Can hair be sustainable? It’s a valid question, especially considering all the rather hairy ingredients commonly used in shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, and more. Thankfully, eco-friendly hair products are here to save the do (er, day).
Still, finding the likes of organic shampoo and eco-friendly hair gel is a bit like washing your hair after eco camping for a week—it takes a few rounds of scrubbing to see through the grease and grime.
That’s why we did the work for you and compiled a list of the most hair-rific sustainable hair styling products that will show love to your locks and the world.
We did so by considering the same things we do in our new Brand Rating System, which takes a comprehensive look at brands using 22 criteria, ranging from ingredients to biodiversity impact consideration. To learn more about this new system, see here.
We independently research all featured brands and we ask them to confirm their claims. In many cases we personally review recommended products. This post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you buy something. Learn more here.
Show The Planet You Care With The Best Eco-Friendly Hair Care
For you five minute power showerers, we’ll start with a quick scrub through our favorite environmentally friendly hair products.
Having used Ethique’s shampoo and conditioner bars for a few years now, we can confidently say they work super well and come with absolutely minimal packaging, so you can ditch plastic bottles.
Everist is one of the eco-friendly hair care brands uprooting our reliance on plastic to house liquid and paste products. Their aluminum packaging is infinitely recyclable, made lower impact still with carbon-neutral manufacturing.
An SJ go-to brand for refillable beauty products, Plaine Products’s formulas are biodegradable, GMO-free, and incredibly effective.
Index: Sustainable & Eco-Friendly Hair Products
- Ethique Jump to brand
- Everist Jump to brand
- Plaine Products Jump to brand
- EcoRoots Jump to brand
- Andrea’s Organic Market Jump to brand
- Yarok Jump to brand
- Tints Of Nature Jump to brand
- Acure Jump to brand
- Apple Cider Vinegar Jump to brand
Ethique
Ethique’s Vegan Sustainable Hair Products
We LOVE bars because they can safely and securely be wrapped in recyclable paper or not wrapped at all. If you travel a lot, say goodbye to TSA liquid restrictions, because bars are a breeze at the airport.
Ethique’s full line of shampoo and conditioner bars—along with a host of other non-hair eco-friendly toiletries—are vegan, palm oil free, non-toxic and cruelty-free.
There are also a number to choose from based on your ethical hair care needs. Their impressive range suits everything from oily to frizzy to excess dandruff (for which the totally tropical Heali Kiwi is anything but flakey).
They’re also way more concentrated than regular products, so it’s designed to last up to six times longer. Their Conditioning Wonderbar, for instance, is the equivalent of five bottles of conditioner. Huge bang for your buck and five fewer plastic bottles in landfills.
Having tested and used their products for years, we can safely say they create some of the best products for naturally healthy hair around.
About Ethique
New Zealand’s Ethique specializes in bars, but they’ve now expanded their packaging to include cardboard push tubes for things like cruelty-free deodorants. Either way, the packaging is 100% compostable.
Besides the very impressive response to their product range, they’re also super sustainable and tick each one of our boxes, landing a place on our best zero waste beauty brands list.
They’re not only certified vegan and cruelty-free, but also palm oil free, plastic-free, and use minimal, sustainable and biodegradable (make sure you toss this in your compost!) packaging for everything.
They’re a Certified B Corp, certified as climate neutral, AND donate either 2% of revenue or 20% of profit (whichever is higher) to charity.
Everist
Everist’s Vegan Natural Hair Products
For those not ready to jump the bar into shampoo bars, Everist offers concentrated paste shampoos and conditioners packed in sustainable aluminum tins and tubes—making for hair products with sustainable packaging
Each container is designed to last for more than 50 washes, providing a long-lasting solution. And if you hate squeezing the last bit out of a tube, theirs come with a key so you don’t lose a drop.
Instead of water (of which regular shampoos typically contain over 70%), Everist products incorporate pure, natural skin care ingredients such as aloe vera leaf juice and bergamot fruit oil.
Instead of endocrine-disrupting synthetic fragrances, they contain a refreshing herbal-citrus blend of essential oils. Everist’s formulas are suitable for any hair type and utilize patented bond-repair technology, effectively strengthening damaged hair.
About Everist
Everist is constantly dedicated to addressing the plastic issue in the beauty industry by not just using non-petrochemical ingredients, but by relying on recycled and recyclable metal zero waste shampoo packaging. It’s plastic-free, save for the cap.
They’re certified Climate Neutral and opt for local sourcing whenever possible. All products are vegan, cruelty-free, and free from palm oil.
By purchasing from Everist, you also contribute to their commitment as a member of 1% for the Planet in supporting planet-focused nonprofits
Plaine Products
Plaine Products Eco-Friendly Hair Care Products
Whether you’re buying shampoo or conditioner, Plaine Products‘ eco-friendly hair products packaging consists of 100% recyclable and refillable aluminum bottles—travel sizes included.
What really makes Plaine unique, however, is their attentiveness to being zero waste, both in terms of the products themselves (which are refillable, and you can also opt for an aluminium cap as opposed to the pump, which is what we do when we order Plaine Products to save plastic) but even in product shipping.
It’s one thing to offer a zero waste hair product (which smells delectable by the way) and another to send it all over the world achieving the same thing. They do so by making boxes custom fit to their bottles that you then send back your empty bottles in.
About Plaine Products
Plaine Products is a sister-owned company, founded by Lindsey and Alison Delaplaine, that specializes in vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil-free, chemical-free, plastic-free, and biodegradable hair and natural body wash products.
Since the company started with the dream of having less plastic in the world, their entire production model is completely plastic-free.
Not only do the sisters personally try all products on themselves and their families before approving them, but they also run every ingredient through the Environmental Working Group database to ensure every single one is non-toxic.
While their intent is to refill your empties, if you choose not to refill your Plaine Products order or are unable to send them back, you can recycle the aluminum bottles yourself, a process that requires less energy than the original production.
Aluminum is great because it can be recycled indefinitely with no loss in quality, unlike plastic which is “down-cycled” to a lower grade each time it is recycled until eventually, it must be condemned to the landfill.
My Personal Review of Plaine Products’ Shampoo & Conditioner:
“I’m impressed by how quickly Plaine’s shampoo foams up. I only need a tiny bit to clean my entire scalp. The conditioner is so nourishing I don’t even feel like I have to use it every time I shower. When I do, my hair is left feeling soft and smooth but not at all weighed down.”
Review by Amber McDaniel, SJ’s Head of Content
EcoRoots
EcoRoots’ Eco Natural Hair Products
Discover the compact and sustainable hair care solutions provided by EcoRoots. The bulk of their range includes colorful solid shampoo and conditioner bars that effectively cleanse and nourish your hair, leaving it soft and maintaining its natural oils.
Handcrafted with a blend of predominantly coconut oil and cocoa butter, these bars also incorporate a variety of nourishing plant oils (without the use of palm oil) and a Pro-Vitamin Complex to enhance shine and strength.
Because even the best conditioner bars need a little help sometimes, their Natural Hair Oil is perfect for the occasional deep treatment. With nourishing ingredients like avocado seed oil and rice bran oil, it deeply penetrates and restructures the hair fibers into something “strong, shiny, and frizz-free”.
About EcoRoots
Based in Colorado, EcoRoots is committed to offering a wide range of ethically sourced products for various areas of your home, kitchen, and bathroom, each one matching exceptional performance with ethical performance.
From their natural dry shampoo to their home cleaners, everything is vegan, cruelty-free, sulfate-free, silicone-free, and paraben-free, ensuring a conscious and compassionate hair care experience. Some EcoRoots offers (like their organic face cream) utilize palm oil, but their organic zero-waste hair products are palm oil-free.
Everything is thoughtfully packaged with zero waste in mind, including naked bars or glass jars, and recycled and biodegradable shipping materials like compostable cornstarch packing peanuts that are 100% plastic-free.
By supporting EcoRoots, you are also contributing to their philanthropic efforts as a portion of their sales is dedicated to the Ocean Conservancy, assisting in vital ocean restoration initiatives.
Andrea’s Organic Market
Andrea’s Organic Market Hair Products
Andrea’s Organic Market creates handcrafted ethical hair products, including hair serum, split end serum, and an eco-friendly hair mask.
These treatments are pure and simple ways to give your hair a deep conditioning treatment that de-frizzes, shines, and helps your hair maintain moisture by targeting the follicles themselves (therefore decreasing your need for regular conditioner!).
Use the Organic Honey Hair Mask (the closest you’ll get to making your own DIY hair mask) once or twice a week and let the magic of its herb-infused avocado oil and raw honey transform your hair into something soft and healthy.
Regardless of which restorative eco-friendly haircare products you choose, you’ll be getting a cruelty-free formula made with minimal, entirely organic ingredients like raw cocoa butter and moisturizing argan oil. Everything is all-natural, non-GMO, palm-oil free, cold-pressed (in the case of oils), and best yet, put in recognizable words!
About Andreas Organic Market
This Oklahoma-based woman-owned brand specializes in all manner of hair and sustainable skincare using only “pure, raw, and natural ingredients for clean living”.
She started the company after becoming a “label reader” and realizing many “natural” products are not actually natural at all.
Andrea also uses organic ingredients where available and her ingredients are sourced ethically, from small businesses like herself, where possible.
Andrea offers container returns for refills and refill pouches for dry products in biodegradable cello bags. As for shipping, everything comes in recyclable or compostable packaging; absolutely no plastic packaging in sight. She also donates all blemished products to her local Blessing Box and has an on-site office compost bin.
Yarok
Yarok’s Eco-Friendly Hair Styling Products
Yarok, meaning “green” in Hebrew, makes all sorts of hair products that “feed your” hair in some way. The Feed Your Shine eco-friendly hair serum is designed for outdoor lovers, as it protects your hair and scalp from sun damage and harmful elements with just once-a-week use.
Love sunbathing? Your hair needs UV protection just as much as your skin! Spend a lot of time at the pool? This protects your hair from damaging chlorine thanks to organic aloe vera and blackcurrant seed oil.
Not only that, it helps alleviate dandruff and rejuvenates colored or over-processed hair. Best of all, it only contains six ingredients, including sesame and coconut oils, chamomile, clary sage, and cedar and orange essential oils.
Yarok’s full haircare line includes shampoo, conditioner (regular and leave-in), mousse, pomade, hair spray, a masque, and defining cream (for those seeking sustainable curly hair products).
About Yarok
The brainchild of New York stylist Mordechai Alvow, this luxury sustainable haircare brand consciously creates all vegan, natural formulas to nourish hair from its core using only responsibly harvested ingredients.
They are gluten-free, certified cruelty-free, and palm oil-free, in addition to donating 3% of every purchase directly to the Pachamama Alliance, a group dedicated to protecting over 10 million acres of the Amazon. Their packaging is not zero waste, but it is reusable and recyclable.
Tints Of Nature
Tints of Nature’s Sustainable Hair Products UK
Natural haircare doesn’t necessarily mean sticking to your natural color. We totally understand the urge to shake things up.
Tints of Nature offers easy, at-home eco-friendly hair dye kits (saving you big bucks at the salon!) for both permanent and semi-permanent henna dyes designed to be gentle on your head and hair, being completely free from ammonia, parabens, sulfates, propylene glycol, and resorcinol.
While not completely 100% organic (they are currently rated around 75%, using 95% naturally derived ingredients), they are working toward that goal.
They use the absolute lowest possible level of PPD (p-Phenylenediamine), and only when an alternative is not possible. The dyes are even fortified with aloe and citrus to add all-natural hydration and shine to your hair, without damaging ingredients like ammonia.
About Tints of Nature
For sustainable hair care UK customers can buy guilt-free, Tints of Nature is changing the game by offering a nearly all-natural solution to something once thought completely chemical, earning an average of 4-5 stars in reviews.
They are PETA-certified vegan and Choose-certified cruelty-free and they are also a member of the Cosmetics Toiletry and Perfumery Association that actively works to promote non-animal products and testing in production in the cosmetics industry.
In addition to animal welfare, they’re proactive in minimizing their environmental impact, starting with sourcing. They procure over 75% of ingredients from within the UK to minimize shipping.
Back in 2003, they started using 100% recycled cardboard for their boxes and have since saved 225,000kg of virgin cardboard. All packing chips are made from 100% biodegradable, septic-safe corn.
No products directly contain palm oil, though there may be “palm oil in the production of certain vegetable fats used in conditioners etc.” Either way, Tints of Nature only purchases natural ingredients from RSPO and/or ECOCERT-certified sources.
Acure
Acure Organics’ Eco-Friendly Professional Hair Products
Acure Organics’ hair care range is simple but thorough—traditional shampoo and conditioners and dry shampoo.
Dry shampoo is one of those super tricky products to get right and people either love them or hate them. Those who hate them tend to not like the light colored powder in dark hair because the product typically takes longer to absorb and can make darker hair look like it’s just had white powder applied—clearly not ideal. Which is why we tend to use our own DIY dry shampoo with arrowroot powder.
In addition to Dry Shampoo for all hair types, Acure offers one specifically for brunette to dark hair with added cocoa powder to resolve this issue.
Both formulas are 100% vegan and “0% pretentious”, containing a short list of CCOF or USDA-certified organic ingredients like corn starch, baking soda, maranta arundinacea root powder, kaolin clay, rosemary leaf oil, and peppermint oil to refresh your senses as well as your hair. Things you won’t find in them include parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, petrolatum, and formaldehyde.
About Acure Organics
Based in the USA, Acure Organics is a family-owned business specializing in skincare, hair care and body care products. Their products are Leaping Bunny cruelty-free, vegan, and palm oil-free. They also source mostly organic ingredients from fair trade suppliers where possible and support charities.
Unfortunately, their packaging is not plastic-free, but it is made from recycled plastic and is recyclable.
Apple Cider Vinegar
About Apple Cider Vinegar As An Eco-Friendly Hair Product
Surprisingly enough, apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a sustainable hair cleanser, removing any build-up or greasy residue left behind by shampoo and product, while not completely stripping its own natural oils (meaning you go longer without having to wash your hair!).
Say goodbye to greasy-looking roots or dandruff. It leaves your hair silky, smooth, and tangle-free. Beyond that, ACV improves overall follicle health, by balancing the pH of the hair and scalp and removing bacteria and other buildup.
We promise you won’t smell like vinegar all day. However, you shouldn’t use ACV on your hair every day or the acid may make it look a little brassy. We use it one to two times a week.
Perfect for low waste living, you can often find ACV at your local bulk foods store which is the most sustainable way to buy it. If you don’t have access to a bulk store, try to buy the largest bottle you can to minimize packaging.
There are lots of brands out there, but we recommend Bragg, specifically their option that contains the mother for maximum benefits. It comes in glass bottles and is USDA-certified organic, made of non-GMO raw apples, and is unheated, unfiltered, and unpasteurized.
I’m looking for fair trade products—made by companies that don’t exploit or mistreat their employees. Any suggestions regarding hair products?
Hi!! Do you sell the hair relaxer that is free from chemicals and has no lye
Hi Reginah, I’m afraid we don’t sell any products at this stage, we just recommend them 🙂 – we’ll keep a look out for relaxers as we haven’t done a deep dive on them yet!
I looked up Friendly Soap and one of their ingredients is Cetyl Alcohol. Hmmmm.
Hi Joan, good to be cynical as we are not auditors and cannot validate brand claims – we unfortunately have to take their word for it. In the case of Friendly Soap, they maintain that they are palm oil free and I recall our early conversations with them (they were one of the very first brands we featured) and they seemed like wonderful salt of the earth folk to me – they assured us that they were palm oil free. However, I do encourage you to reach out to them and ask for clarification if you’re still concerned. Thanks for commenting!
Cetyl alcohol can come from palm oil free sources. You can’t just assume it contains palm oil because you’re using an ingredient that COULD be from palm oil. If they were smart they would specify what their Cetyl alcohol is derived from, in parentheses, next to that ingredient name. Cetyl Alcohol is also derived from coconuts. Palm oil and coconut oil are both medium chain triglycerides aka MCT oil. Coconut oil may be more expensive which is why people who only care about their bottom line and not the millions of animals that are killed every year and the hundreds of thousands of people that have died from The Haze, use palm oil. They also don’t care about their consumers. Palm oil is a carcinogen… coconut oil is not.
Thanks for the insight. ox
I use the Klean Kanteen and love it. It came with the original loop cap and I went and purchased the sport cap from Klean Kanteen which I like. I haven’t come across any metal taste in my water bottle while using it.
Can you recommend any ethical hair putty/gel for men for styling hair please?
Hi Mike, interesting one we haven’t looked into men’s hair putty/gel yet but we’ll add it to our list! Cheers, Joy
try “dirty” from LUSH
Hi there, I love this list (and your website in general), and I was wondering what you think about the company A Simple Planet? (Previously called Simply Curls Co.)
Hey Wren, Thanks for visiting! I haven’t come across A Simple Planet yet, will take a look next time we refresh this article. Many thanks!
Any news on A Simple Planet yet?
Ty!
Not yet!