Best UK Hair Conditioner Bars for All Hair Types

The Perfect Natural Hair Bar Conditioners

Do you want to switch to an eco-friendly and sustainable hair care routine?

If yes, then have you considered using hair conditioner bars?

Today people are becoming more aware of their environmental impact.

With that in mind it is a good time to switch to products that are both beneficial for us and also for our planet.

In this blog, we will guide you through everything you need to know about hair conditioner bars.

We will start by explaining exactly what a conditioner bar is. Then explain what advantages they offer over traditional conditioners.

Finally, we will move on to how to choose the right one for your hair type - we’ve got you covered.

We’ll also give you some tips on travelling with conditioner bars. We'll answer the question on everyone’s mind – can they really replace liquid conditioners?

Keep reading to discover the best UK hair conditioner bars for all hair types.

Understanding Hair Conditioner Bars

Natural conditioner bars offer eco-friendly hair care solutions. Solid conditioner bars are a sustainable alternative to traditional conditioners, providing nourishment without harsh chemicals.

Vegan conditioner bars are cruelty-free and suitable for all hair types. Zero waste packaging makes them an environmentally conscious choice.

Why Switch To Conditioner Bars?

Using conditioner bars is a great way to reduce plastic waste from shampoo and conditioner bottles.

Natural ingredients are used to make solid conditioner bars, which can promote healthy hair growth. They provide the same hydration for your hair as liquid conditioners.

Switching to conditioner bars also saves money in the long run. With free delivery options available, it's convenient to make the switch.

How to Choose the Right Conditioner Bar for Your Hair Type

When it comes to choosing the right conditioner bar for your hair type, there are a few factors to consider.

For dry hair, look for a conditioner bar specifically designed to provide moisture and hydration.

If you have oily hair, opt for a lightweight conditioner bar that won't weigh it down.

Normal hair can benefit from a moisturizing conditioner bar to maintain its health and shine.

A conditioner bar designed to define curls can enhance curly hair.

Finally, choose a conditioner bar with natural ingredients that are suitable for your specific type.

Conditioner Bars for Dry Hair

Conditioner bars for dry hair offer deep moisture, nourishment, softness, hydration and strength.

The natural ingredients of oat protein, plant keratins, Pro-Vitamin B5 and vegan silicon do all this.

Experience the benefits of these natural hair care solutions.

Conditioner Bars for Oily Hair

Conditioner bars for oily hair are designed to regulate oil production in the scalp.

These bars, infused with natural ingredients, prevent excess oiliness and balance the scalp's natural oils.

This Luxury Orange Conditioner Bar will refresh and cleanse oily hair, leaving it shiny and oil-free.

Conditioner Bars for Normal Hair

For balanced hair, choose a natural shampoo bar and conditioner bar combo.

These will provide essential moisture and also add shine and softness to normal hair.

The Luxury Botanical Conditioner Bar will nourish and strengthen your hair and maintain natural moisture.

Conditioner Bars for Curly Hair

Enhance your curls with conditioner bars containing nourishing ingredients to add moisture and definition while hydrating.

Repair damaged curls with natural oils; opt for a Luxury Woodland Conditioner Bar designed specifically for curly hair.

Advantages of Conditioner Bars Over Traditional Conditioners

Natural conditioner bars offer several advantages over traditional conditioners.

They are travel-friendly, convenient for on-the-go use, and last longer than liquid conditioners, saving money.

Additionally, they reduce plastic waste and provide moisture without harsh chemicals.

With conditioner bars, you can simplify your haircare routine and eliminate the need for multiple products.

Travelling with Conditioner Bars

Travelling with conditioner bars is a breeze. These airport security-approved solid bars are perfect for travel, thanks to their compact size and mess-free nature.

Store them securely in a tin or travel case, and enjoy easy, eco-friendly hair care on your journeys.

Can Conditioner Bars Replace Liquid Conditioners?

Solid conditioner bars offer the same level of hydration as liquid conditioners, making them a viable replacement.

They leave your hair soft, smooth, and manageable. Additionally, conditioner bars are a sustainable alternative to traditional products and can be personalized for different hair types.

How Long Do Conditioner Bars Last?

Solid hair conditioner bars have an impressive lifespan, lasting up to 80 washes.

With proper care and storage, these bars can provide nourishment for months, outlasting multiple bottles of liquid conditioner.

Embrace the sustainability and long-lasting benefits of conditioner bars for your haircare routine.

Can I Use A Hair Conditioner Bar On Colour-Treated Or Chemically-Treated Hair?

Yes, hair conditioner bars can be used on colour-treated or chemically-treated hair.

Look for bars specifically formulated for damaged hair and made with natural ingredients like shea butter and coconut oil.

Avoid bars with harsh chemicals that can strip the hair's natural oils.

A Closer Look At The Solid Bar Company's Conditioner Bars.

Don't forget to note, that like all our products, these natural conditioners are not only created with variants for all hair types, they are all plant-based conditioners.

They are plastic-free conditioners too, delivered to you without plastic bottles making them 100% plastic-free!. 

When it comes to a natural hair care regime, the essentials to always use are natural shampoo bars and the best UK conditioner bars!

The all-natural shampoo comes first but that does not mean forgetting about conditioning with natural conditioner bars. 

If you're using the best shampoo bars in the UK then you want to follow on with the best conditioner bars in the UK. 

What Are The Conditioner Bar Ingredients?

To start with, let us do a little background to inform you of what should be in the best natural UK hair bar conditioners. Why those ingredients are there, and what they will do for your hair - and you! 

Did you know that most well-known liquid conditioners on the market contain 80%+ water?

Our UK hair conditioner bars are not bulked out with water to try to fool you into thinking that you are getting more conditioner for your money.

They contain no water at all, just top-of-the-range high-grade salon standard ingredients, so they leave your hair feeling and looking silky smooth and tangle-free - and they are not shipped to you all packed up in plastic too!

Conditioner bars from award-winning 'The Solid Bar Company' are a breakthrough and, better still for your carbon footprint, all our solid shampoo and conditioner bars are hand-made in the UK!

These rich, creamy, plastic-free, zero-waste, solid bars are packed full of concentrated conditioning ingredients making it easy for you to switch from plastic bottles, leaving your hair soft, shiny, and smooth.

Get the results you expect from bottled products from day one but with the bonus of no plastic, no water, and no compromise on results!

How Do Natural Hair Conditioner Bars Work?

Well, we have to start with a little bit of science here. Our hair and skin are negatively charged (anionic). So for the best conditioner to work its magic on our hair, it needs to be positively charged (cationic).

The only way it can do this is to use positively charged ingredients and other ingredients that assist the positively charged ingredients in doing their stuff.

BTMS-50 (which contains 50% active Oil Behentrimonium Methosulfate) is 100% vegan.

This is the largest ingredient in our bar and is a positively charged compound derived from the natural oil of the Colza plant (shown below).

Importantly for a conditioner ingredient, it is known to be one of the best detangling ingredients in the world. 

BTMS is an amazing ingredient. It can ‘adsorb’ to the surface of the hair in a process called ‘substantivity’. (adsorption is when the molecules sit on top of the hair, as opposed to absorbing or penetrating the hair)

Just like a magnet, this positively charged cationic quaternary compound (BTMS) is attracted to our hair and coats our negatively charged hair fibres.

When hair is damaged or chemically treated, it has a higher pH and higher negative charge. This is due to an increase in cysteic acid that forms when the disulphide bonds in the hair are broken and not reformed.

However, the positively charged conditioning agent will be more attracted to your hair and is going to adsorb more.

As BTMS is hydrophobic (a bit like cats!), it will resist removal by water alone - so, thankfully, it won’t wash off when you rinse your hair after applying it in the shower but it will wash off when you next shampoo your hair.

Why is it important that hair conditioners be attracted to your hair?

Well, by adsorbing to our hair in this way, the best conditioner bar enables the hair cuticle to lay flat. This makes our hair silky, smooth, and lustrous with the ability to hold a style.

It also reduces the force required to brush or comb the hair resulting in less tangling.

This also means fewer broken hairs, and less static electricity on the surface whilst simultaneously increasing softness and shine.

Nobody wants their hair to look like the image below!

The aim of any conditioning product should be to maximise the adsorption and substantivity of positively charged ingredients. Then it can give these numerous benefits to us, resulting in the type of hair we want - strong, lustrous and healthy!

Most conditioner bars on the market with BTMS tend to use BTMS-25 (25% active Oil Behentrimonium Methosulfate only).

This is because it is far more widely available and less than half the price of BTMS-50, though nowhere near as effective!

Not only do we use BTMS-50 but our supplier produces BTMS-50 uniquely for us without the petroleum ingredient Butylene glycol.

This means they can add Propanediol (corn-based) ingredient instead, resulting in a far more eco-friendly natural hair conditioner.

The remaining ingredient is plant-derived Cetearyl alcohol, a fatty acid that further enhances the adsorption process. 

We also include Cetrimonium Chloride, another cationic compound that prevents static in and ‘build-up’ in hair (residue left on hair primarily from styling products).

To further increase this adsorption process of these natural hair conditioners we have included another fatty alcohol, plant-derived Cetyl Alcohol, which also encourages more adsorption of BTMS.

You will also find we include vital hydrolysed cationic plant-based proteins, such as vegan Oat protein and Vegetable Keratin, also known as, ‘non-occlusive film formers’ as these have a similar proteinaceous structure to our hair and skin and are therefore easily and naturally adsorbed by them.

Another wonderful film former ingredient for our hair is D-L panthenol (pro-vitamin B5). This makes our hair shine without oil or greasiness.

Panthenol can also penetrate the hair cuticle and bring moisture to the cortex, enabling good manageability and pliability of the hair and giving it more body.

Studies have also shown that if left on our hair for just two minutes before rinsing, it can swell the hair shaft, making it appear thicker thereby helping to add that much sought after extra body many seek!

Now you are beginning to understand how we have created the best natural conditioner bars in the UK.

Silicons such as Dimethicone and Cyclomethicone are found in many hair and skin care products, but they’re, not eco-friendly as they are not biodegradable.

However, because of this, we extended our research to find silicon alternatives that are derived from plant-based, readily biodegradable ingredients and are eco-certified.

They offer incredible slip and shine to hair even whilst wet and are excellent additional ingredients for our solid hair conditioners.

Further moisture is added to the cationic ingredients and film-formers through a small number of butters and oils, such as Shea butter, Cocoa butter, Apricot Kernel Oil, Almond, and Argan oil, all of which will coat the hair strands to increase lubrication and moisturisation. Again, a big plus for these award winning solid natural conditioner bars.

We switch Shea and Cocoa Butter in our oily bars for a light Orange butter, which acts as a good cleanser for oily hair due to its high limonene content.

Butters and oils alone won’t add any conditioning properties to our hair as they are non-ionic (neutral) rather than cationic and therefore not ‘substantive’, yet there are several solid conditioner bars on the market that rely on oils like castor oil and butters as their main conditioning ingredients alone, which simply won’t cut it.

This is the same for apple cider vinegar. Popular for those using traditional, alkaline ‘soap’ bars (studies are now showing they may cause long-term hair damage, due to the naturally high pH of soap bars) or bicarbonate of soda as a ‘shampoo; and then vinegar as an acidic ‘conditioner’ after-rinse.

However, vinegar is also a non-ionic ingredient and will therefore not adsorb to your hair strands and so, by definition, is not able to reduce the combing forces and friction to your hair. Something you need to be aware of when looking after your hair naturally.

Many of the ingredients we use from BTMS-50 to panthenol, Shea butter, proteins, and silicon alternatives are also important ingredients in skincare products, giving the skin a powdery feel, as well as adding moisture and glide.

That is why our natural conditioner bars can double up as well as a shave bar for both men and women!

You can check out the details of all our skin-safe natural product ingredients on our ingredient detail pages!

Unfortunately, many conditioner bars on the market (and traditional liquid conditioners) have very little to no cationic ingredients, using large quantities of butter and oils, which as we know will moisturise but not condition your hair and in some cases can leave it heavy and limp.

There are also conditioners containing a large amount of petroleum-based ingredients which the hair absorbs, with synthetic fragrances, and even harsh, sulphate-based ingredients such as Sodium Lauryl Sulphate which is not only irritating to the skin but is anionic (negatively charged), so strip and wash rather than condition the hair.

With skin conditions such as dermatitis, psoriasis, and eczema on the increase, it is important to use gentle products on both our skin and scalp, which is also why would do not use any ‘fragrance’, as this is synthetically produced and can be a harsh irritant for many people.

So instead we opt for natural, plant-based essential oils for both their amazing scents and therapeutic benefits.

We have four wonderful blended scents for this zero-waste award-winning natural conditioner bar, including:

• ‘Botanical Conditioner Bar’ (with relaxing Lavandula Angustifolia Lavender and Geranium),
• ‘Herbal Blend Conditioner Bar’ contains six natural oils (with refreshing Spearmint, Rosemary and Lime),
• 'Woodland Conditioner Bar’ (including calming Vetiver and Patchouli), and an
• 'Organic Sweet Orange Conditioner Bar’ which has a cheerful and uplifting scent.

To fully complement your hair type we have created ingredients specifically to suit either a normal/dry hair conditioner variant or an oily hair conditioner variant - so you can choose the natural conditioner bar that best suits your hair!

The Solid Bar Company plant-based conditioner bars are available for all hair types. We have conditioner bars for coloured hair, for highlighted hair, for normal hair, for dry hair, for oily hair, for grey hair, and for curly hair and they are all great to use on fine hair!

Each of the large natural hair conditioners will last up to 60 washes with our smaller conditioner bars lasting up to 30 washes.

The Solid Bar Company plastic-free natural conditioner bars are easy to apply, and fast to work, giving you that instant detangled, smooth feeling, just like a bottled conditioner.

How To Use A Conditioner Bar?

After using one of our shampoo bars, simply glide the conditioner bar directly over the hair from front to back - stroking the bar down your hair between your palms from root to tip - the more you glide, the more you condition. Then rinse off. If you have short hair just stroke it directly over your head on your hair.

If you wish you can even use these conditioner bars as a leave in conditioner.

Other points worth noting are that these solid conditioner bars are made in the UK from the finest ingredients so they will help restore your damaged hair - plus they are vegan, cruelty-free, paraben-free, silicone-free, sustainable, biodegradable, and never tested on animals!

It's time for you to discover our range of hand-made natural conditioner bars all made with eco, vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil-free and natural, eco-friendly ingredients.

All our natural conditioner bars are supplied in zero waste, plastic-free packaging that can be recycled.

Making the switch from commercial to natural is easy and if you have already made the switch to a natural vegan shampoo bar, why wait? Natural conditioner bars are perfect for restoring and maintaining healthy, natural hair.

When it comes to a natural hair care regime the natural essentials are a natural shampoo and a natural conditioner bar! 

The natural shampoo comes first but that doesn't mean forgetting about conditioning with a natural conditioner bar. We've even created an all-in-one conditioning shampoo bar for those on the go and want to save time!

What's great about a natural conditioner bar is convenience! They are a handy size and also very minimalist. Most commercial conditioners are large and chunky, cluttering your bathroom with unsightly plastic.

Our natural conditioner bars however are 100% plastic-free, sustainable, natural and zero waste! It doesn't get any better than that!

Conclusion

To wrap up, conditioner bars are a great alternative to traditional liquid conditioners.

They offer numerous advantages, such as being travel-friendly and long-lasting. By choosing the right conditioner bar for your hair type, you can achieve the best results.

Whether you have dry, oily, normal, or curly hair, there is a conditioner bar designed specifically for you. Not only do conditioner bars provide the nourishment and hydration your hair needs, but they also reduce plastic waste, making them an eco-friendly choice.

So why not make the switch to conditioner bars and enjoy the benefits they have to offer? Experience healthier, more manageable hair while contributing to a greener planet.

Give your hair a real treat and try the best solid hair conditioner bar UK today; conditioner bars are easy to use, you will not look back and your hair will thank you forever - no more liquid conditioner!

The complementary natural vegan shampoo bar you use is also just as vital and important to have great hair, so don't forget to also check out our easy and informative guide on our SLS-free shampoo bars here,  5 Great Tips To Help You Find The Best Shampoo Bar in 2024!

Don't forget to check out the full range of natural conditioner bars here.

Best wishes for better hair,

Rebecca and The Solid Bar Company Team 

(This article was last updated in February 2024) 

Resources: 

1. https://www.topsante.co.uk/awards/top-sante-haircare-awards-2021-the-results/
2. https://www.reviews.co.uk/company-reviews/store/peacewiththewildcouk/