Ditch the water in your shampoo

These days, it seems that beauty industry consumers prioritize convenience over all else. They look for the product that creates the best results while having to put in the least effort, trading sustainability for ease of use. This mindset favors products with disposable, often unrecyclable packaging. In 2024, Business Waste found that 120 billion units of plastic packaging are thrown away each year. This includes packaging for shampoo and lotion, products that carry an additional environmental impact — water waste. The International Natural and Organic Cosmetics Association finds that such products can contain up to 95 percent water.

With climate change and pollution threatening fresh water supplies, it is important to conserve this precious resource. A 2019 study from the Research Institute for Medicine corroborates that beauty products in the form of bars or sticks minimize water use in the consumption phase and thus benefit conservation. The idea of waterless beauty may sound strange at first, but their accessibility and sustainability make it a worthwhile swap for students’ daily routines.

One of the most common waterless beauty products is shampoo bars, which are solid surfactant-based products that resemble bars of soap. The price point of one shampoo bar — often $15 — is a bit higher than that of bottled shampoo, but its formula is designed to be ultra-concentrated and last more washes. For example, Ethique Beauty advertises their shampoo bars as equal in use to three 350 mL plastic shampoo bottles, while their conditioner bars are equal to five 350 mL bottles of conditioner. Additionally, most shampoo bars are packaged in recyclable or compostable paper packaging, which saves water from manufacturing and reduces its end-of-life impacts on local ecosystems.

Ditching familiar liquid products can be daunting, but many mainstream stores make waterless beauty swaps easily accessible. Lush, the original inventor of the shampoo bar in 1987, sells a plethora of water-free products at most malls. Sephora now carries shampoo bars from Viori and superzero, while Amazon offers items from Ethique Beauty as well as a variety of other eco-friendly brands. Instructions for use are simple, and often involves rubbing the bar directly onto wet hair and then massaging to lather.

Although it can be hard to make changes to our usual personal care products, every little bit counts to conserve water and reduce packaging waste. By incorporating a small aspect of sustainability into daily routine from a young age, individuals can save thousands of bottles of product over a lifetime.