Shampoo

From A Beautiful Life, makers of the incredible natural nail polish remover that really works and I Heart Unicorns Perfume, comes these cute as can be Honey'do Shampoo and Conditioner ($16 each or $30 for the set).

While they look like something you'd keep in your kitchen, much like FarmHouse Fresh Goods' Sweet Cream Body Milk ($26), these goodies are best left in the shower — and not drizzled atop your Elvis-style peanut butter and banana sandwich. Made with organic honey to promote bounce and shine in the hair, these orange-blossom-scented products are also sulfate- and paraben-free. Will you get your buzz on?

Gilles Marini may be best known for his successful foray onto Dancing With the Stars and his role as Luc on Brothers & Sisters. But he's also an expert shower-taker, as anyone who saw his turn as Samantha's sexy exhibitionist neighbor in the first Sex and the City movie knows.

I got the chance to meet Gilles a couple weeks back when he was in San Francisco. He's a L'Occitane ambassador, which makes sense: he grew up in Provence and even used to take lavender from the L'Occitane fields as a child. And now I know how he shortens his bathing time. Instead of using his shampoo and conditioner separately, Gilles says he makes his own two-in-one by mixing his products, lathering, and then leaving them on for two minutes. Why he would ever want to save time in the shower, however, is still a mystery.

It turns out that gold shampoo isn't just for blondes. While getting a cut the other day, my stylist used a shampoo with light golden undertones — Aveda's Camomile ($26) — on my dark brunette strands. What gives?

She explained that while most of her clients don't want any gold or brassy tones in their hair, using a shampoo with golden undertones increases shine in all hair textures and shades. The reasoning is that the luminescent, warm shade actually helps light to reflect off the hair more easily. In turn, while opposite-hued, blue-based shampoos definitely have their place in this world, overuse can actually cause a dull, flat appearance to the hair. So the next time you need a little pick-me-up, some golden shampoo could make you a shiny happy person.

Sulfates (aka sodium laureth sulfate and ammonium laureth sulfate), which are the agents that make our cosmetics lather and suds, are often looked down upon for their tendencies to dry out hair and strip color. Because of that, an increasing number of brands are joining in on the sulfate-free wagon, like L'Oréal Paris.

On the flip side, others complain that they just don't get the lather or clean feeling that shampoos containing sulfates provide, or that they just don't work as well with certain chemical services (like keratin treatments). While Aveda offers up four sulfate-free shampoos, the brand's Pat Peterson admitted to The New York Times, "You can't pinpoint one ingredient that's doing good or bad in your shampoo. It doesn't make sense."

What say you on the topic? Do you find your sulfate-containing shampoos to be perfectly lovely, or are you team sulfate-free all the way?

In the quest for a natural-leaning hair care line, I've been blowing through about a dozen brands. More on those soon, but for now, let's look at Evolvh. If you can get past the oddball spelling, you'll find a vegan and mostly organic collection of shampoo, conditioner, and styling products. They're free of sulfates and parabens, but they're filled with extracts of plants such as mallow, flax, pansy, and marigold.

That's all fine and dandy, but how well do they work? Actually, pretty well. The shampoo and conditioner have a light, pleasant scent and leave hair shiny and moisturized. But the star of the line is Ultimate styling lotion ($28), which claims to provide volume, hold, and shine. It's super-lightweight, keeps frizz at bay, and gives hair a glossy but not greasy look. Win!

If you love coffee, or even just the scent of it, let me introduce you to the Barista Bath and Body (B3) line of products. Launched just a few months ago by three businesswomen (a mother, daughter, and niece), unlike many other "coffee-scented" hair and body lines, the B3 products actually do contain the real deal. Free of parabens, sulfates, and phthalates, it features organic, fair trade coffee, coffee seed oil, coffee extract, or ground coffee within the brand's eight core offerings. Why coffee, you ask? Not only is it a stimulating ingredient, but its acidic pH balance is also similar to our own hair and skin. To find out more about this caffeinated brand, along with a review of a few of the products, just keep reading.

A couple of weeks ago, Kérastase sent a package of its new Nutri-Thermique hair care collection. Naturally, the first thing Mr. Bella did was put his nose by the shampoo.

"This smells like Holiday Inn stuff," he said.

"But it's French," I harrumphed. "They don't even have Holiday Inn in France!" (Not true.)

Fast-forward to our next date. I show up after using the shampoo and conditioner, then blow-drying my hair without any products. At one point, Mr. Bella smells my hair and says, "Wow, your hair smells really good." Sigh.

At any rate, he's right: the shampoo leaves a beautiful, soft floral scent. More importantly, it cuts down on frizz and flyaways, plus I can go one extra day without washing. At $34 for the shampoo and $38 for the conditioner, these items are definite splurges. But if it fits into your budget — or you merely seek great-smelling hair care — it's worth a look.