TRR's byHumankind's conditioner bar review: we tried it for two weeks.

The Top Line:

BUY. We love byHumankind’s conditioner bar in grapefruit — it is super easy to use and leaves our hair moisturized without having to blow dry. No waste, lasts a long time, and costs about the same as drugstore conditioners? Yea, we converted. We are excited to try the other scents.

[Updated July 2023 for pricing - byHumankind has not increased prices!]

Check out our Big Zero Waste Shampoo and Conditioner Bar Review on The Reduce Report.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $15 for one bar and a dish (no extra cost for the dish); 15% off if you subscribe and buy 2 at a time

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Pretty clean; one hard to pronounce ingredient that turned out to just be an extract from rapeseed oil. Otherwise natural ingredients.

• Packaging: Recyclable paper - that’s it. ByHumankind does a really good job with packaging.

• Purchasing & Shipping: Clean design, but some links can be buggy. Shopping and shipping were pretty straightforward and very fast for us.

• Good to know: Refill and subscription is the name of byHumankind’s game. The company tries to use limited ingredients, with a heavy emphasis on plastic reduction via packaging.

• Coupons: None that we know of, and subscriptions does saves 15% on items but shipping is always free.

• Extra Info: We used ours as you would a normal conditioner, from ends to roots.

• What’s Your Impact? Pretty dramatic reduction in plastic. One bar replaces about two to three 16oz bottles of conditioner.

The Experience

Context: We wash and condition every other day (or longer, if we can get away with it). Conditioners recently used tend to be more natural and ‘cone'-free. Medium/long length hair that is straight-ish and conditioned with every wash; currently went back to liquid shampoo to isolate the effects of bar conditioners. here is our experience with byHumankind’s conditioner bar:

• With this conditioner, we tried both end to root and near root on the way down.

• Because the formula is light and moisturizing, both directions works without weighing hair down.

• We were impressed how straight and smooth our hair was without blow drying.

• Overall, we like byHumankind’s Grapefruit solid conditioner over Unwrapped Life’s Fixer Conditioner since we didn’t have to use a blow dryer to get great hair.

• Compared to other solids we tried in the past, this conditioner makes hair silkier and is easier and quicker to apply to hair.

• The scent is grapefruit, and it is super light and mellow. We like that.

The Cost

We assume you use between 2 to 3 16oz conditioner bottles per year and that each ounce of bar conditioner was created equal. This obviously depends on how long and thick your hair is. We compared other solids, like Lush, Zero Waste, and Unwrapped Life in addition to traditional conditioners like Pantene, Olaplex, and L’Oreal to byHumankind's conditiner.

Money Report: Solid bars are not just better for the environment, but are also right in terms of price. They are definitely a little pricey upfront, but they last a while.

The Good:

✔ Leaves hair smooth and a little silky hair after using

✔ Light, clean citrusy scent

✔ Easy and quick to apply all over hair

✔ One bar lasts a long time

✔ Affordable switch to no plastic

The Bad:

✗ Honestly… we’re not sure if there’s a bad

Our Recommendation:

BUY. We love byHumankind’s conditioner bar in grapefruit — it is super easy to use and leaves our hair moisturized without having to blow dry. No waste, lasts a long time, and costs about the same as drugstore conditioners? Yea, we converted. We are excited to try the other scents.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!