The new shampoo and conditioner product was contained in a very artistically designed bottle with special graphics on the outside. A national ad campaign had just started and the distinctive bottle was becoming recognizable.
This description sounds like someone in the US in the 70s might be able to recall which brand it was.
A quick search also finds someone with a similar experience many years later, probably different brand since the original manufacturer would've learned to avoid it:
There are a couple of problems with pinning it down. First, how much "literary license" is the author using to describe the bottle? It might be much more plain and undistinguished than described. Second, it could have been any number of brands, as funky bottles and labels were not uncommon. Hell, even the syrup for our pancakes came in a glass bottle shaped like a woman.
That said, if I had to guess I'd offer two candidates that stand out in my head. First is Farah Fawcett Shampoo. Full color picture of the woman, though the bottle shape was forgettable. Second is Body on Tap: "made with 33% real beer", or something like that. I mention it only because the bottle was cone-shaped ("artistically designed"?), and if the claim is true maybe the beer adds extra loose electrons, I dunno. Or it very well could have been any number of shampoos that showed up briefly, didn't sell, and was yanked so fast even us olde parts who were there don't remember them.
EDIT: or maybe I should read the whole article, as it mentions at the end that it's still sold, which eliminates my two candidates.
They were still sold in 1997 when the article was written. I don't know the shampoos you mention though so I have no idea if your candidates were still being sold back then.
This description sounds like someone in the US in the 70s might be able to recall which brand it was.
A quick search also finds someone with a similar experience many years later, probably different brand since the original manufacturer would've learned to avoid it:
http://jayderose.blogspot.com/2006/09/my-shampoo-shocked-me....