Shampoo bars still produce the foamy lather we all know and love, and they're formulated to be less stripping than traditional soap. If your dry hair is in need of hydration, you can also buy matching conditioner bars. Small but mighty, this bar aims to last up to 50 washes. It didn’t crumble, managing to keep its shape throughout the entire test, and impressed all testers with how refreshed it left scalps feeling.

Not quite sold? Read on to discover how our 650 testers found making the switch, when they put 45 shampoo bars to the test for a month. The base formula is similar to a body wash bar but hair care ingredients and extra foaming agents are also added. These ingredients help leave the hair feeling soft and allow the product to spread more easily too. How to use a shampoo bar Pre-shampoo, prep your hair by getting rid of tangles and knots and then wet it. Apply the shampoo in one of two ways: verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ With over five years’ experience in beauty and health journalism, Florence has written for ELLE, Women’s Fitness, Sister Magazine, National Geographic Traveller and many more, with a strong sustainability angle thread through much of her work.Our panel of 650 trialed 45 brands of eco-friendly shampoo bars for four weeks to find our winners. They judged them on ease of use, how well they cleaned hair, and how good they were at adding moisture and smoothness. You could lather the bar between wet hands and apply the lather to your wet hair (as you would with a liquid shampoo). Or you could wet the bar and apply it to wet hair, rubbing in circular motions down the hair strands.