Dip Shampoo Bar Review: This Brand Wants to Replace Your Expensive Salon Shampoo (But should it?)

Dip Conditioner Bar

This is a solid conditioner bar (no pun intended). It goes on really smoothly and easily, and really does hydrate every bit as well as liquid conditioner, and has actually become my favorite Dip product!

UPDATE: I don’t say this lightly (it’s taken me months of testing and retesting) but this is also now my favorite conditioner bar, out of all the brands I’ve tested. Of course, these products are very personal, so it will take some trial and error, but I’ll tell the Dip conditioner has worked so well for me.

This bar just feels luxurious and adds a lot of shine and softness to my hair, without weigh.

At first, I thought it moisturized a little too well, at least for my hair. But after mixing and matching Dip conditioner bars with other shampoo bars I’ve used (specifically, my Viori shampoo bar plus Dip conditioner), I realized it was the Dip shampoo that was weighing down my hair, not the conditioner.

(Again, the Dip shampoo is intended for daily use, and I usually skip a day. So it’s just not the right formula for me.)

But the combination of Viori shampoo + Dip conditioner has been perfect for me. 

If you have dry or damaged hair that needs extra conditioning, these bars would be a great choice! It makes sense that Dip says they’re a cult favorite among surfers and swimmers for use after getting out of the water. 

How my hair REALLY looks after washing with Dip shampoo and conditioner…

No heat styling, no products at all… not even really brushed.

And if you do spend a lot of time around sun and water, Dip also makes a unique Sun Shield Conditioner Bar & Detangler.

Secret Sauce: Enzyme Cleansing Spray 

Speaking of skipping a shampoo day, Dip makes a spray-on hair cleanser that Kate called “a shower in a bottle.”

I thought that meant it was supposed to have a similar effect as dry shampoo (a product that my lazy self loves) so I was intrigued. But that’s not actually the goal with this spray. As Kate explained, when I told her I wasn’t getting it:

Dry shampoo is essentially a styling product that doesn’t clean anything, just masks dirt.  Someone in a hospital bed can’t apply dry shampoo for 3 weeks, but they can use the enzyme spray for that long with no worry or build-up.

Kate Assaraf, Dip founder

How, you ask?

Secret Sauce uses an enzyme that’s supposed to eat up bacteria or grease on your scalp. (Technically, they said it “rapidly absorbs and removes proteins, greases, oils, detergents and compounds left by other hair care products… leaving your hair feeling light and invigorated.”)  

I kept trying it on my scalp, and I have to say… I just wasn’t seeing the effect I was hoping for. If anything, I felt like my hair maybe even looked greasier after spraying this on the roots, not cleaner.

Kate told me that’s because the spray “requires saturation AND styling after it dries – whether that’s with a hair dryer or just after a long time of air drying.”

No shade, but I tried all that and still, I just didn’t love it. Maybe I don’t do enough styling, but even after spraying it on my roots and drying it with a hair dryer, I thought my hair looked at least as dirty as before.

So I’ll be sticking with my plastic-free dry shampoo that I use all the time, because it works for me. (When my hair feels greasy and I dust a little dry shampoo at the roots, it doesn’t look greasy anymore. Easy-peasy, if all you’re looking for is to skip a shower for one random day!)

Should YOU try it, though?

These are the situations Kate said Secret Sauce was designed for. (Remember though, some styling is required after you spray and dry.)

• camping
• cleaning clip-in extensions and wigs
• protecting vivid color (showers are the enemy of mermaid hair colors)
• after surgery
• postpartum
• family members in nursing homes/hospitals
• long moments of grief
• busy schedules, eg: “If you are working in a restaurant and have type 4 hair, and wash days are far apart, this solves a huge problem for you.”
• getting grease stains out of clothing???

Having tested lots of plastic-free laundry detergents and sustainable cleaning products, I’m intrigued by that last one.

I’m going to test it on some grease stains and will update this here when I do!

PIC – grease stain before and after

Sustainable packaging? 

This enzyme spray is packaged in plastic, but the bottles are actually “deadstock.” Deadstock means Dip’s founder, Kate, was able to source these plastic bottles from a company that was just going to throw them away.

Using packaging rescued from the landfill is a pretty cool thing! (You’ll find other brands that use deadstock materials on my list of sustainable clothing brands.)

Dip bars cost how much? 

As I mentioned at the top of this review, these bars are not cheap. Yes, you can save a few dollars by ordering a shampoo + conditioner set, or with bundles of three bars in any one scent. 

But still, their sticker prices of $24 for a full-sized shampoo bar and $32 for a conditioner bar make these the most expensive of all the shampoo bars I’ve reviewed. 

And I do love that Dip makes mini sizes of almost every product. That’s huge for letting people actually try both the product and scent before committing to (and possibly wasting) a standard-sized bar. 

You can also save a bit more with my discount code: 

Need the best?

Dip

Are you addicted to top-shelf shampoo and don't see how a bar could possibly do your hair justice? Well that's pretty much Dip's mission.

They're a brand that I'm pretty excited about, and I have to say – after a few uses, I think their bars make my hair shinier and bouncier than any other. I also love the beautiful, subtle, expensive-smelling scents. Highly worth a try. Review coming soon.

Discount:: Save 15% on your Dip order with the code TILTEDMAP

Shop Now (15% OFF)

(Side note: Dew Mighty is another sustainable brand that I love, and that has a similar philosophy, and also makes it easy to test their products with mini sizes.)

Best Travel Skincare

Dew Mighty

This small brand makes the most sustainable skincare products I've ever found – with refillable metal containers and refills in paper. Plus with zero liquids, they're uniquely ideal for travel.

Their solid Vitamin C serum is the cornerstone of my daily routine, and their powdered face wash is also fantastic.

Discount:: Save 10% on your first Dew Mighty purchase (even if you just go straight to the refills and skip the metal containers!) with the code TILTEDMAP

Shop Now (10% OFF) Review: Plastic-free Face Washes

… and the bars last how long? 

This line on Dip’s about page caught my eye: 

“…Our bars… save you lots of money by lasting a really long time (our conditioner alone can save you $200+ on your expensive conditioner habit)”

I’m not sure what kind of conditioner habit you might have, but the kind I normally use certainly is not that expensive. 

Still, this made me realize I should test just how long Dip’s “really long time” really is. 

That meant (to my husband’s joy and relief) that I cleared all of the other half-used bars out of the shower, and started the clock… ahem, spreadsheet.

The Shampoo Bar Test

Dip’s 4-ounce shampoo bar (113 grams) is definitely bigger than most, so I put my old science fair skills to work and implemented a strict spreadsheet tracking policy. My husband and I both kept track of how many times we used the bar, and I weighed it regularly. 

I found that on average, the shampoo bar lost about 2 grams every time I used it.

My math skills (113 ➗ 1.9) tell me that means one Dip shampoo bar should last about 59 uses. 

(But experience tells me more like 50. This is an imperfect experiment, and everyone who’s used a shampoo bar before knows the last few grams turn into tiny pieces that get lost in your soap dish and outlive your patience. So I’d say roughly 50 uses per Dip shampoo bar.)

The Conditioner Bar Test

Okay, the shampoo bar results were just fine, and I was going to stop there.

But then I realized that my Dip conditioner bars just never seemed to go away. (Even the mini version, which I’ve ordered twice, since the full-sized bars seemed like too much of a commitment.) So I opened up a new spreadsheet.

And WOW. These results make Dip’s claim that they’ll “save you $200 a year on conditioner” make a bit more sense.

Even though I had noticed that the conditioner seemed to last longer than the shampoo, those results were shocking! Less than half a gram per use? That’s way more than I’m getting out of Dip’s shampoo bar.

And it means even the 21-gram MINI conditioner bar should last 55 uses. 😯 That’s wildly efficient. (On my thick, medium length hair. Of course, it’ll be a bit different for everyone, depending on your hair type, but it’s not like I’ve got a pixie cut or am trying to stretch out my bar.)

Based on this test, from an 85-gram full-sized conditioner bar, I’d expect to get about 223 washes. I think that makes Dip conditioner bars more than worth the price – especially when you add on the extra discount for Tilted Map readers:

Need the best?

Dip

Are you addicted to top-shelf shampoo and don't see how a bar could possibly do your hair justice? Well that's pretty much Dip's mission.

They're a brand that I'm pretty excited about, and I have to say – after a few uses, I think their bars make my hair shinier and bouncier than any other. I also love the beautiful, subtle, expensive-smelling scents. Highly worth a try. Review coming soon.

Discount:: Save 15% on your Dip order with the code TILTEDMAP

Shop Now (15% OFF)

Palm Oil Free? (Not what you might expect.)

Some of Dip’s products are palm-oil-free – but their shampoo bars and body wash bars are not. And even those only sometimes contain palm oil.

They say that’s because they tried lots of alternatives and couldn’t find anything that worked as well, so they “made sure the palm oil we sourced was sustainable.” (Scroll about half-way down their FAQ page for this explanation.) 

I wasn’t sure what that meant, so I emailed Kate yet again to ask. (After all, “sustainable” is not a regulated term with a specific definition. Watch my talk on recognizing greenwashing if you want a deep dive.)

Here’s what she said: 

“Very often, brands claim “palm oil free” but they can’t actually guarantee that. This is because palm and coconut oil are often exchanged based on price and availability for “stearyl alcohol”. We have asked our raw materials supplier to prioritize coconut for us, but we trust them to be honest about this. Our shampoo bars might have zero palm oil  in one batch, and might have it in the next. I want customers to know that palm oil might be in our bars (even when it isn’t) because I know that is a very emotional deciding factor for many people, and I think it’s the right thing to do – even if it hurts sales.” 

That explanation is a big part of why I love this company, even though not all of their products are perfect for me. 

The power of being honest – and different

First of all, because hardly any brands I’ve talked to are that honest about complicated issues. (And I talk to a lot of brands before reviewing their products.)

And second, because I get it. I am fully aligned with Dip on avoiding perfectionism in order to convert more people to buying more sustainable products. Plastic-free is definitely more sustainable, so not checking every box is okay. 

And Dip fills a unique niche: They make hair care products that are plastic-free (which is the minimum requirement for me to review them) and also aimed at the salon-quality hair care section of the market. That is a rare and powerful combination. 

None of the other shampoo bars I’ve tested or reviewed hit that target. And that means that before Dip, people with really really high hair care standards likely weren’t interested exploring plastic-free options.

What is Stearyl alcohol? (Where’s the palm oil?)

Quick note: if you read Dip’s disclosure on palm oil in their shampoo bars, and then read the ingredients list on their shampoo bars and wondered where’s the palm oil?? Well, you’re not alone. I did too, so I asked Kate to clarify. 

Basically, stearyl alcohol can be made from palm oil, shea butter, coconut oil, or other kinds of oils (including animal fats). But it’s often just listed as stearyl alcohol on ingredient lists. (And the FDA does not require companies to disclose the source, because it’s usually considered a trade secret.) 

Fragrance: Synthetic vs. Natural

Here’s another surprising ingredient choice: Dip bars are made with high-quality synthetic fragrances. Theirs are free of phthalates and other harmful things, which is not always the case for synthetic fragrance. 

I know we’re used to “synthetic” being a bad thing, but it can actually be the most sustainable option, as Dip explains here. (My favorite line: “Chemicals aren’t the problem; a 2D understanding of sustainability is.”)

It’s also important to note that “natural” fragrance or essential oils can still cause skin irritation, and require lots of land and pesticides to produce. (And those pesticides are often pressed with the rest of the plant when making the essential oils — contributing to more potential irritation and nastiness that you don’t want on your skin.)

If they don’t irritate your skin, responsibly produced synthetic fragrances are often the more sustainable choice.

The Best Dip Scents & Why They Matter

Dip makes seven interesting, very sophisticated scent options (and fragrance-free bars, too). 

Of all the shampoo bar brands I’ve tested, Dip has the best scents! Below are the five I’ve tried. (I skipped the two floral ones. If you’re a flower scent lover, I’m sorry!)

Why I bother describing scents to you: 

On their website, Dip also at least attempts explaining what each scent actually smells like. That’s a crucial step for anyone selling scented products online, yet most companies skip it — which encourages overconsumption. 

You personally might be waste-conscious and stubborn enough to use a product to the bitter end, even if you hate the smell of it (and I salute you) but many people are not! 

So this is my attempt at sending you down the right path:

Wild Sage + Vetiver 

What is vetiver, you ask? So did I. Wikipedia says it’s a grassy plant that smells similar to lemongrass or citronella.  

This is the only scent Dip describes as unisex, and “perfect for a household that only wants one set of bars,” which immediately made me think of my husband’s frequent complaint that he has “no idea what to use in the shower” because there are so many bars and they’re always changing. Oops. (I’m always testing things for these reviews!) I felt seen and added it to my cart.  

It smells really beautiful. Enough that it made me want to reach for that bar instead of others in my shower, just for the scent experience. 

Coconut + Almond

I personally love both of those things, so Coconut + Almond was the body soap bar of choice for us. 

I’d describe it as a lovely, warm, sweet but not too sweet, slightly tropical and vacation-y scent. Clearly, it’s Dip’s most popular scent for a reason. 

Mimosa + Sandalwood

In Dip’s words: “If you ever had a friend who you suspect might be a CIA secret agent, then we imagine she smells like this one.” 

If I’m being honest, I hope that’s what people suspect about me. (It’s not even a stretch. My friends all know I “travel a lot for work,” but hardly anyone I know really understands what I do.)

So I ordered my first Dip conditioner bar in Mimosa + Sandalwood, feeling aspirational toward my future career overturning governments by night. 

It smells AMAZING. Honestly, I love it. It’s rich, complex, beautiful, and just really sophisticated and sexy-smelling. Definitely more on the feminine side, but not sugary at all. 

Tobacco + Driftwood

This is Dip’s second-best-selling scent (after Coconut + Almond) and the only scent they describe as “on the masculine side of the spectrum.” 

But it didn’t sound appealing, because tobacco makes me think cigarette, and who wants their hair to smell like an ashtray? 

Well, there’s no ashtray here. And while many “masculine” and “woodsy” scents smell like a plain ole pine tree, Tobacco + Driftwood is light, fresh, sexy, and only slightly forest-y smelling. No overwhelming pine forest or cigar vibes. 

(It reminds me a bit of Viori’s more masculine scented shampoo bars. Psst – both are great manly gift ideas!)

Tangerine + Honeydew

In Dip’s words: “Think of it as fruity pebbles meets first class, whatever you think that means, it means.”

I’m a sucker for bright, fruity scents, but Tangerine + Honeydew was much more subtle and delicate than I expected with that description. Botanical, but not floral or herbal. Sort of like what you’d expect a cactus to smell like?