Ethical Shampoo

Hair is an incredibly versatile accessory of our appearance and many spend a lot of money on it, with the average household spending 1.9% of their budget on hair and beauty. While the shape of our hair is usually taken care of by a professional, we wash and style it ourselves with a product we choose – usually based on its smell and the claims on its label. 

In this article we discuss what else to pay attention to when choosing shampoo, including potential harmful toxins, the presence of unsustainable palm oil, and packaging.

Whether you're looking for a vegan, organic or chemical free shampoo, in solid form or liquid, there are plenty of options. Our guide features lots of smaller independent companies, as well as the big high street names – with nearly 90 brands in total. And with some brands barely scraping together enough points to score just above zero, this is one product where you can make ethical choices based on your requirements.  

Environmental impact and eco-friendly shampoos

If you think through the life cycle of shampoo – from the growing or extraction of ingredients to the processing, distribution, packaging, and use – it is the use phase that appears to have the biggest environmental impacts. This will depend on how many times you wash your hair, with how much water, how the water is heated, and where the water goes afterwards. 

So, from an environmental perspective, the less you wash your hair the better!

Organic shampoo

To ensure that the ingredients used to make your shampoo have been produced in a way that minimises damage to the environment and biodiversity, opt for a shampoo that is certified organic. Organic certification ensures that the agricultural ingredients are grown without the use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, and GMOs. We have a separate article on ethical labels for organic certification schemes.

As these schemes offer an independent check on a company’s ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ claims, we have given certified organic products an extra Product Sustainability mark and added an [O] next to their name in the score table. 

Companies that are fully organic received a Company Ethos mark as well. These were:

• Bentley Organic
• Essential Care (Odylique)
• Conscious Skincare.

Are there chemical free shampoos?

For shampoos to be safe to use and to smell nice, most brands add preserving agents and fragrances, some of which can be toxic and polluting. The use of formaldehyde, parabens, triclosan (all synthetic preservatives) and phthalates (in synthetic fragrances) appears to be declining. But too many companies aren’t banning them effectively. Our separate article on toxic chemicals in cosmetics and toiletries has more information about what these chemicals are and why you might want to avoid them.

The following brands got a best for our Pollution & Toxics rating: 

• ALTER/NATIVE (Suma)
• Austin Austin (Rainbow Wholefoods)
• A Vogel
• Badger
• Bentley Organics
• Caurnie
• Conscious Skincare
• Dr Hauschka
• Eco Warrior (Little Soap Company)
• Ethique
• Fill Refill
• Friendly Soap
• Green People
• Honesty
• Lavera
• L’Occitane
• Miniml
• Odylique (Essential Care)
• Palmolive
• PHB Ethical Beauty
• Pure Nuff Stuff
• SESI
• Urtekram 
• Yaoh

Can you avoid animal products in shampoo?

Various animal derivatives, such as glycerin, beeswax, stearic acid, and lanolin, can be found in shampoo products. But there are now a wide range of vegan options available, as highlighted by a [Vg] after the brand name in the score table. And there seem to be more appearing all the time – compared to our last guide in 2020, at least seven more brands offer vegan products.

You can read more about animal products in cosmetics and toiletries in our separate article. 

Are cosmetic and toiletries companies still testing on animals?

Animal testing is still an issue for the global cosmetics industry. To get a best rating, companies were required to have a policy not to test on animals which includes a fixed cut-off date (a date after which none of their products or ingredients will have been tested on animals). A more lenient approach was taken with small companies.

The following brands scored our best rating: 

• ALTER/NATIVE (Suma)
• Austin Austin (Rainbow Wholefoods)
• Avon
• Badger
• Bentley Organics
• Body Shop
• Caurnie
• Conscious Skincare
• Dr Hauschka
• Eco Warrior (Little Soap Company)
• Ethique
• Faith in Nature
• Fill Refill
• Friendly Soap
• Green People
• Honesty
• Lavera
• Lush
• Miniml
• Neal's Yard
• Odylique (Essential Care)
• PHB Ethical Beauty
• Pure Nuff Stuff
• SESI
• Tropic
• Weleda
• Yaoh

Molton Brown, Noughty and The Ordinary also got best ratings but their parent companies did not.

Vegan shampoo companies

Many companies sell vegan products among non-vegan ones, including big brands like Wella and L'Oreal. 

But if you want to support fully vegan companies, look out for the following brands which are all owned by fully vegan companies: 

• Caurnie
• Conscious Skincare
• Ethique
• Faith in Nature
• Friendly Soap
• Honesty
• Little Soap Company
• Miniml
• PHB Ethical Beauty
• SESI
• Wild
• Yaoh

Are there microplastics in shampoo?

Under UK law, shampoo is defined as a ‘rinse-off’ product and should not contain microbeads since the government banned their use in 2018. 

However, some of the companies in this guide also produce ‘leave-on’ cosmetics products that are not subject to this ban. 

Our Microplastics rating looked at all the products a company produces, not just their shampoos. You can read more about plastics in cosmetics, including poorly biodegradable liquid polymers in our separate article. 

Palm oil free shampoo

The unsustainable production of palm oil is one of the biggest threats to the forests and wildlife of areas where it’s grown, like Borneo and Sumatra. Palm oil production is continuing to spread to other countries like the Philippines, Nigeria, and throughout South America.

Deforestation is a major environmental crisis and a leading cause of climate change globally. Some organisations advocate for a complete boycott of palm oil while others point out that it has the highest yield of all oils, therefore whatever it is replaced with will require larger areas to grow.

You can read more about palm oil and the cosmetics industry in our separate article.

What are companies doing about palm oil?

Company approaches to the issue vary hugely, from some providing no information at all about palm oil sourcing (despite listing palm oil derivatives in ingredients lists), to others going to great lengths to reformulate products to avoid using it at all. 

Our palm oil rating for large companies is strict and none got Best. Several small companies avoided palm ingredients altogether, or took significant steps towards avoidance and using only certified ingredients, so got our Best rating.

The table below shows which shampoo brands in our guide use palm oil but still get a best rating, and which are palm oil free.

What is the most eco packaging for shampoo?

In the UK, we throw away 520 million shampoo bottles every year. Common plastic materials used for shampoo bottles go under the code names of PET, PVC, LDPE, MDPE, and HDPE. These are all petrochemical based, although some companies have started using recycled plastic.

There are two ways to avoid plastic packaging (if you wanted to use shampoo at all, that is): you can use solid shampoo bars (make sure they are wrapped in paper, not plastic), or you can go the refill route.

Many brands in this guide offer solid shampoos bars, indicated on the score table. There are two companies that offer ‘naked’, unpackaged bars: Friendly Soap and Lush.

A lot of companies now offer ‘refills’ in soft plastic pouches (which contain less plastic than normal plastic bottles). This may appear like a good option, as choosing them could reportedly save 70% CO2, 65% energy, and 45% water compared to buying the product in a bottle. However, refill pouches are often made from 100% virgin plastic, and are not recyclable or reusable, so we’d advise against this option.

Ideal Manufacturing (the owner of Fill Refill) and Miniml are companies that go beyond this. They have created a closed loop refill system: their bottles can be returned free of charge for them to be washed and refilled again (and again and again). 

Fill Refill and Miniml's products are also available in some zero waste and wholefood shops where you can refill your own containers. Other companies which offer refills in their stores, or supply garden centres and zero waste shops include the Body Shop, Faith in Nature, SESI and Suma (ALTER/NATIVE). 

What shampoo is best for different hair types?

Three quarters of hair types are not straight, and since it has become evident that curly hair needs different treatment, shampoos for curly hair have penetrated the market too. This is no surprise. Curly girls have a lot of spending power. Research shows that consumers with textured hair are willing to spend more on products than their straight-haired counterparts.

Afro hair, specifically, tends to be much coarser, curlier, and thicker and due to this, drier than most other hair types. While Black adult women in the UK account for 10% of hair care spend (although make up only 2% of the adult population), only 1% of them buy hair care products at supermarkets. The majority of Black British women shop at independents.

A couple of decades ago, the chemical, semi-permanent straightening of Afro hair was on the rise. Today, the combination of the Black Lives Matter movement and an increase in understanding about curly and kinky hair has led to increased innovation in the curly hair product industry. Several companies in this guide now offer shampoos for Afro hair and at least half of the companies have some kind of variation for curly hair (frizz tamer, curl enhancer, etc).

Shampoo for grey hair

Natural (as opposed to dyed) grey hair has a different texture to pigmented hair. Grey hair can feel coarser and more wiry because as hair loses its pigment the follicle doesn't produce as much oil. Many people swear by the softening effect of a cider vinegar rinse. Just a teaspoon or a splash into about 250 ml water in a jug, is enough to rinse through a head of short hair.

Washing with conditioner

If you use both shampoo and conditioner, you might want to think about only using one product. Washing with conditioner alone has its roots in the world of curly hair – a hair type that is generally more prone to dryness than straight hair.

The right conditioner allows for cleansing, while keeping the natural oils of the hair. It is thought that conditioner washing may also require less frequent hair washing, hence reducing its environmental impact.

Conditioners are generally made by the same companies that sell shampoo. Looking at our score table, you should be able to choose one that aligns with your ethics while caring appropriately for your hair.

The curly girl method

The abbreviations in the score table indicate the following: [O] = organic [V] = vegan, bar = solid products.

Additional research by Francesca de la Torre.