Best shampoo bars for every hair type

Best shampoo bars for every hair type

We see you, eyeing us off, unsure how to approach us.

Let's break the ice and get to know each other a little better.

We're Ethique, best known for our plastic-free, vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil free shampoo bars and being all-around good sorts for the planet.

Which Ethique shampoo bar is best for your hair type?

Solid question. Try our handy dandy flow-charts to find the best bar for your hair type, or scroll down to see even more info!

Flowchart: find the best shampoo bar for your hair and scalp

Best Shampoo Bar for Fine Hair & Volume

Sweet & Spicy shampoo bar

Got fine hair? You’re probably looking for a product that can add volume by lifting the root of the hair.

What is the best shampoo bar for fine hair needing loads of volume? Our Sweet & Spicy shampoo bar cleanses hair, lifts the roots and gives you voluminous, bouncy hair. It also smells deliciously sweet and zingy with orange, cinnamon, and ginger.

And our secret ingredient - sea salt - brings life and volume to fine flat hair, leaving you with light, bouncy, beach-like hair.

Sweet & Spicy is also great for normal or balanced hair that needs a bit of oomph in the volume department without a daily wash.

Perfect conditioner pairing: Wonderbar conditioner bar for a lightweight conditioner or The Guardian conditioner bar for a more intense nourishment.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚 77% of testers found Sweet and Spicy shampoo bar added more volume to their hair

Best Shampoo Bar for Balanced (normal) Hair

Tip-to-Toe shampoo and shaving bar

Tip-to-Toe was specially formulated to work as both a shampoo and a shave bar – lifting the hairs for a close, smooth shave. The lather is rich and soft, leaving your shave smooth with a zesty, clean scent. The Tip-to-Toe shampoo and shave bar works best when applied with a shaving brush or lathered by hand and spread on the skin.

Tip-to-Toe is a great multitasking shampoo, shave bar and a bodywash bar as it contains gentle surfactants and kaolin clay to create a soft, rich lather. It’s also a great bar option for travelling (team it up with Flash, our laundry bar).

Perfect conditioner pairing: Wonderbar conditioner bar for a lightweight conditioner or The Guardian conditioner bar for a more intense nourishment.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Shampoo & shaving bar – the perfect multitasking bar

Best Shampoo Bar for Oily to Balanced (Normal) Hair

Pinkalicious shampoo bar

If your hair is balanced (normal) meaning it isn’t too oily or too dry, Pinkalicious shampoo bar is the best option for you.

Pinkalicious contains fairly traded creamed coconut and cocoa butters to help give you smooth and soft hair. Glycerin, a humectant, is also in Pinkalicious as it draws moisture to hair for weightless shine and luscious locks.

Perfect conditioner pairing: try our Wonderbar conditioning bar which is not too heavy and gives just the right amount of conditioning to hair.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Works with hard water

💚 No transition period

Best Shampoo Bar for Oily Hair

St Clements shampoo bar

If you’re looking for the perfect clarifying shampoo bar for oily hair, St Clements shampoo bar is the best option.

You won’t find any harsh ‘stripping’ foaming agents (that just create more oil) in this shampoo bar. Instead, you’ll find lime and orange oils that balance oil production, clean the scalp, and freshen up your hair. St Clements shampoo bar is also the best option for swimmers as it helps to gently remove oils, chlorine and styling products from hair to give fresh, bouncy tresses.

How? It all comes down to the great formulation. St Clements contains zingy lime and orange essential oils to refresh the hair and scalp as gentle surfactants cleanse without stripping them of moisture. Castor oil is a remarkable oil at dissolving oils and sebum, making it a wonderful addition to help remove stubborn residue from hair.

St. Clements restores shine fantastically on its own thanks to humectants such as glycerine, which draws moisture to hair without any heavy oils. Use it on its own, or pair it with a lightweight conditioner such as Wonderbar for weightlessly nourished locks.

Perfect conditioner pairing: St Clements shampoo bar has humectants to attract moisture to your hair without the oil so you don’t need to use a conditioner. But if you’re after a conditioner for your ends, Wonderbar conditioner bar is a great option for a lightweight conditioner or The Guardian conditioner bar for a more intense nourishment.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Removes oil without stripping or drying hair

Best Shampoo Bar for Dandruff

Heali Kiwi shampoo bar

Itchy, dry scalp got you down? Our gentle Heali Kiwi solid shampoo is here to help!

Heali Kiwi is our top-selling shampoo bar. It contains a powerful blend of neem and karanja oils, which are renowned in Ayurvedic medicine for their healing properties. Combined with soothing oatmeal to calm touchy scalps, Heali Kiwi gently and effectively helps to wash your scalp woes away as fairly traded cocoa butter & coconut oil nourish hair for softness and shine.

Despite what the name might suggest, Heali Kiwi shampoo does not contain any kiwifruit. The name pays homage to our homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand - we're Kiwi after all!

We recommend trying a mini of our Heali Kiwi solid shampoo or a trial pack for sensitive skin and hair. Don't forget to patch test. Send us an email if you have any questions.

Perfect conditioner pairing: Wonderbar conditioner bar for a lightweight conditioner or In The Buff for an unscented conditioner option.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for colour treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Gentle formulation that helps combat scalp issues

Best Shampoo Bar for Sensitive Skin

Bar Minimum shampoo bar

Sometimes, less is best - so we've put the bare minimum into Bar Minimum unscented shampoo bar for those of you who are sensitive to fragrances and essential oils, or the minimalists who prefer the simplicity of a fuss-free, unscented product.

In place of our usual coconut oil to nourish strands, we've used the less-allergenic babassu oil (that's fairly traded, of course) and added betaine, which is derived from sugar beets, to help calm irritation of the scalp.

The sulfate-free formulation gently cleanses as cocoa butter and glycerine add softness and shine for luscious hair and a happy scalp that will love you forever.

Bar Minimium is just the ticket for sensitive scalps: free from fragrance, sulfates, and essential oils.

Perfect conditioner pairing: In the Buff unscented conditioner bar.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Great for sensitive scalps.

Best Shampoo Bar for Blonde & Grey Hair

Tone It Down shampoo bar

Hey there, blonde and grey silver foxes. This one is for you – Tone It Down.

Neutralize brassy yellow tones from blonde and silver hair with purple pigments in our Tone It Down shampoo bar. Instead of petrochemical-derived dyes, we use ethically-sourced mica, a blend of naturally occurring mineral pigments, and a dash of beetroot powder for extra color power in this vibrantly purple bar.

Fairly traded babassu oil and cocoa butter add softness and shine as the sulfate-free formula gently cleanses. To top it off? The luxurious scent of jasmine and vanilla makes every hair wash day feel like a treat.

With no sulfates or petrochemical-derived dyes, our Tone It Down solid purple shampoo bar will keep yellow, brassy hair at bay, making it perfect for blonde hair and grey hair.

Perfect conditioner pairing: our Tone It Down conditioner bar, of course. Together they will leave your blonde or grey hair bright and luminous.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Best for blondes and silver foxes

Best Shampoo Bar for Color Treated Hair

All Ethique shampoo bars are safe for color treated hair

All of our shampoo bars are safe for color treated hair, meaning they won't strip your hair color but they also won’t prolong your hair color. But do watch out as not all shampoo bars on the market are safe for color treated hair so it pays to learn why and how to tell if your shampoo bar is.

Best Shampoo Bar for Dry & Damaged Hair

Mintasy or Frizz Wrangler shampoo bar

Depending on how dry we're talking, we recommend either our Mintasy shampoo bar or Frizz Wrangler shampoo bar.

Mintasy shampoo bar is the perfect shampoo bar for normal-to-dry hair that could do with a little TLC. Maybe you heat-style a couple of times a week, or your tresses are a little tired from the occasional swim in a chlorine pool. Regardless, this uplifting bar will cleanse and smooth your hair without weighing strands down.

Frizz Wrangler shampoo bar is for a those with more damaged hair. It dishes out a generous serving of hydration without weighing you down. Designed for beautiful curly locks or hair subjected to hot tools and bleach, this shampoo bar is the master of taming the frizz.

Perfect conditioner pairing: The Guardian conditioner bar for a good dose of nourishment or if you really want the most conditioning conditioner in our range, opt for Too Delicious conditioner.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

Best Shampoo Bar for Curly Hair

Professor Curl shampoo bar

Specially formulated in line with curl care principles, Professor Curl is a pH-balanced, solid shampoo bar that gently cleanses without drying out your curls.

Made with a hydrating blend of ingredients like shea butter, betaine (from sugar beets), and cocoa butter, Professor Curl will help promote soft hair and defined curls. You won’t find any sulfates, silicones, waxes, or drying alcohols. Instead, you’ve got a solid shampoo that is equivalent to three bottles of salon-quality goodness that lathers like a normal shampoo for fresh, bouncy curls.

To top it off, Professor Curl solid shampoo is infused with an uplifting aroma of creamy coconut and invigorating lemongrass and smell just divine.

88% of our trialists said that our curly care duo gave them soft, more manageable curls, and 90% of them would recommend it to a friend.

Perfect conditioner pairing: Our Curliosity conditioning bar is the perfect conditioner and it also works as a leave-in conditioner for curly hair.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚No sulfates, waxes, silicones, or drying alcohols

💚Formulated for wavy, curly, and coily hair

Best Shampoo Bar for Frizzy Hair

Frizz Wrangler shampoo bar

Supremely smoothing without weighing your hair down, our Frizz Wrangler shampoo bar is the go-to bar for hair that’s beautifully curly or exposed to hot tools and bleach.

Fairtrade Samoan coconut oil and cocoa butter star in this delightfully coconutty shampoo bar. The result? Silky-smooth tresses that are frizz-free, full of life, and a piece of cake to style.

Perfect conditioner pairing: The Guardian conditioner bar for a good dose of nourishment or if you really want the most conditioning conditioner in our range, opt for Too Delicious conditioner.

💚100% soap-free, pH balanced and safe for color treated hair

💚Equivalent to 3 bottles of liquid shampoo

💚Perfect for dry, frizzy or curly hair

 

Not ready to skip liquid shampoo & conditioner? We’ve got the perfect solution for you; our solid-to-liquid concentrates.

Our shampoo and conditioner concentrates make 350g of liquid shampoo or conditioner. Snap the Concentrate bars into small pieces, add hot water, whisk, and pour into a bottle you already have. Voilà!

Try a Mini or Discovery Pack before you commit to a big shampoo bar

Looking to #giveupthebottle but not sure which Ethique shampoo bar is for you? No worries. Our Minis and Discovery Packs are the perfect travel and trial size, lasting up to 10 uses per mini.

How to use and store our shampoo bars

New here? Welcome to the plastic-free revolution! Not quite sure how to use solid shampoo and conditioners? No probs! We have some easy peasy tips on hand to help you get started.

Wondering how to stop those little bar pieces from going down the drain? We’ve got that covered with our Ethique storage trays and shampoo & soap saver bag.

Trying Ethique products for the first time and have more questions?

Contact our experts aka our Ethique Miracle Workers at hello@ethique.com