19/03/2026
You use me everyday to wash your hair, but have u ever wondered about my origin, how did I came to being?
For ages, I have existed in India, long before I was bottled and placed on your shelves. I was not always what you know me as today. I began as champi, or tel malish—a gentle ritual of warm oil and soothing hands.
Champi was a way of healing, relaxing, and restoring. This act of massaging the scalp with care turns an everyday act into a quiet moment of comfort. Earlier, Reetha, Amla, Hibiscus, and Shikakai- herbs that cleansed and nourished long before foam and fragrance arrived- were used for cleaning hair in India.
Far away in Europe, washing hair was not common; people focused more on styling, using ingredients such as vinegar, eggs, rum, or oils. But I travelled across seas with Sake Dean Mahomed, who introduced this practice in Britain through vapour baths and therapeutic massages in the early 19th century. These Indian medicated vapoured baths were used as a cure for many diseases. There, I slowly began to change. From a massage, I became a method of washing, and in 1762, I was given the name “Shampoo.”
Over time, I transformed further with science. In 1904, I appeared as a powdered mix, in 1927 as a liquid, introduced by the German chemist Hans Schwarzkopf. By the 1970s, I had become part of everyday life. Yet even today, beneath the foam and fragrance, I carry my origins—a story of touch, care, and quiet healing that began not in a bottle, but in human hands.
