\n<\/p>\n
When people did give bars a try, they were often disappointed with the results. Reddit is riddled with posts from folks who felt solid shampoos had, at best, left their hair dry and frizzy or, at worst, caused it to fall out. Plus, these bars can get pretty nasty if you keep them in your shower between washes which, understandably, many people do. \u201cThe whole point is that it dissolves in water, which is why it works as a shampoo,\u201d Bird says. \u201cSo if you leave it sitting in a shower in a dish of water, the darn thing is going to melt.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some cases, the issue probably was<\/em> the formulation. \u201cI\u2019ve seen some brands just repackage traditional soap as shampoo bars,\u201d says Ramya Viswanathan, another cosmetic chemist. For some people, maybe those with shorter hair, that might work just fine. But for others, \u201cthe pH on those bars is too high,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s going to keep the cuticles open and make hair feel a little dry.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if the formula is optimized for hair care, there\u2019s a learning curve to switching to bars. Because solid shampoo is formulated without water, the ingredients are much more concentrated than what you get with a liquid. \u201cYou\u2019re getting so much surfactant on your hair that you have to change how you wash your hair,\u201d Sass says, noting that you should run the bar over your wet hair just two or three times, then use your fingers to work up a lather.<\/p>\n Either way, if you try one shampoo bar you hate, it might turn you off the category forever. \u201cIf you go buy a liquid shampoo and you use it and you don’t like it, you just go and buy another liquid shampoo,\u201d Vanessa Sharpe, general manager for product and innovation at Ethique, says. \u201cYou’re like, \u2018Okay, well, Tresemm\u00e9 is not for me. I’ll go get Dove.\u2019\u201d She finds that consumers are less likely to try a bar from another brand if this happens.<\/p>\n That buildup of mediocre results is now colliding with a waning interest in sustainability across industries. Even Lush customers, who bought 12.2 million new shampoo bars between 2006 and 2025 and are theoretically more eco-conscious than your average consumers, are still buying more of the bottled version. In 2024, Lush sold just under \u00a320M in shampoo bars and just under \u00a330M in liquid shampoo.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plastic-free story is not the key winner for consumers,\u201d Sharpe says. Viswanathan, who launched her own bar brand, Cmpressd, in late 2024, also says she doesn\u2019t \u201clead with the plastic-free thing.\u201d Anyone who hopes to sell shampoo bars might need to start \u201cgreen hushing,\u201d a phrase independent packaging consultant Allison Kent-Gunn Garibay says refers to the practice of working sustainability strategies into the production backend but leaving it out of marketing.<\/p>\n One big move Sharpe advised Ethique to make was to discontinue almost every other product it was making\u2014including face wash, moisturizers, deodorants, and body scrubs\u2014and just focus on the brand\u2019s relatively much more successful shampoo and conditioner bar SKUs. Those bars got some formulation tweaks and new, more ergonomic designs to make them easier to hold on to in the shower. There have been some disgruntled customers lamenting the loss of their favorites online, but ultimately it was the more sustainable move for the brand. \u201cWhen I started, I inherited 10 years worth of stock of [some of these] products,\u201d Sharpe says. \u201cIt\u2019s not sustainable if you have to throw [the product] out before it goes off.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n