I was first introduced to Daddy O when I was working at Lush, taking full advantage of my staff discount to treat myself to a bit of hair luxury. But I've returned to it many times since, and it still remains one of my favourite shampoos in the world for brightening my blonde hair.
I've written about it for Kiss and Makeup before (more than once, in fact) but felt it was worth revisiting all these years later because while other products have come and gone, this is one of the few I've remained faithful to. In fact, the only reason I've tried others in between is to give me something else to write about!
Lush may not be known for its haircare as much as it is for its bath bombs and the infamous smell that wafts from the shops, but Mark Constantine, the founder of the brand, is a trichologist, and this is the shampoo he made for his own hair, so you can rest assured it was made not only with love, but with some serious hair expertise too.
Originally, this was sold as a treatment for grey or white hair - the purple tint working to combat that brassy yellow tinge that fair hair is prone to. But this works just as well on blonde hair, and I've yet to find anything that keeps my colour looking better for longer.
Couple this with a killer scent (violet and rose for a parma violet smell that lasts all day) and you have a shampoo to be reckoned with. It is expensive (starting at £4.75 for a teensy 100ml bottle) but you're paying for essential oils like Rose Absolute and Violet Leaf Absolute, the coconut oil that nourishes the hair, and the lemon and seaweed infusion that makes up the bulk of the product.
One thing that's interesting to note is that Lush is one of the few natural beauty brands to still be using chemical surfactants (cleansing agents). That said the one in this product - Sodium Laureth Sulfate - is considered the gentler alternative to the more controversial Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. It's used in a lower concentration than in many drugstore shampoos, and is there to provide the lather that so many of us are addicted to, making it a more familiar, easy to use product than some organic / natural alternatives that barely lather at all.
I know a lot of people are now trying to cut the chemicals out of their beauty regime as much as possible, but as a compromise between a cheap shampoo loaded with a stronger surfactant and an organic one that struggles to clean hair, this may be the answer?