Beard is your definition of masculinity to the world. Growing a beard has become a trend and man’s fashion attire. A well-groomed beard not only makes you look stylish but also shows your dedication, patience, discipline and confidence.

But growing facial hair isn’t enough. Like every other body part, facial hair also needs proper attention. Most men use lots of beard care products like balms, oils, waxes, etc. However, one product that they usually overlook is beard shampoo. They find shampooing their facial hair a waste of time. Sometimes, they tend to think that it’s okay to use head hair shampoo in place of spending money on beard shampoos. They are wrong either cases.

On this guide, besides helping you identify the best beard shampoo, we also show you the importance of using a beard wash, how it can keep your beard clean and soft and what the difference is with regular shampoos.

Upon researching and testing, we find the Seven Potions Beard Shampoo as well as the Professor Fuzzworthy’s Bar Soap to be the top beard washes to buy with natural ingredients that will leave your facial hair clean and feeling soft, although they’re not advertised as 2 in 1 beard washes and conditioners. A great shampoo for beards is also the one from Medicine’s Man if you don’t mind paying a little bit extra.

The 5 Best Beard Shampoos

 Seven Potions Beard ShampooProfessor Fuzzworthy's Beard WashBluebeards Original Beard WashZeus Beard ShampooBeardsley Facial Hair ShampooMedicine Man’s Beard Wash
Seven Potions Beard Shampoo 100 ml Woodland Harmony - transparentProfessor Fuzzworthy beard gloss shampoo bar soap - transparentBluebeards original beard wash - transparentZeus beard shampoo for beards - transparentBeardsly beard shampoo - transparentMedicine man beard wash - transparent
CountryUKAustraliaUSAUSAUSAUSA
Size3.4 fl oz / 100 ml and 8.5 fl oz / 250 ml10 oz / 125 gram8.5 fl oz / 250 ml8 fl oz / 236 ml8 fl oz / 236 ml4.7 fl oz / 139 ml
Price$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
ScentWoody - Sandalwood & Cedarwood AfternotesWoody - Pine & Clove AfternotesEarthyCitrusForesty, Sweet & FruityEarthy
Wash Performance
Ease of Lathering
Itch Relief
Value for Money

Since we don’t want you to wait too long, here’s what we’ll be talking about on today’s guide.

  • First, we present you the 6 beards washes for men that we believe stand from the crowd.
  • A brief explanation of what beard shampoo is.
  • The differences between facial hair and regular shampoo.
  • Criteria to choosing the ideal shampoo for your beard and mustache.

Without further ado, here’s our selection of the greatest facial hair shampoo in the history of beards -kind of exaggeration but that’s cool.

Best Beard Shampoos

Whether you prefer outdoor market or shopping online, you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of options for beard cleanser. However, it’s important to choose the right product for pampering your facial hair with great care.

To help you save your time browsing through useless sites, we have listed here the top beard shampoos that you should buy and get your beard care routine started properly with a good wash.

Seven Potions Beard Shampoo

Best beard shampoo - Seven Potions Beard Shampoo 100 ml Woodland Harmony

Seven Potions is slowly establishing itself as one of the top notch brands in beard care out there. And this premium beard wash lives up to these standards.

This premium shampoo for beards is expertly designed to restore the lost natural oils and remove all smells and debris in your beard.

Because of its ability to replenish natural sebum oils, this shampoo moisturizes facial hair making them itch free and soft with reduced chances of split ends and dandruff.

Just a small amount will create rich lather to delightfully massage your entire beard. It will make your facial hair smell manly while ditching the soapy odor of generic shampoos.

The Seven Potions beard shampoo is made using organic and natural ingredients for the gentlest beard wash your facial hair had in years -or months I guess depending on when you started growing a beard.

If you have just started using this product, you will notice that your beard is incredibly manageable just after the first wash. It is because the natural ingredients in this product make your facial hair soft and skin healthy. This completely vegan and cruelty-free shampoo also helps beard look fuller and healthier.

Another positive aspect of this product is it’s free from parabens, preservatives, colorants and artificial fragrances.

For additional protection, the shampoo comes in a dark bottle to prevent sunlight from affecting its shelf life and thus retains the effectiveness for longer.

The container features a flip top cap closure that makes it a travel-friendly and allows easy and mess-free dispensing. And speaking of travel friendly, the 3.38oz / 100ml bottle is within the allowed limits for liquids (max 3.4 fl oz) when travelling by plane.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Capryl/Caprylyl Glucoside, Vegetable Glycerine, Sodium Benzoate & Potassium Sorbate, Hydrolysed Wheat Protein, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Aloe Vera Leaf Powder, Organic Blackcurrant Seed Extract, Organic Lime Extract, Cedar Wood, Sandalwood, Mix of Premium Essential Oils, Cocamidopropyl Betaine.

Seven Potions doesn’t contain any parabens, artificial colorants, SLES, SLS.

Size and Price Seven Potions beard shampoo come in packaging of different sizes, usually 3.38 fl oz / 100 ml, and even 8.45 / 250 ml container also. Choose the right size according to your beard growth.

If we talk about the cost, it depends on the size of the container. Regardless of size, the cost of Seven Potions shampoos is very reasonable. Keeping the benefits in mind, it’s in face one of the cheapest natural beard shampoos.

The awesome value for the price that you pay is also why we consider the Seven Potions one of the best beard shampoos you can invest in.

Professor Fuzzworthy’s Beard Shampoo

Best beard wash soap bar - Professor Fuzzworthy beard gloss shampoo bar soap

Professor Fuzzworthy’s beard shampoo is the our second choice for the best beard washes.

This shampoo originated in the Tasmania State of Australia.

It is a full size and 100% natural beard shampoo for facial hair that is rich in olive oil and castor oil, two bets nourishing ingredients.

The Leatherwood beeswax and honey helps gentle and thorough cleaning of beard hair while offering you a healthy, fuller-looking and shiny beard. Tasmania’s Kunzea and lavender extracts assure antiseptic and anti-itch benefits with this product.

Using Professor Fuzzworthy’s beard shampoo is easy. Simply wet your beard and work the bar evenly to create a rich lather. Then run your fingers through your beard while massaging it. Massage for 1-2 minutes and the follow with a lukewarm water rinse. For better results, you can follow shampooing with the Professor Fuzzworthy’s beard conditioner for detangling and soften facial hair.

Since the product already contains natural oils and balms, it will help you keep your beard nourished, even before you apply your favorite beard balms or oils after washing. Just like all the beard shampoos on this guide, this product makes a great addition to your grooming kit.

The bar lasts for quite a while, and you can slice it off for travel purpose. Make sure you keep it in a soap dish or metal rack with a bit of drainage. This shampoo also makes a perfect gift for fathers, boyfriends, husbands, and any bearded friend.

Ingredients: Mount Wellington spring water, olive, coconut castor oils, soy wax Leatherwood beeswax, Tasmanian Seaweed extract, Leatherwood honey, cocoa powder, essential oils.

Professor Fuzzworthy’s beard shampoo is free from synthetic ingredients, preservatives, SLS, SLES, coloring, palm oil and other harmful substances.

Size and Price: The Professor Fuzzworthy’s beard shampoo comes in block forms with the weight of 125 gm. For all natural and organic products, men have to pay huge. Comparatively, this shampoo typically retails for less than $15 making it a cheaper yet the best alternative to expensive shampoos.

Bluebeards Original Beard Wash with Extra Conditioning

Bluebeards original beard wash - transparent

The Bluebeards Original Beard Wash is a product that is specially formulated to kick off all bad stuff from your beard.

If you are looking for an a great looking beard for any kind of skin, the Bluebeards Original beard wash is a solid choice.

It’s manufacture to allow health to your facial hair and skin underneath it. Even if you have sensitive skin, you can use this beard shampoo without any doubt because as it has passed the real beards’ tests.

One of its major ingredient is Provitamin B5 and it improves hair elasticity and softness. Lime kicks off the trapped debris and oil from the hair shafts making your beard clean and lustrous. Aloe softens and soothes the skin underneath your facial hair.

This extra-conditioning Beard Wash performs surprisingly well even at the wildest of beards while enhancing its natural shine by using its gentle and sulfate-free formula for cleaning facial hair.

To use this beard wash, wet your face and neck properly. Put a small amount of Bluebeards Original Beard Wash on your fingertips and massage it on your beard properly. Then rinse through the beard. The best thing about this product is you can use it daily without worrying about drying your beard.

Ingredients: Purified Water, Decyl Glucoside, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, (Coconut Derivative), Glycerin, Xanthan Gum, Propylene Glycol, Honey, Vitamin E, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Panthenol (Provitamin B5), Lecithin, Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime Essential Oil), Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Sorbic Acid

Size and Price: Bluebeards Original Beard wash comes in packaging of different sizes like 8 oz. and costs accordingly. The container comes with an easy-to-use content dispenser for mess-free application.

Zeus Beard Shampoo and Wash for Men

Zeus beard shampoo for beards

You wake up from your bed in the morning to notice itchy beard, whiskers pointing in different directions and everything just looks a big mess on your face.

How to fix it instantly? This is where Zeus beard shampoo and wash for men comes to your rescue. Zeus beard shampoo comes with all natural ingredients making it an ideal grooming product for all skin types and even for those who have sensitive skin.

The Zeus beard shampoo is a blend of great ingredients. It’s an antioxidant blend of Dragon’s Blood, green tea, and chamomile. Do you want to know what Dragon’s blood is? Well, it is a tree-based ingredient that avoids irritation and inflammation in skin cells.

Green tea also works against dandruff and itchy substances, thanks to its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. On the other hand, chamomile helps to restore the lost shine and strength on facial hair. The combination of these powerful ingredients makes this product work even on the worst facial hair.

Another best part about this top notch shampoo for beards is that it does not strip off the natural oil from sebum glands found in hair follicles of the facial skin.

It is totally cruelty-free, sulfate-free and Paraben-free that helps tame breakage and flyaways. Zeus Beard shampoo comes in three scents: vanilla rum, which is a creamy vanilla note over a sweet woodsy base. Second is sandalwood scent, and the third is verbena lime that makes your face feel nice and fresh.

Zeus beard shampoo comes in a black container with a flip top dispenser that allows a nice whiff of freshness. Simply squeeze out a very small amount of the shampoo as it does not require much for a good clean. Damp your beard and apply this great wash for beards to create nice suds. Massage it for 1-2 minutes and then follow with a cool rinse to feel great. You will feel softness, fragrance, and freshness throughout the day.

For the best results, you can follow with a Zeus beard conditioner and oil.

Ingredients: Water, Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Chloride, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Fragrance (Parfum), Sodium Benzoate, Lauryl Glucoside, Coco-Glucoside, Xylitylglucoside, Anhydroxylitol, Glyceryl Oleate, Xylitol, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Hydroxypropylsulfonate Lauryl-Glucoside Crosspolymer, PCA Glyceryl Oleate, Daemonorops Draco Extract, Chamomilla Recutita Flower/Leaf Extract

Size and Price: An 8 oz. bottle costs less than $16 which is a total worth of your investment in this product.

Beardsley Ultra Shampoo for Beards, Wild Berry

Beardsly beard shampoo

Beardsley Ultra shampoo for beard and mustache is formulated, as you can imagine, especially for facial hair.

Although not among the natural shampoos on this guide, it gives your facial hair a clean and fresh feel while leaving behind a berry scent.

Facial hair is usually thick and coarse. This shampoo for beards is created to focus solely on your face. It deeply moisturizes and softens your thick and unmanageable beard.

My concern with this shampoo is the presence of parabens which are notorious preservatives for cosmetics with a lot of controversy that have to do with safety and health risks.

Leaving the above preservatives aside, this shampoo contains Cocamide Dea that is natural oil extracted from coconut kernels. This ingredient boosts the shampoo’s cleansing and foaming action. Also, it features Quillaia extract that is popular for promoting the healing process and reducing excessive oil production in the facial skin.

The berry scent smells so pleasant without overpowering. Just a few drops of Beardsley Ultra beard shampoo is enough to create super rich lather when applied on damp facial hair. Massage your beard and mustache with the lather and rinse it off using normal water.

Use it as recommended for the best results.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Sodium C14-16 Olephin Sulfonate, Cocamide DIPA, Decyl Glucoside, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Acetate), Polyquaternium-10, Chamomilla Recutita Flower/Leaf (Chamomile) Extract, Fragrance (Parfum), PEG-16 Macadamia Glycerides, Citric Acid, Glycerin, Sodium Saccharin, Methylparaben, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Propylparaben

Size and Price: The product offers great cleansing performance although the price isn’t so great for a shampoo that contains a lot of artificial ingredients compared to the competition.

Medicine Man’s Itchy Beard Wash

Medicine man top beard wash

Medicine Man’s itchy beard wash comes in a liquid form in a traditional pump bottle.

It is sourced from natural and organic ingredients containing all the right carrier oils that are great for daily beard care regime. Medicine Man is an Anti-itch beard shampoo to help guys go through various stages of growing beard without itchiness and also promotes facial hair growth.

Just take a little amount of Medicine Man’s beard wash content in your palm, wet your beard and massage it. Initially, it will not lather much. But with a little effort, it lathers up nicely that will help you get rid of trapped dirt and buildup collected over the course of the day.

The key ingredient in this product is Vitamin E oil that assures healthy and strong hair follicles. It makes your beard look healthier and lustrous just after a few washes.

Ingredients: Water, Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Organic Olive Fruit Oil, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Seed Oil, Sea Fennel Extract, Citric Acid, Lavender Oil, Rosemary Leaf Oil, Vitamin E Oil

Size and Price: The shampoo comes in a 4.7 fl oz plastic bottle which costs a bit higher than the rest of the reviewed beard shampoos. But in any case, you won’t regret trying this beard wash out. Great performance and ingredients that don’t read like math equations.

What is beard shampoo and why should you use it?

Beard shampoo for maintaining a beard and helping it grow faster and thicker

Image courtesy: Yacobchuk/BigStock.com

How should be a beard maintenance regime?

For many men, it’s just splashing some water and shower soaping it. However, if you want a revered and lustrous beard, you need a special shampoo for facial hair given the fact that hair on your head and face are different and need different treatments.

Like scalp hair, your facial hair needs shampooing too. Beard shampoos are designed while keeping in mind the composition and ability of facial hair in mind.

To assure a well-maintained, appealing and clean beard, washing your facial hair with a specially formulated beard shampoo is a must part of your grooming routine.

A good beard shampoo helps you get rid of all dirt and oil and beard balm buildup collected in your facial hair over time without removing the natural oils. It also alleviates the associated problems like split ends, beardruff and itchiness in the beard.

Most of the recognized beard shampoos use very skin-friendly and natural ingredients like aloe vera, castile soap, shea butter, and a blend of essential oils that make your facial hair smell heavenly after every wash.

You don’t need to shampoo your beard every day, but only 2-3 times a week is enough. Excessive shampooing makes your facial hair frizzy, flaky and brittle.

Beard shampoos come in either bars or lotions and using them is like a doodle. Simply rub it gently on your wet hair, massage until lathered well and rinse it out using plain water.

What’s The Difference between a Beard and Head Hair Shampoo?

What is body wash and what is the difference with soap

Image courtesy: pogrebkov/BigStock.com

Lots of people tend to consider their head hair shampoo to wash their beard. They find no sense in using a specially manufactured beard cleanser. Well, that’s perhaps the biggest mistake you are committing to your beard hair.

To know the different between a beard and head hair shampoo, it’s important to educate yourself about the difference between beard and head hair composition. Here we go:

The composition of beard and head hair is almost opposite to each other. Head hair follows a 3-steps life cycle, whereas growth cycle of facial hair is very small.

Facial hair is thicker than the scalp hair and is of a wiry texture. The skin of scalp tends to be oilier than facial skin due to the increased sebum oil. Head hair cleansers are designed to be frequently used to clean from impurities while washing off the excess oil from the scalp. Using these shampoos on beard hair can be harsh and drying for the facial skin.

Scalp hair is usually straight, but beard hair tends to be unruly, thicker and curly. The ability of body hair revolves around the shape of hair follicles. The hair follicles on facial skin are extremely sensitive to androgens, which make hair kinked. It means not only the shampoo but also the brush you use to comb the hair on head and beard should be different. That being said, use hard bristles for beard and soft for head hair.

Is it clear why should you use a beard shampoo rather than a regular head hair shampoo?

Not clear? Let’s make it easy!

Just think about it.

Why do you wash your scalp hair? It is to keep them clean and top of it, removing the excess oil that appears after every 3-5 days of head washing. After washing, your hair looks oil-free, frizzy and dry, right? It is all because of sebum oil found at the roots of hair follicles in sebaceous glands.

Now, if we talk about facial hair, it’s important to store the oil and keep your beard moisturized. Otherwise, it will become frizzy, dry, and unruly and become susceptible to breakage to look like a scourer. Not to mention the appearance of beard splits ends after a while.

What does it all mean? Clearly, beard and head hair have different abilities and compositions. Thus both require different treatments.

If you check out the ingredients of scalp shampoos, you will notice the most common ingredients like Sodium Laurel Sulphate (SLS), which is a synthetic detergent found in these shampoos that strip off oil and skin of scalp hair.

Contrarily, you don’t want this to happen to your facial hair. That’s why beard shampoos do not normally contain harmful chemicals that strip off the natural sebum oils from the hair follicles making them look matted down.

Beard cleansers tend to be milder than scalp shampoos. These shampoos have the ability to clean your facial hair while keeping in only the required amount of good oils to make your beard look appealing and free from personality-destroying split ends all the time.

Most of the beard shampoos contain cocoa butter, shea butter, essential oils to name a few, with the sole purpose of cleansing the beard and leaving behind a silky feel and delicious smell.

So do yourself a favor and swap out your head hair shampoo with a good-quality beard shampoo.

Criteria for Choosing the Right Beard Shampoo

Choosing the right beard shampoo is more important than you may think. Facial hair comes with same responsibilities like your scalp hair, or we can say with even more responsibilities.

It’s not only an unmanaged beard makes you look hideous, low-confident and undisciplined but also certain ingredients that ordinary shampoos contain may cause dry skin under you beard, beardruff and itchy beard.

There are a few important factors like ingredients, performance, price, size and closure that you should consider when buying a beard shampoo. Let’s read further to know how to analyze these factors so that you end buying only the genuine product.

Check the Ingredients

It is the step you need to take. Natural ingredients make a huge difference between an itchy, dry and ugly-looking beard and a dreamy beard that you want. Make sure your beard shampoo doesn’t contain these ingredients:

  • Ammonium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate
  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
  • Sodium Chloride
  • Diethanolamine (DEA) and Triethanolamine (TEA)
  • Formaldehyde
  • Synthetic Fragrance or Parfum
  • Propylene Glycol
  • Parabens -although we’ve got one popular shampoo on this guide that contains such preservatives.

Try to find a shampoo that contains as much natural ingredients as possible. After all, natural ingredients work great. They’re often very gentle on the skin and are suitable for almost any skin type.

Cleansing and Softening Performance

Performance is the second most important element to differentiate a bad and a good beard shampoo. The performance of shampoo is measured in three terms- its texture, foaming and the results after shampooing.

In our experience, a good beard shampoo must create good lather only with a small amount, although that’s not really necessary.

Just a few applications make your beard feel soft, moisturized and easily manageable without use of conditioner. It should normally feel tangles-free when you comb after shampooing with it.

Container

It is also important to consider the container that carries the product. A beard shampoo container must come in dark bottles. It is because dark bottles allow sun rays and harmful UV rays to affect the consistency of the product. It also helps preserve the shelf life of the content inside.

It not only helps you enjoy your product for longer but also preserves the fragrance, especially when the beard shampoo is made from all natural ingredients.

Closure

Beard shampoo comes in a variety of bottle containers that have flip top cap, dropper, push cap and pump. However, flip top caps are safe when it comes to travel and we tend to prefer them over other cap types. These shampoo dispensers also allow an easier and mess-free shampoo are dispensing.

On the other hand, if we talk about dripper and push caps, there is a chance that when you open up the container, the content inside oozes out suddenly. It just leads the wastage of shampoos. Also, these closures are not travel-friendly.

If you’re planning to keep your beard wash in your bathroom, pumps are also easy to use and they’re particularly good for dispensing the right amount.

Price

Price is perhaps the most important factor that people consider when choosing beard shampoos. To get the better idea of reasonability of the price, compare it in accordance with the performance and ingredients by also taking into consideration the bottle size.

Don’t skip a product if it appears too expensive. And, don’t go for a product that you know is inferior but is available at cheaper rate. High quality shampoos that contain premium ingredients are expected to cost higher. And like most things, you get what you pay for.

Closing thoughts

If you have read thus far, you should know by now the difference between a head hair and a beard shampoo. Also, you know the reasons why you shouldn’t you use a scalp shampoo to wash your beard. Beard shampoos are made of natural ingredients making it a mild facial hair cleanser, and regular hair shampoo may not do a very good job for keeping your beard soft and healthy in the long-term.

Do your homework and we hope you find the best beard shampoo for your needs and budget.

Make sure you check out our other beard guides: