A passing fad or a genuine long-term swap? We tested a wide range of shampoo bars ourselves, over several weeks. Are they really as good as everyone online claims? Here are our 10 favorites.
Olivia Würfel
Search for shampoo bars online once, and you’ll spend the next several weeks fending off personalized ads for them. The internet seems positively saturated with the stuff. So what’s actually behind the hype?
I’ve used ordinary liquid shampoo from a plastic bottle my entire life. Honestly, I’d never once stopped to think about how much needless waste that habit produces. It was writing for O.Mag that first made me more attentive — more willing to question things — across all kinds of areas of my life, hair-washing included.
According to Stern, the average person gets through 787 shampoo bottles in a lifetime. That’s a staggering number when you consider it drops to zero if you switch to shampoo bars for good. The reason is simple: ordinary shampoo is bulked out with fillers like water, so it can be sold in liquid form inside watertight bottles. But doesn’t everyone already have water at home? A shampoo bar, in effect, is dry shampoo that you add water to yourself, in the shower. Because it’s solid and dry, it needs no plastic packaging at all — a paper wrapper or small cardboard box does the job. Some brands sell their bars with no packaging whatsoever, bringing the waste down to zero.
Shampoo bars, put to the test
The sheer volume of environmentally damaging material that a shampoo bar saves was enough to convince me to give this new trend a proper try.
The first wash was genuinely exciting. You take the bar with a little water in your hands and start rubbing — after a few strokes it begins to foam, just like a regular bar of soap. You then work that lather into wet hair. The key is to massage it in thoroughly, using your fingers as a comb. Scrubbing too vigorously, as with any hair product, just leaves your hair badly tangled. Clearing built-up product from the roots usually takes several rounds of lathering.
The next step is the one that actually matters: rinse thoroughly. This takes noticeably longer than with a regular liquid shampoo, and for good reason — if the bar isn’t completely rinsed out, it leaves a dull, faintly tacky film on your roots (a lesson I learned the hard way). A thorough rinse solves the problem entirely, as I discovered on my second attempt.
Once dry, my hair felt firmer and less straw-like than it usually does after ordinary shampoo, and it held its shape more easily. That said, finding the right bar for your specific hair and scalp type really does matter.
Verdict: shampoo bars are a genuine long-term alternative to liquid shampoo, and the amount of plastic you save along the way is hard to argue with.
Below, our 10 shampoo bars worth trying.
Manna — Soap for Healthy, Color-Treated Hair
We’re starting the list with something genuinely distinctive: as far as we know, this is the only shampoo bar developed specifically for color-treated strands.
The bar has long been a fixture of Manna’s lineup, winning over customers since 2012 with its natural ingredients: castor and olive oil, coconut oil for lather, green clay for its minerals and trace elements, and lavender and tea tree oil for a wonderful scent.
Manna’s story is a family one — it began when a mother, prompted by her newborn’s sensitivities, started making chemical-free cosmetics herself. Demand quickly spread among friends and family, and by 2010 the brand was making them for all of us.
This one made our personal top three.
Price: €8.70 / 90 g More information: https://mannaseife.de/produkte/seifen/seifen-2/haarseife-fur-gesunde-strahnen
FOAMIE — Aloe Vera Shampoo Bar for Dry Hair
FOAMIE impresses with its sheer range: face-cleansing bars, conditioner bars, shower bars, solid body butters, kids’ care products, dry shampoos, an array of soap accessories like dishes and pouches, and, of course, a wide selection of shampoo bars.
The shampoo bar lineup is just as broad: FOAMIE makes bars for dry, damaged, or fine hair, for anyone dealing with dandruff, and specifically for men.
The signature FOAMIE detail is the small hole punched through each bar with a cord threaded through it, so you can simply hang it up in the shower.
Price: €4.95 / 80 g More information: https://www.foamie.com/collections/feste-shampoos
SAUBERKUNST — “Verlockend” Shampoo Bar
The “Verlockend” (“Tempting”) bar was, as its name suggests, developed specifically for curly hair — though it doubles just as well as an all-over body wash.
It’s made from green avocado oil, rice milk, lemongrass oil and nettle, alongside olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, shea butter, green clay and limonene.
Every SAUBERKUNST bar is handmade in Germany and comes entirely free of plastic packaging.
Price: €5.90 / 100 g or €2.70 / 30 g More information: https://www.sauberkunst.de/haarseife-verlockend
LOGONA — Solid Shampoo, Organic Hemp & Organic Nettle
LOGONA’s solid shampoo suits every hair type. It skips silicones, which are kind to neither scalp nor pores, but doesn’t skimp on lather — natural surfactants take care of that.
The bar wins points for its gentle cleansing and intensive moisture, and it’s calibrated to skin’s natural pH, so it won’t disrupt the scalp’s protective acid mantle.
Price: €7.95 / 60 g More information: https://www.logona.de/de/produkt/festes-pflege-shampoo-bio-hanf-bio-brennnessel.html
Wolkenseifen
Despite the name, Wolkenseifen (“Cloud Soaps”) makes far more than soap alone — think bath cosmetics, mineral makeup, perfume, face and body care, sun protection, dental care, and fragrance-free products for allergy sufferers.
Wolkenseifen isn’t purely an online shop, either — it also runs a physical storefront in Berlin, inside the ALEXA shopping mall at Alexanderplatz. Its shampoo bar selection is enormous, with something suited to every hair type.
Having tried several of their bars myself, I honestly can’t single one out — the whole range earned a place among my personal top three.
Price: approx. €7.90 / 80 g More information: https://www.wolkenseifen.de/Haarseife_2
KLAR — Solid Shampoo, Chamomile & Nettle
KLAR’s soaps trace their history back to 1840, when master soap-maker Philipp Klar opened a shop alongside his workshop. The company has stayed loyal to its Heidelberg roots ever since and produces exclusively in Germany. Every KLAR bar has always been made without animal fats — they’re long-lasting and packaged entirely plastic-free.
Anyone with sensitive skin who reacts to detergents should reach for the Chamomile & Nettle bar — mild chamomile soothes an itchy, irritated scalp.
And for anyone after a little extra pampering, KLAR also makes a matching “Chamomile and Nettle” conditioner bar.
Price: €10 / 100 g More information: https://www.klarseifen.de/products/11039
Carenesse — Aleppo Soap
Carenesse specializes in traditional Aleppo soap, named for the Syrian city where it’s been made for roughly 1,200 years.
The Carenesse shop stocks a range of these soaps, differing mainly in their olive oil content. What makes them stand out is their versatility — suitable for body, face, and hair alike.
Natural Aleppo soap is deeply nourishing, which makes it especially well suited to dry skin and dry, damaged hair.
Price: €10.99 / 200 g More information: https://shop.carenesse.com/de/
Savion — Citrus Shampoo Bar
For normal or fast-oiling hair, the Citrus shampoo bar from Savion is your best bet. In September 2020, the German consumer magazine ÖKO-Test put it to the test and rated it “very good.”
Lemon and other citrus fruits are naturally effective at breaking down oils, which — combined with the bar’s nourishing ingredients — makes it a great match for hair or scalps that tend to get greasy fast.
Savion has been making the Citrus bar for 16 years now. It’s vegan, 100% biodegradable, low-waste, cruelty-free, and palm-oil-free.
This one also made our personal top three.
Price: €6.45 / 86 g More information: https://www.savion.de/haarseife-citrus/eh4130
SANTE — Solid Moisturizing Shampoo, Organic Mango & Aloe Vera
Also rated “very good” by ÖKO-Test is the Organic Mango & Aloe Vera bar from SANTE, with a tropical scent that offers a brief, welcome escape from the everyday.
It’s produced sustainably from renewable raw materials, and even the paper packaging is made from 100% recycled fibers. That’s not the only reason it’s the more eco-friendly choice, either — a single SANTE bar typically replaces two ordinary bottles of shampoo.
Price: €5.99 / 60 g More information: https://www.bio-naturel.de/sante-festes-feuchtigkeits-pflege-shampoo-bio-mango-aloe-vera/?number=LOG-40333
Nature Box — Solid Shampoo, Avocado Oil
Nature Box promises deep repair, right down to the ends, with its Avocado Oil shampoo bar.
Cold-pressed avocado oil hydrates hair, repairs damage, and helps guard against split ends. The bar leaves behind a pleasant, fruity scent — a blend of lily, violet, rose, amber and musk.
Nature Box products carry natural-cosmetics certification under the COSMOS NATURAL standard and are free of artificial additives like silicones or synthetic dyes.
Price: €4.99 / 85 g
