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From curly to oily hair and beyond, we have a plastic-free shampoo for everyone.

Swapping a shampoo bar in for your favorite shampoo brand is one way to reduce plastic waste in your daily routine. Shampoo bars are often minimally packaged in recyclable cardboard or reusable containers, which cuts down on packaging waste, and they're more concentrated than their bottled counterparts. "Due to much lower water content, bar shampoos weigh less than their conventional counterparts," says Birnur Aral, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Beauty, Health, and Sustainability Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, adding that this can make shipping the bars more energy-efficient: "On a product basis, less energy is required to ship bar shampoos compared to liquid shampoos due to their smaller weight."

But can shampoo bars deliver the same performance as your favorite bottled shampoo? The chemists in the Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab regularly test shampoos, from thickening shampoos to shampoo for colored hair, hydrating shampoo for dry hair, shampoo formulated for oily hair and beyond. When we test shampoo bars, we evaluate lather, cleaning ability, how soft they leave hair and how long they last. All said, we found the best shampoo bars for all hair types, from curly to oily and everything in between. Our list of recommended products consists of GH Beauty Award winners of our award programs, expert-tested picks and editor favorites.

Here, read all about the ins and outs of the best shampoo bars you can buy, plus how to use and store one for maximum efficacy.

Every single GH Beauty Lab expert was impressed with this bargain-priced teardrop-shaped gem from Garnier. This is no small feat as our experts' strands cover a wide range, from oily to dry, thin to coarse and unprocessed to bleached. "The lather is lush, it smells amazing and it leaves hair feeling fully clean yet not dry" raved GH Beauty Director April Franzino. We also like that it is cruelty-free certified by Leaping Bunny and packaged in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified cardboard, meaning that the packaging is not only recyclable curbside but is also obtained responsibly from well-managed forests.

• Hair type: All hair types • Fragrance: Honey and musk • Size: 2 oz.

Formulated with sulfate-free surfactants, this Love Beauty and Planet bar is infused with murumuru seed butter, coconut oil and sunflower seed oil to help maintain vibrancy and provide care for color-treated hair. Its floral scent powered by Bulgarian rose extract makes this formula an irresistible drugstore buy. Our Lab experts also love that this product line is packaged in boxes made entirely from recycled cardboard stock.

• Hair type: Color-treated hair • Fragrance: Rose • Size: 4 oz.

This Good Juju bar is formulated with a great mix of conditioning ingredients including synthetics similar to those in liquid conditioners as well as natural butters and oils to soften and reduce frizz in curly hair. The rich blend of plant-derived ingredients includes sacha inchi oil, broccoli seed oil, snow mushroom extract and shea butter. GH Home Appliances & Cleaning Products Lab Analyst Jodhaira Rodriguez raved about this bar for curly hair, saying that it "lathered up really well" and "the scent is very pleasant and light."

• Hair type: Curly hair • Fragrance: Sweet orange and patchouli • Size: 2.5 oz.

This bar from Lush brings the beach to your bathroom with bits of real seaweed and fine sea salt granules to refresh those with oily hair. A GH tester raved, "I like its rough texture; it feels like I'm actually scrubbing away dirt." She also praised the fresh scent, saying the bar "makes my hair and the shower smell like an ocean breeze."

• Hair type: Oily hair • Fragrance: Citrus, mimosa and jasmine • Size: 1.9 oz.

This Love Beauty and Planet bar formulated with sulfate-free surfactants not only cleanses hair, but thanks to the coconut oil in its formula, leaves strands with enough lubrication to double up as a conditioner. It's a favorite of Jamie Spain, GH Parenting and Pets Reviews Analyst, who raves, "I've used this bar for about a year and it still isn't done, so I love that it truly has a lot of product." This bar is formulated for fine hair, so those with thicker hair may want to follow it with a conditioner.

• Hair type: Fine hair • Fragrance: Creamy coconut and delicate floral notes • Size: 4.0 oz

If your hair is dry, brittle and in need of moisture, consider this nourishing pick from L'Occitane. Their sulfate-free bar claims to treat damaged strands with oat amino acids, sunflower oil and olive oil. GH Beauty Lab experts were impressed by how it left hair feeling soft and shiny. They also love that it comes in a 100% recycled cardboard box.

• Hair type: Dry hair • Fragrance: Lavender, ylang ylang, sweet orange and geranium • Size: 2.1 oz.

Lush is known for their "naked" (a.k.a., unpackaged) products when purchased in-store, and this bar stands out in their lineup. This formula rose to the top in a test of bar shampoos carried out by our sister lab at Hearst Institute in the UK. This bar rated well for gently cleansing hair without stripping it, and was lauded for its gourmand honey-toffee scent.

• Hair type: All hair types • Fragrance: Sweet honey-toffee • Size: 1.9 oz.

This was a favorite among reviewers with thick hair, thanks to its asymmetric bullet shape which allows for easy lathering and reaching the roots of thick strands. Plus, the conditioning formula with rice protein leaves hair "shiny and hydrated," according to a GH tester.

• Hair type: Thick or coarse hair • Fragrance: Citrus and ginger • Size: 3.2 oz.

This Foamie bar also won praise in the Hearst Institute's test for leaving hair smooth and being great for travel. The brand offers a novel travel box which can be purchased separately. The built-in cloth loop makes it easy to hang it up to dry wherever you are, and the travel box ensures the bar arrives at your destination mess-free. The bar's shape is also very easy to hold, preventing accidental drops.

• Hair type: All hair types • Fragrance: Tropical hibiscus • Size: 2.8 oz.

HiBar's fragrance made from a blend of citrus oils will please every member of the family. It's a favorite of GH Home Improvement Lab Director Dan DiClerico, who raves that this bar "has a nice, neutral scent and leaves my hair feeling clean." A previous winner of our Sustainable Innovation Awards, it comes in a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)–certified paper pouch and is wrapped in a soy wax–coated inner pack to help maintain the bar’s integrity during shipping and storage.

• Hair type All hair types • Fragrance: Lime, orange, lemon, grapefruit and ginger • Size: 3.2 oz.

The Good Housekeeping Institute tests shampoo bars along with hundreds of products each year during our Beauty Awards and Sustainable Innovation Awards evaluations. When evaluating shampoo bars, we look at their lather quality, whether they leave hair feeling clean and soft and whether they last a reasonable amount of time in shower conditions. Our list of recommendations also include shampoo bars that our beauty editors love and use regularly at home.

Here's how to choose the best shampoo bar for your hair and needs, according to hair experts:

✔️ Pick one that's formulated for your hair type. Shampoo bars, like liquid shampoos, are formulated with both cleansing surfactants to wash away dirt and conditioning ingredients to leave hair soft and manageable. Bars for curly or thick hair will be more conditioning, while bars for fine hair will be lighter on conditioners to prevent weighed-down strands. Some brands also have bar conditioners to go with their shampoos for those who need more conditioning.

✔️ Check the ingredients to avoid soap-based bars. "Know what is in your bar," advises April Kayganich, a hairstylist, hair educator and hair texture expert in Austin, Texas. Shampoo bars might look like bars of soap, but they won't perform the same on your hair. For the best results, avoid soap-based shampoo bars. These may list ingredients such as saponified vegetable oils, sodium palmitate, sodium cocoate or sodium hydroxide. While not harmful, they might cause unpleasant dryness, dull strands and a feeling of residue on the hair.

Shampoo bars aren't necessarily better for your hair than traditional shampoos, but they can be just as effective at cleansing strands. "Bar shampoo formulations have gotten quite sophisticated since they first appeared in the market and now there are variants that can possibly meet the needs of all sorts of hair types and textures," Aral says. "It is more of a preference for the consumer and less that one type is better for hair than the other."

"With any new shampoo your hair will take time to adjust," Kayganich says, so give yourself some time to adjust. "Most people take about one to two weeks to see an adjustment in how their hair feels, especially when it comes to sebum, the natural oil your scalp produces."

They shouldn't be: Well-made shampoo bars like the picks on this list contain similar gentle surfactants as those in liquid shampoos. The main ingredients found in the bars on our list, such as sodium cocoyl isethionate and sodium lauryl- or coco- sulfate, are very common cleansers in liquid shampoos. Just as in liquid shampoos, these do a great job at cleaning hair without leaving residue.

Shampoo bars have a few eco-friendly advantages over bottled shampoos:

✔️ Many shampoo bars boast plastic-free packaging, which means you can reduce the plastic waste created by your routine. "Their cardboard boxes are more likely to end up being recycled once being collected at the curbside since there is more value in recycling cardboard than recycling plastic," Aral explains. Overall, "bar shampoos are less likely to contribute to waste that goes to landfills," she says.

✔️ They're lighter-weight and take less energy to ship. "The main difference between liquid shampoos and bar shampoos is the water content in the two formulas," says Aral. "Whereas liquid shampoos may contain as much as three quarters or more water, solid bar shampoos contain much less," she adds. That means a solid shampoo bar can also give you the same number of washes as a bottle, but in a lighter format. Thus, as Aral notes, less energy is required to ship bar shampoos compared to liquid shampoos.

There are two ways to use a shampoo bar:

As for storage, shampoo bars can become mushy and dissolve if left in water, much like a bar of soap does, so store it as you do your favorite body bar – in a dish that keeps it in place and allows it to dry between uses.

GH Institute Beauty, Health & Sustainability Lab Executive Director Birnur Aral, Ph.D. has 15 years of experience leading clinical and consumer testing at Good Housekeeping. She has overseen review content across countless beauty categories. She also leads Good Housekeeping's Sustainable Innovation Awards, for which she reviews hundreds of sustainably designed products.

GH Institute Beauty and Health Reviews Analyst Chiara Butler has been a formulation chemist for major personal care brands and has worked on a wide range of products including shampoos, conditioners and skincare formulas.