Unsure if I should even give this as part of boyfriends birthday gift

Hi! It’s my (37F) boyfriend’s birthday this weekend (he will be 36) and I got two things for him for his birthday. One I know he will appreciate and like, the other is something I’m not sure I should include as part of the gift or just give to him on the side.

A teeny bit of background…we’ve been dating since the end of April, so it’s a fairly new relationship. My birthday was at the beginning of May, and he got me a coffee mug as a birthday gift. It was perfect, it’s themed with my favorite character (Luna Lovegood), and it’s one of those add heat reveal the design type mugs. It was a gift that wasn’t too expensive since we had barely been dating, but thoughtful at the same time. Now I have my own coffee mug for when I stay over at his place :)

For work, he does all sorts of manual type projects, is outside often, and keeps up on his hydration with a tumbler style water bottle while he’s out in the heat. His current one is beat up, paint coming off, and the lid is cracked. So for his gift I found a replacement water bottle as he’s been mentioning needing to get a new one. It was kinda tough finding a similar one that has a screw on lid, but I finally found one that’s just right. That’s the gift I know he will like, it’s something he needs and wants and it sorta matches the theme of what he gave me for my birthday.

Here’s where I’m overthinking…
When I stay at his place overnight and shower in the morning, I’ve been using his shampoo/conditioner instead of bringing little travel size ones with me (with his permission of course). I didn’t realize the shampoo/conditioner he uses is SO EXPENSIVE. The bottles are only 10oz so pretty tiny, and because he’s a dude, they’ve lasted him ages. Since I started using them, they’re getting close to running out. I got replacements for the shampoo and conditioner since I have used so much, but I don’t know if I should include that in the gift bag with the other present, or just give them to him on the side. It seems so lame to give shampoo/conditioner as a gift, expensive or not. His other gift also being practical, I’m worried that it won’t seem thoughtful, especially since his gift to me was simple but showed he’d already picked up on my likes and dislikes so early on. He’s one of those guys who has literalllllly everything already, so even thinking of something to get him was kinda difficult in the first place. I feel stupid overthinking this, but I don’t want to give a lame ass birthday present.

So do I put the shampoo and conditioner in the bag with his gift, or just casually slip them into the shower as backups for when the current ones run out?

Thanks ahead of time, and I look forward to both the genuine responses as well as the absolute roast I’m probably gonna get in the comments lmao

Posted Aug 13, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

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