This first edition concerns something as accelerating as toiletries. More specifically shampoo bars and toothpaste pastels. If these two words mean nothing to you and you have no desire for them to enter into your vocabulary, I encourage you to skip this post. I promise it will not get more interesting from here on. If however you share my bizarre interests and wish to enter into the world of light-weight toiletries, read on my friend.
Shampoo Bars
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a shampoo bar, just imagine a regular bar of soap that you lather up and use in your hair. As a large percentage of regular shampoo is basically just water, shampoo bars offer a lot more washes at a lighter weight – which is great for backpacking. During our last big backpacking trip I tested out a shampoo bar and face wash from LUSH. I never really fell in love with these products (but they have a million different ones, so don’t let that discourage you if you want to test them out).
However, as LUSH products are not easily available in our little corner of the world, this time I decided to order a shampoo bar from a Danish online store we use often. I figured this way if I ended up liking the product I could easily get more.
After looking through their selection, I ended up ordering the Faith in Nature Shampoo bar with coconut and sheabutter. I couldn’t really find any reviews of it online, but I liked that it was organic and that the packaging didn’t contain any plastic. So far it’s been working out quite nicely. I think it lathers up pretty well (this has been one of the most common complaints regarding shampoo bars online) and, I suspect due to the coconut oil, my hair doesn’t feel too dry after using it (another common complaint).
It should be noted that I am not very fuzzy about my hair (though ironically my hair is quite fuzzy) so I am pretty sure I could get by with most shampoos. I know not everyone feels the same way, and regardless it always takes a little time for your hair and scalp to get used to a new hairroutine.
One of the golden rules of backpacking is to bring gear that serves multiple purposes, in order to minimize weight. During the trip a shampoo bar would have to function both as a face wash, body wash, conditioner and shampoo (and shaving cream if you’re into that sort of thing). I think the Faith in Nature bar could check all those boxes, though I would still like to try out some others if there is time. And by that I mean that products like these are very long lasting (which is obviously a plus). In fact I think we might be able to get by with one bar each for the entire trip, based on our current use.
As a final note, I really wanted to try out the HiBar products since they have gotten such raving reviews online, but alas once again we find ourselves on the wrong continent. If you know an American smuggler, hit me up please!
Toothpaste Pastels
Another thing I’ve been testing out lately are the so-called toothpaste pastels. The concept is the same as with the shampoo – basically you’ve taken a regular product and subtracted the water from it. The results is something that looks and tastes like a mint pastel, and as you chew them they dissolve into regular toothpaste in your mouth.
These little things I instantly loved. Sure it’s a little weird the first few seconds as you chew them but you get used to that very quickly.
What I love about this product is that in addition to being lightweight, they also eliminate the “how much should I pack”-dilemma. It’s easy to know exactly how many to bring on a trip – you can simply count them. Because they don’t contain any liquid you can also transfer and keep them in a reusable container, once again cutting down on your plastic use. Win-win.
The only downside I have come across with these things so far is the price. Unfortunately the pastels are still more expensive than regular toothpaste – actually around double the price according to my (very fast) calculations. But that is simply a supply-demand issue, that I believe will even out once more people start using them.
I have even seen a Danish company that offers monthly toothpaste pastel subscriptions, sending you a new batch of 60 pastels once a month. I think we have to try that out once we are back from Norway.
Finally, since both shampoo bars and toothpaste pastels do not contain any liquid they do not count towards you 1L liquid limit on flight carry-ons.
That’s all for now. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions for products we should check out!