Viori Hair Care Review
I purchased Viori's shampoo and conditioner bars with my own money.
Instagram and Facebook ads are incredibly insidious. They will suggest products over and over until I am clicking "add to cart" and typing my card information into the payment section. I'm not sure if I am more angry at myself for giving in, or angry that IG and FB have gotten way too good at suggesting products I want.
That's exactly how I came upon Viori, a hair care brand claiming its products contain rice grown by the Red Yao tribe in the Longsheng Mountains of China. You'd think Instagram has been using my microphone to listen to me call my Chinese boyfriend "my beautiful caramel man." One way or another I am suspicious that this wasn't just a coincidence. But when the shampoo bar looks like a moon cake fresh from the molding press, I have a hard time saying no.
Their informational video gushes over the long hair of the Red Yao women, and how they aren't graying even when they get older. They show the women at a water pool brushing fermented rice water through their hair. You see panoramic views of the terraces on the mountain. Red Yao women smile at the camera. The shampoo bars are displayed in a lovely macro shot. I don't want to do a play-by-play of the whole video, so I have embedded it for you below if you would like to watch it. Then we can both talk about how the girl doing the voice-over is 100% reading a script, and giving us 10% excitement over the product. Sell it to me like Billy Mays, people. May he rest in peace.
I find the bit about lack of graying misleading, as it almost suggests that using their product will prevent your hair from graying. Scientifically speaking, the graying of hair has more to do with oxidative stress and genetics than shampoo does. So will using these shampoo bars or rinsing your hair with fermented rice water keep you from graying? I don't think so, but let's move on.
The appeal of shampoo bars for me is twofold: 1) I have had one too many shampoo leaks on clothing when I travel, and 2) no plastic packaging for me to haul to the recycling center. I get it, I pollute with gas to drive to the recycle center, but this means less plastic in the ocean, and I choose the ocean. Anyway. This specific shampoo bar appealed to me because of the brand story and the elegant look of the moon-cake-shaped bar itself.
While I honestly have no proof that they buy this rice "at a premium" from this tribe to "help preserve their culture," I would like to believe that their goals are humanitarian and not mercenary in nature. I hope so hard that this is true, because it would be so easy for a company to exploit a disappearing tribe for profit. Having said this, I encourage discussion in the comments.
I have talked enough about the company. I will finally move along to the products. I ordered a shampoo and conditioner bar in the "Terrace Garden" scent. They have three scents available: Citrus Yao, Terrace Garden, and Secret Waterfall. The smell of the shampoo and conditioner bars is pleasant, but very intense. Sadly, the scent doesn't last long in the shower and doesn't seem to perfume my hair once it is dry.
They were out of the bamboo holders for the bars, which I don't intend to buy anyway. Exposing dried grasses (yes, bamboo is a grass, google it) to a constant level of humidity like that in a bathroom is no bueno. Learned that the hard way with seagrass baskets mildewing in the humidity from my shower steam. Plus, I found it kind of weird to put beauty products into a mini version of a bamboo steamer. I see those things and my brain jumps straight to har gow, not shampoo. So, I bought two reusable soap boxes from amazon to house them.
As promised, the packaging for the bars is recyclable paper. The shampoo bar comes in a beautiful metallic folded paper box, and the conditioner bar comes with a strip of paper wrapped around it. My shampoo bar came a bit melted due to the summer heat, but otherwise it arrived timely and intact.
The bars were surprisingly easy to use. Wet your hair, wet your hands, rub the bar all along your head, massage it into a lather and rinse it out. The conditioner bar works the same way: wet hair, wet hands, massage it into your hair. My hair felt clean and moisturized after using them.
Are they something to rave about? Yes and no. They do everything my usual shampoo does: clean my hair, moisturize my hair. However, I like that these bars were easier to use than shampoo bars I have bought before. I love that the ingredient list is so short and there are no parabens or sulfates in sight. I am loving that giving back is part of the company's mission statement. I love that these don't involve yet another plastic bottle.
With all of that being said, I would still purchase them again because I like them. Would I try other shampoo and conditioner bars? Also yes. I am definitely a new convert to this product type.
I also feel that I should tell you that as of 6/21/2020 you can get the bars for $9.99 each using the code TRY$9. Save some money, always.
Kasey
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