Wash Multinationals out of your hair!

I have been a great fan of Pantene¹, which is a really old shampoo it was invented in 1945 by Swiss company Hoffman-LaRoche but following takeover after takeover is now part of the Proctor and Gamble² family.  I have already told you how obscene their takings are but having read their website my feeling is they make all the right noises about giving back to the community/planet, most employees having shares in the Company etc, etc but I just think it is wrong for a company to get that big.  I counted 70 different brands of health, beauty, grooming and household goods.  They own Clairol, Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Nice and Easy, Vidal Sassoon and Wella hair care companies as well as Pantene. 

I promise this is the last of the bathroom themed posts for a wee while but as I said before I am running out of shampoo etc and need to know what is available that isn’t produced by a multinational. 

 

Having eliminated the above shampoos, conditioners etc I checked my bathroom for branding I have Dove and Garnier self tanning moisturiser for my dry white legs. Dove is made by Unilever³ which is the third largest consumer goods company after P&G and Nestle.  If you are trying to avoid it you can’t use Simple^4&5 skin products, I use a lot of them as I have sensitive skin. I can’t use Knorr stock cubes or have Hellman’s mayonnaise or a Magnum ice cream which is a shame as I have had a craving for a Magnum since they put up a giant Magnum on a billboard near my house. They also own Sunsilk shampoo so I will have to avoid that too! I digress; Garnier⁶ is part of the L’Oreal⁷group which is the world’s largest cosmetics company. 

 

My Dad uses baby shampoo so I suppose I could try that but Johnston and Johnston⁸ is and always has been an American Company!

I thought Santuary Spa⁹ might be a possibility.  No, it was bought by PZ Cussons¹⁰, the makers of Imperial Leather, in 2008. PZ Cussons is an amalgamation of PZ a company from Ghana with Cussons the British Soap maker. 

Some of my toiletries were own brand from Boots but they are out now too.  What am I going to do?

Well, Green People¹¹ makes shampoo and conditioner but it is between £9 and £14 pounds a bottle!  I found that the Natural Soap Company¹² does a shampoo soap that shampoos and conditions for £3.95.  This company started on a kitchen table and still operates from Wells.  I'll maybe try that.

Actually I won’t.  I was rooting around in my local Scotmid since writing that and found Co-operative¹³ own brand, no perfume, no colour soap which is also cruelty free and contains certified sustainable palm oil, how about that for soap with green credentials for only 50p! They also had coconut and honey shampoo and conditioner at £1.09 each so I bought them too.  I am really happy with my purchases but haven’t tried them yet, so I will keep you posted.

References

1. http://pantene.com/en-gb
2. http://www.pg.com/en_UK/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever
4. www.simple.co.uk
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Skincare
6. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Oréal  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnier
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Or%C3%A9al
8. https://www.jnj.com/about-jnj/company-history
9. http://www.sanctuary.com/en-gb/our-story/
10. www.pzcussons.com
11. www.greenpeople.co.uk
12. http://www.naturalsoap.co.uk/about.htm
13. http://news.co-operativefood.co.uk/latest-news/the-co-operative-and-cruelty-free-international.html