Best Acne Safe Haircare
Did you know that your haircare routine could be contributing to breakouts? If you’ve been following me on Instagram for a while, you know that I am all about cutting out pore clogging ingredients from any product that will touch your skin. This includes haircare too. Personally, when I first heard about haircare (conditioners especially) causing acne, I thought if I make sure to be really careful how I apply conditioner away from my face, and wash my face thoroughly afterwards, that I would be fine. However, I was still breaking out around my hairline. When I started testing out acne safe shampoos and conditioners, my hairline breakouts were gone. This is what convinced me that my haircare was a culprit to my acne. Below, I've curated a selection of thoroughly tested, clean, and non-toxic acne-safe haircare products, based on weeks of personal testing. This post contains affiliate links, so if you decide to purchase any of these, I would be ever so thankful if you used them.
Clearstem Restorative Shampoo
*best lather shampoo*
Clearstem is a brand that’s dedicated to creating products that are acne safe and without any pore cloggers. I already love their skincare and MINDBODYSKIN supplement, so when they recently launched their first luxury haircare products, I was all about them! The shampoo is a great value for the size. You don’t need much because this lathers SO well! I usually need to do a second shampoo wash to get some lather going, but the Clearstem Shampoo lathers super well on the first wash! This color-safe shampoo has a really calming yet refreshing aroma thanks to the rosemary, spearmint, chamomile and a touch of vanilla, so you feel like you’re at a spa. My scalp felt soothed during shampooing, and my hair was extra smooth once I dried it. The ingredients are squeaky clean and Switch Natural App approved. It’s also vegan, cruelty free, sulfate free and SLS free. I can 100% guarantee that Clearstem’s Haircare will never add pore cloggers into their formulas, which I can’t guarantee with the other products in this post (if they reformulate them), so make sure to keep checking for formula changes if you decide to get a product that’s not from Clearstem. Get 15% off Clearstem anytime with my code GREENBOOTLIFE, and shop their shampoo here!
Rahua Hydration Shampoo
*best travel shampoo*
Want to feel like you’re on a tropical vacation? Get the Rahua Hydration Shampoo! This is a very hydrating, vegan, luxurious formula with zero pore clogging ingredients. It has a plant derived hydration complex with natural aromas from passionfruit and mango (sooooo yummy). I bought their travel sized Hydration Duo (pictured above) which is super convenient if you just want to test it out before buying a full size, and of course it’s great to bring on your travels too. If you do buy the full size, you can then save on future purchases as they have a refill pouch you can get on their website. Please note that only the Hydration Shampoo, Classic Shampoo, Hydration Conditioner, Scalp & Skin Toner and Voluminous Dry Shampoo from Rahua are acne safe as of this writing. Buy the Rahua Hydration Travel Duo here or the full size shampoo here!
The Unscented Company Daily Shampoo
*best budget friendly shampoo*
The Unscented Company Daily Shampoo is a simple, budget friendly and no frills acne safe shampoo. It’s great if you’re sensitive to any scents from essential oils or fragrance, as it’s truly unscented. You also get a lot of shampoo in the bottle for about $17! Great shampoo for all, especially if your hair is short or low maintenance. It’s cruelty free, vegan, biodegradable, fragrance free, dye free, and refillable. Get it on Amazon here!
Coconut Matter Matcha Shake Shampoo
*best sustainable shampoo*
The Coconut Matter Matcha Shake Shampoo is the most sustainable option out of all my recommendations! It’s packaged in an aluminum bottle and is a waterless, powder formula. I was pleasantly surprised with how well this washed my hair - I used three shakes of the powder as that’s what recommended for longer, fuller hair and the lather was pretty amazing! It smells really nice without being overpowering, thanks to essential oils like peppermint, lavender and may chang. I found this powder shampoo made my hair really voluminous, too! The standout ingredients in this formula are: Matcha, Amla, Argan Oil, Aloe Vera, Rice Protein and Coconut Powder. The ingredients are stellar and Switch Natural App approved. Get it 10% off with my code MILA10 here!
Clearstem Repair Conditioner
*best repairing conditioner*
It’s incredibly hard to find a conditioner that’s not only clean, but also acne safe, without ANY pore clogging ingredients. Clearstem’s incredible team did it and exceeded my expectations with their new Repair Conditioner. A little goes a long way with this delicious spearmint and vanilla infused formula. It made my hair so silky smooth, that I was shocked to see how commerical-like my hair looked during a film shoot I did the morning after I used this conditioner. Some standout ingredients are Kokum Butter, Almond Seedcake, Watermelon Oil, Aloe Vera and Rosemary Extract. The ingredients are squeaky clean and Switch Natural App approved. I can 100% guarantee that Clearstem’s Haircare will never add pore cloggers into their formulas, which I can’t guarantee with the other products in this post (if they reformulate), so make sure to keep checking for formula changes if you decide to get a product that’s not from Clearstem. Get 15% off Clearstem anytime with my code GREENBOOTLIFE, and shop their conditioner here!
Rahua Hydration Conditioner
*best smelling conditioner*
Rahua’s Hydration Conditioner has the same intoxicating, tropical scent like their Hydration Shampoo, and I’m obsessed with it! Since it’s so hard to find an acne safe conditioner that’s clean and works, I actually bought the full size before finishing the travel size I got initially! That tells you a lot. It made my hair smells like passion fruit & mango heaven. I also noticed I had a much easier time detangling my hair (it gets tangled SUPER easily) from using this conditioner. This vegan conditioner also comes in a travel size, and once you have the full size, it’s refillable! Please note that only the Hydration Shampoo, Classic Shampoo, Hydration Conditioner, Scalp & Skin Toner and Voluminous Dry Shampoo from Rahua are acne safe as of this writing. Buy the Rahua Hydration Conditioner here!
What about Hair Styling Products?
I decided dedicating this blog post to the essential two haircare products that most people need, shampoos and conditioners. Hair styling products are a bit of a murky area when it comes to pore clogging ingredients, as many will do fine with styling products, even if they have some pore cloggers. It’s a bit of a trial and error situation, so when I am ready to share the best of the best hair styling products in a blog post, I definitely will. Until then, I will keep an ongoing list of acne safe haircare products here, so make sure to save that page, as I’ll be updating it frequently.