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The Best Shampoos for Clean, Healthy Hair

Clean, healthy hair starts with your scalp. Here’s to pick the right shampoo for yours.

collage of three bottles of shampoo Courtesy

By Evan Malachosky and Adam Hurly

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It’s not easy to write about the best shampoo for men, given that no two guys have the same needs for their hair. Couple that with the fact that shampoo, on its own, is a no go. You need to pair it with an excellent conditioner (typically, the brand you use will have a matching conditioner; it’s best you just stick with that, and always follow the washing with the conditioning). But when we break down the various washing needs of most men, it’s easier to spotlight the shampoos we love best — and those we wholeheartedly recommend for you.

Products in the Guide

  • Oars + Alps Hydrating Shampoo

    Best Overall Shampoo

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  • Patricks SH2 Shampoo

    Best Upgrade Shampoo

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  • Huron Wash and Strengthen Shampoo

    Best Affordable Shampoo

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  • Living Proof Full Shampoo

    Best Volumizing Shampoo

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  • Sachajuan Silver Shampoo

    Best Toning Shampoo

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  • Firsthand Hydrating Shampoo

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How to Pick a Shampoo

Think first about your own hair: Is it long, short, fine, thick, curly, thinning or some combination of those? Is it dry or oily, or neither? Are you prone to sun or heat damage, winter parching or even flaking? Is it dyed any color of the rainbow, or perhaps platinum blonde or silver? Or is it naturally gray or silver, or even naturally blonde and at risk of turning brassy? These are all things to consider when choosing a shampoo. They’ll inform whether you order a dandruff shampoo or a color-safe one.

Specialized Shampoos

Swimmer’s Shampoo

A day of swimming can wreak havoc on your hair. Yes, swimming under a scorching sun feels refreshing, but it’s actually quite dehydrating (for your hair and skin). Chlorine found in pools and salt from the ocean both strip the hair of its natural oils, stress the scalp and cause all-around dryness.

The best swimmer shampoos work to remove chlorine and salt and rehydrate the hair and scalp. Plus, they’ll extinguish chlorine’s strange scent.

For more post-swim hair care solutions, shop our buying guide to swimmer’s shampoo.

Dandruff Shampoo

Scientifically, what causes dandruff isn’t crystal clear, researchers revealed, and there aren’t exactly facilities dedicated to figuring it out. It can appear as a result of a reaction to a new shampoo or styling product, from forgoing a shower for too long, because of a fungus called malassezia, or as a byproduct of another skin condition, like eczema or psoriasis. Dandruff is not purely a marker of poor hygiene. And there are loads of ways to combat it.

Dandruff is a big deal. Combat flakes with a shampoo from our buying guide to dandruff shampoo.

Color-Safe Shampoo

If you just dyed your hair, it’s smart to switch to a color-safe shampoo, which is any formula that won’t extract the color you just worked so hard to perfect.

Thickening Shampoo

DHT is the hormone that promotes male pattern baldness. Some shampoos can block it, which helps slow the development of bald spots. These won’t reverse damage that’s already been done, but it’ll make thinning hair look thicker.

How Often Should You Use Shampoo?

“If you don’t cleanse your scalp frequently excess oils, dirt, pollution and dead skin cells are allowed to build up. This can result in pores on your scalp becoming clogged and can lead to the formation of pimples,” Anabel Kingsley, consultant trichologist at Philip Kingsley, says.

Most men that feel their hair is “stripped” or “dry” after shampooing skip the second step: conditioning. It’s vital you do both steps in succession, because while shampoo is responsible for cleansing the scalp, conditioners rehydrate the hair. As such, you don’t need to ditch your shampoo to avoid dry, staticky hair — just follow Kingsley’s recommend timeline.

“I recommend people with fine-textured hair shampoo daily,” she says. “This is because people with finer hair have more oil glands on their scalp, and their hair, therefore, becomes greasy faster. If you have medium-textured hair, try to shampoo daily to every other day. Ideally coarser and curly hair textures should leave no more than 3 days between shampoos.”

Find answers to all of your pressing hair questions in our guide to shampooing and showering.

As we said above, it’s nearly impossible to prescribe a shampoo that works universally — for all types of hair, whether it’s coarse, curly, colored or barely clinging on. Oars + Alps’ Hydrating Shampoo is a solid suggestion, though, because it’s free from everything that could damage your hair — sulfates, for example — and infused with natural extracts like kelp and algae. It’s nourishing, hydrating (as the name implies) and finished with a fresh scent.

The SH2 Shampoo by Patricks promises a deep clean. Sure, you could use this option every day, but this is best reserved for those that shampoo sparingly — say two or three times a week. It works hard to remove stubborn build-up from products, dirt or even excess oil, all without damaging the hair itself. The SH2 is by far the most luxe shampoo on this list, and, as such, the price reflects that — but it’s worth it.

Everything we said about our best overall shampoo, the one above by Oars + Alps, applies here: It’s very hard to give you a shampoo recommendation without knowing exactly what type of hair you have and what you’ve recently done to it — whether you use pomades, just got it cut or dyed it. But Huron’s lathers nicely, hydrates and soothes scalp issues, all for under $20 dollars. Plus, it’s free from parabens, sulfates, phthalates, silicones and aluminum.

If you have thin or fine hair, then you may want to give it the illusion of fullness. Sometimes, just a simple shampoo can do the trick, since it dries out the hair. However, that’s bad for your hair’s health at the same time, and those fine strands are fragile. Living Proof’s volumizing shampoo gives you all of the volume without the parching — like a dry shampoo spray, only healthier.

This “silver” shampoo is actually purple, as are all of the ones targeted at toning whites, grays, and silvers. Those hairs are at risk of turning brassy in the sun or through product use, whether the hair is natural or dyed. Sachajuan’s purple pigment shampoo tones the color to keep your hair bright and as desired, while also nourishing it and preventing thinning or breakage.

Firsthand’s Hydrating Shampoo feels ultra-gentle. It doesn’t foam like other soaps, meaning there are less suds, but your hair benefits from its soft approach. Rather than stripping the hair and scalp of its natural oils, Firsthand leaves them intact and actually helps restore them — while cleaning, of course. Plus, it smells quite nice, like bergamot and vetiver, courtesy of an essential oils blend. And the bottle’s made from 98-percent recycled materials.

Whether your hair is dry or damaged by dyes and styling products, Kiehl’s Amino Acid Shampoo, with added coconut oil, will soften it. The acids cleanse but keep natural moisture intact, while coconut oil softens the hair’s look and feel, which ultimately adds volume, too.

We’ve broken our own golden rule. Shampoos and conditioners technically shouldn’t be dosed simultaneously, meaning 2-in-1s aren’t the best for your hair. But Harry’s does a good job of mixing milder iterations of both for a dual action shampoo that does the job of both a cleanser and a conditioner. TLDR: this one cleans but it also hydrates.

Guys with thinning hair should do a full-court press on hair loss. In addition to considering medicines like finasteride and minoxidil (both of which Hims offers), they should also deploy shampoos like this one from the brand, which use saw palmetto to fight DHT, the hormone byproduct that suffocates hair follicles and leads to hair loss.

Got dandruff? I get it. Nearly 50-percent of the population does. Don’t be ashamed; do something about it. Try Jupiter’s Balancing Dandruff Shampoo. It won’t stick out in your shower like Head and Shoulders does, and it does the same job — although better, I’d argue. It’s effective yet gentle, and it costs roughly the same.

If most shampoos kill your curls, try Bevel’s Sulfate-Free Shampoo, which is specifically formulated for textured hair. You’ll have a hard time finding a better option for natural styles, especially since the brand is Black-owned and -founded.

The formula is all-natural, soft and delivers a slight shine.

“Clean” is king in the beauty industry. The adjective is everywhere, but what does it really mean? It’s essentially the absence of a number of purportedly harmful ingredients: parabens, sulfates, phthalates, dyes, aluminum, silicone, synthetic fragrances and so on and so forth.

Jack Henry’s Cleanse+ Shampoo is free from all of these and relies on a botanical base to clean deep down to the scalp.

Beardbrand’s all-purpose Utility Wash works as a face, body and beard wash and a hair shampoo. The no-fuss formula is relatively universal, albeit less specialized than, say, Jupiter’s Dandruff Shampoo. It’s a baseline option for folks with manageable manes.

Your first order from Uni comes with a reusable pump (and bottle sleeve), which you keep for when your next bottle comes. The bottles are recyclable, too, and the formula within them proves clean, skin-friendly and vitamin-rich.

OUAI is slowly expanding into specialized shampoos, with its anti-dandruff option and this powerful Detox option, which controls oil levels and boosts your hair’s natural shine with an all-natural apple cider vinegar-based formula.

Are you a constant styler? The type that puts pomade or clay into your do every single day? You don’t have to stop, but in order to continue forward without doing serious damage you need to enlist a clarifying shampoo — the kind that can clear the hair strands themselves and the scalp of buildup from these products. Forte Series’ version does just that without doing any damage itself — which some shampoos can.

Bald heads need washing, too! And your standard-fare cleanser and bar-soap aren’t typically up to the task. Instead, keep a scalp shampoo in the shower—something that targets dandruff or oil toning. Neutrogena’s T/Gel medicated shampoo is exactly that. It prevents dandruff, itching, and flaking and ensures that your polished dome stays smooth as ever.

Maapilim relies on all-natural ingredients for its hair, face and body products. Its shampoo, a blend of Argan, Tea Tree, Kava and other oils, can be used daily and comes with a pleasant scent, courtesy of verbena, spearmint and vetiver.

When your hair thins, unlike hair loss, it means the gradual loss of volume and texture. Jack Black’s Thickening Shampoo can counteract this issue with its unique, volume-boosting formula. Proteins, extracts and acids join forces to not only cleanse but also nurture the hair and its follicles.

Like fragrances, your shampoo should shift with the seasons. It’s only natural, you know: what your hair looks and feels like in the winter is, at least for me, drastically different than how it looks and feels in the dead of winter. Why? Well, we wear hats to keep warm, use products to keep our hair from diffusing in the wind and so on and so forth. Fellow’s Winter Wash uses vitamins and extracts to invigorate the scalp and hair, cleanse it and also hydrate it.

Malibu C’s Swimmers Wellness shampoo, as the name implies, caters specifically to the aquatics-inclined individual. This iteration addresses both chlorine and copper, and uses antioxidants to restore damage done by them.

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