A tallow shampoo or a tallow wash for body or face is one of two things: a soap made from tallow and lye, or a detergent cleanser with some tallow added. Either way, it rinses off and takes oil with it, and that's the opposite of a balm's job.
We don't make soap or a wash of any kind. We pour balm, and the jar I'd press onto damp skin after any wash is Bare Silk ($34 as of October 5, 2026), five ingredients with grass-fed suet tallow first.
What is a tallow wash made of?
The FDA says ordinary soap is made by combining fats or oils with an alkali, such as lye. Tallow's one of those fats, a 2022 review by Mijaljica and colleagues notes, and sodium tallowate is on its list of the soaps that result. Caustic soda makes a solid soap and potash a liquid one, the review adds.
Most body cleansers, liquid or solid, aren't soap at all: the FDA says they're synthetic detergents, and very few true soaps are left on the market. They lather easily and don't leave gummy deposits, it adds. Mijaljica's review calls them syndets and puts their pH at 5.5 to 7, against 8.5 to 11 for soap. Tallow soap vs tallow balm covers superfat and the rest of the bar's chemistry.
Is a tallow shampoo bar good for your hair?
A tallow shampoo bar made with lye is soap, and hair's where soap has the hardest time. D'Souza and Rathi's 2015 review no longer recommends soap for hair. Soap doesn't lather well, they write, and the calcium and magnesium in hard water turn it into a scum that's hard to rinse off and can leave hair dull.
pH is the second problem. Hair fiber sits near pH 3.67, the review says, and a shampoo shouldn't go above 5.5, the scalp's own pH. In a 2014 study, Gavazzoni Dias and colleagues explain that alkaline pH may raise hair's negative charge and the friction between fibers, risking cuticle damage and breakage. They measured 123 shampoos and found most of them above 5.5, so ask the maker for the pH, bar or liquid.
In a shampoo and conditioner pair, the conditioner's the half that smooths, and the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) says to use it after washing.
Does a beef tallow body wash or face wash dry your skin?
It can. A tallow body wash is either liquid soap or a detergent wash with tallow added, and soap's usually the harsher of the two. Mijaljica and colleagues list what harsh soaps can do over time, including dryness, roughness, scaling and after-wash tightness. Repeated washes with a soap bar can damage the skin's outer layer, protein and lipid alike, they write, while skin washed with a syndet kept both well conserved.
If a tallow face wash is made as soap, it's the same bar on a smaller patch of skin. Skin sits at pH 4.0 to 6.0 and soap at 8.5 to 11, by Mijaljica's numbers, which is why the review calls syndets usually the better choice for every skin type.
If you like your tallow wash, keep it. The AAD's dry skin advice is five to ten minutes in a warm shower or bath, with a gentle cleanser. On your face, the academy says, use your fingertips and don't scrub. Then pat dry and moisturize while your skin's still damp, which is the step a balm is built for. A dry face has another option that leaves fat behind, the oil cleanse, and oil cleansing, then tallow walks through it with a warm cloth.
Can you use beef tallow as a hair mask?
Yes, before a wash. Warm a pea between your fingertips until it's soft, and work it into dry ends. Leave it a while, then shampoo. The anionic detergents common in shampoo are very good at removing sebum from scalp and hair, D'Souza and Rathi write. A balm is fat too, so the same lather lifts it.
As a leave-in hair cream, a grain of rice of balm warmed onto dry ends is plenty, and more reads as grease. Don't take it to the roots of fine hair. The AAD's conditioner advice draws the same line: the ends for fine or straight hair, the full length for dry or curly hair. Our post on using tallow on hair and scalp has the method in full.
What should you look for in a tallow wash?
If you want one anyway, I'd put four questions to the label or the maker.
- Is it soap or a syndet? Sodium tallowate on the label, or tallow with sodium hydroxide, means it's soap.
- What's the pH? D'Souza and Rathi put a shampoo's ceiling at 5.5, and soap typically runs from 8.5 up.
- Is it fragrance-free? The AAD steers dry skin away from fragrance, and fragrance-free vs unscented explains why those two labels differ.
- How hard is your water? Hard water's what turns soap into scum on the scalp and hair.
Whatever you wash with, pat dry until you're just damp and press on a pea of Bare Silk. The Unscented original has no essential oils or fragrance. If you still feel tight after a shower, Honey Glow ($42) adds oil-soluble manuka honey extract and cold-pressed oat oil to the tallow. It's cosmetic care, not a treatment, and your provider's plan comes first.
If you'd rather not read five product pages, Find my balm asks two minutes of questions and hands you the jar.
Questions we hear
Is beef tallow shampoo good for your hair?
A beef tallow shampoo bar made with lye is soap, and a 2015 dermatology review says soap isn't recommended for hair anymore. Soap typically runs at pH 8.5 to 11, above the review's 5.5 ceiling for shampoo, and hard water turns it into a scum that dulls hair, too. Follow it with conditioner.
Can you use beef tallow as a hair mask?
Yes, before a wash. Warm a pea of plain tallow balm between your fingertips and work it into dry ends. Leave it a while, and it'll shampoo out. As a leave-in, a grain of rice on dry ends is plenty, since more than that reads as grease on fine hair.
Does a tallow body wash moisturize?
Not in the way a balm does, because a body wash is built to lift oil and rinse away. A 2022 review lists dryness and after-wash tightness among what harsh soaps can do. Keep showers to five to ten minutes in warm water, then press a balm onto skin that's still damp.
Can you wash your face with tallow soap?
You can, though soap runs at pH 8.5 to 11 while skin sits between 4.0 and 6.0, and a 2022 review calls syndets usually the better choice for every skin type. If you use a tallow bar, work it with your fingertips in lukewarm water. Moisturize while your skin's still damp, and if your face runs dry, an oil cleanse with a warm cloth may suit it better.
Go deeper
If you're new to tallow, start with the beef tallow for skin guide. Skin barrier repair 101 covers the lipids in skin's outer layer, and how to use a tallow balm has the pea on damp skin, place by place. What is tallow balm is the plain definition of the jar a wash is not. Craft Tallow vs FATCO compares a brand that sells washes and oils with one that pours balms only.
Sources
- Mijaljica D, Spada F and Harrison IP (2022). Skin cleansing without or with compromise: soaps and syndets, read for its pH sections. Molecules 27(6):2010.
- The US Food and Drug Administration (2024). Frequently asked questions on soap, content current as of August 20, 2024. fda.gov.
- The American Academy of Dermatology (2026). Dermatologists' top tips for relieving dry skin, last updated January 2, 2026. AAD.
- The American Academy of Dermatology (undated). Face washing 101, six tips for washing your face, read October 6, 2026. AAD.
- The American Academy of Dermatology (2024). Tips for healthy hair, with advice on conditioner, last updated August 12, 2024. AAD.
- D'Souza P and Rathi SK (2015). Shampoo and conditioners: what a dermatologist should know? Indian Journal of Dermatology, volume 60, issue 3, pages 248 to 254, free to read on PubMed Central.
- Gavazzoni Dias MF and colleagues (2014). The shampoo pH can affect the hair: myth or reality? International Journal of Trichology, volume 6, issue 3, pages 95 to 99, free on PubMed Central.
Brian is the founder of Craft Tallow, a small-batch tallow skincare line shipped from Cottonwood Heights, Utah, built on 100% grass-fed suet. Questions? Reply to any email from us; it lands with him.