Clarifying Shampoo. Yes I wanna talk about it.

Just a thought for the ladies... (and/or the guys, but I know half of you guys probably use bar soap to wash your hair)...

CLARIFYING SHAMPOO. Anybody got any experience with it? I used to pretty much ignore those products, because it just sounded like a fresh new selling perspective for the shampoo industry.

I was at Short Hills Mall with my friend Krystle, and there was an Aveda store (fancy!), so she decided she wanted to go in and splurge on some good shampoo. She's always saying that she has a hard time finding a really good volumizing shampoo for her thin hair... always works for the first few days or weeks, then just... stops working. The girl at the store -- instead of just trying to hawk all their products on us -- actually was pretty informative about the importance of using clarifying shampoo. Apparently, product and oil just builds up on the hair shaft and once a week you should clean up the gunk with a clarifier. I've heard of switching up shampoos, but I think I always thought it was 'cause your hair gets "bored" with the shampoo and starts misbehaving. The salesgirl even bluntly said, "And we have a clarifying shampoo here, but you don't even have to use ours, you can use any clarifying shampoo."

Fast forward to today, and before she even said anything, I noticed that Krystle's hair actually looked... volumized. "So it's working out with that volumizing shampoo, huh?"
"Actually, I did buy a clarifying shampoo like that girl said, and it worked!"

So there's more to actually using clarifying shampoo than just fancy terminology on the bottle! I've been using Garnier shampoo for colored hair, which I really love, but was worried I'd have to seek out a new shampoo bc I thought I was getting hair-boredom. But now looks like some clarifying shampoo is in order.

What's your experience? My mom says a rinse of white vinegar will do the same thing, so "don't buy those expensive products. It's a waste of your money." $4 for Neutrgena clarifying shampoo? I think not. Besides I actually did try the white vinegar thing (just to shut her up), and I guess it kinda worked, but I did get some vinegar in my eyes. So while my hair looked fab, my eyes were bloodshot and stinking, and I was pretty pissed off.