Picked up two almost identical bottles of shampoo and body wash at Trader Joe’s. The price was identical. The branding was identical. The color and viscosity of the liquid? Identical. Gosh, they even smell the same. Yet, they are distinctly different products: one is shampoo, the other, body wash.

Let’s turn the bottle around…

Hmmm…

The ingredients are largely identical, with three additional ingredients in the shampoo that are missing from the body wash (highlighted in yellow by yours truly):

• ginger
• echinacea
• comfrey

What does this mean? Here are some theories:

• Hair is hungrier, and likes spicy food.
• Hair is more likely to catch a cold than skin, which is why it needs an echinacea immunity boost.
• Comfrey sounds nice; it probably does nothing, but it helps balance out an ingredient list that is primarily chemicals otherwise.
• They use the exact same base, but since your average bimbo has been indoctrinated by Pantene Pro-B vitamin commercials to think hair is hungry for vitamins and other nutritional supplements and probably pays closer attention to shampoo labels than body wash ones, it gets a few extra ingredients.

Consider that both hair and skin are primarily composed of keratin, and are dead tissue, maybe TJ’s is on to something.