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Benefits Of Seaweed Soap For Men

The women’s cosmetic industry has been hiding something from us for a long time: seaweed soap. It’s not just for women! Lots of men could stand to experience the benefits of seaweed soap.

Table of Contents

Benefits Of Seaweed Soap For Men

Pre-Shave Exfoliation

Want to reduce nicks, cuts, and razor burn? Seaweed soap is the way to go. It’s a clever exfoliant that rubs away dead cells without irritating your skin. Unlike many soaps that use plastic pieces for exfoliation (kinda gross, right?), seaweed soap is all-natural, meaning you won’t break out in a mystery rash.

It’s especially great if you’re shaving…y’know…that area. Your skin downstairs is especially sensitive, so if you’re trying to impress someone with a clean lawn, you’ll want to cleanse and exfoliate beforehand to avoid razor burn, or worse: pelvic acne (I speak from experience, sadly).

Seaweed soap does double duty on that end, cleaning the area beforehand and lathering away dead skin. As long as you’ve got a steady hand with the razor, seaweed soap will help you look perfectly kissable, upstairs or down.

Tough but Friendly

Seaweed soap is like the heavily tattooed, shredded biker in those old classic, “he’s hard on the outside, but soft on the inside” romance movies. It’s a powerful exfoliant, but at the same time, it works wonders on sensitive, allergy-prone skin.

Lots of people actually use it to manage eczema and psoriasis, flaky skin conditions that require a multi-talented soap to curb. That’s what makes seaweed soap especially impressive: most exfoliating soaps are slightly skin-irritating, but seaweed soap is actually soothing. 

*Insert image of a heavy-weight boxer holding a baby lamb and a bar of seaweed soap here.*

Nourishing

Forgot to take your vitamin A today? That’s okay, seaweed soap has you covered. In fact, one of the main benefits of seaweed soap is that it has more vitamins and minerals than the average handcrafted bar of soap, and that’s saying a lot! (This also one of the benefits of dead sea mud soap)

Now, don’t be misled here: your skin isn’t going to absorb those vitamins and minerals. But applying vitamins topically does create that rejuvenated, razzle-dazzle skin look. It’s even known to help with blood flow.

If you’re not quite sold here, there’s one factor you need to take into account: your skin is actually the largest organ in your body, but it’s the last to receive nutrients that you’ve consumed orally. Your brain prioritizes vital organs, like your heart and lungs, over your skin. That’s important for your well-being! But it also means you have to put in some extra effort to take care of your skin, since it’s last in the hot lunch line. Seaweed soap is one easy way to make sure it’s getting the attention it needs.

Stretch Mark Reduction

So this one might be more hearsay, but legend has it that a good bar of seaweed soap can help fade stretch marks. Because it’s packed with vitamins—even more so than other natural soaps—it supposedly helps with skin elasticity.

The more reasonable sales promise here is that it will serve as an excellent toner, even if it doesn’t get rid of your stretch marks. Lots of first-time users are surprised by how well it smooths blemishes. Like we talked about, this is because it’s tough but gentle in all the right areas.

Animal-Friendly

Most seaweed soaps use no animal products, since it takes an oil-based soap to make the most effective seaweed bars. So you get the added bonus of a cruelty-free bar, on top of all the skin and health benefits!

And yes, you can use a bar of seaweed soap to bathe your dog, if that’s what you thought I meant by “animal-friendly.” You can actually use any bar soap on your dog, so maybe save the nice stuff for yourself. Or hand over your seaweed bar to Rover, if you decide you’re not a personal fan. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it properly.

Why Is Seaweed Good For Your Skin?

Yes, assuredly, wonderfully good for your skin. We’ve already listed several of the benefits, including seaweed soap’s gentle exfoliation and its vitamin and mineral concentration. But beyond that, it stands out among even the most posh soaps.

We mentioned that it’s tough but gentle—that’s not easy to find, even if you’re only looking at all-natural soaps. Anything that works as an exfoliant is going to be a slight skin irritant, no matter how cleverly it’s worked into the soap bar. But seaweed soap is bafflingly soothing, considering it’s an exfoliant. (We think there might be some sort of sea-witchcraft going on here.)

Is Seaweed Soap Good For Your Face?

Seaweed soap is fabulous for your face. Please use seaweed soap on your face. You don’t even necessarily need to buy a bar that’s labeled as a facial soap, that’s just how good it is.

You won’t need to moisturize after using it. Seaweed soap does that for you, while also exfoliating and cleansing! It’s the rock star of the natural soap world. What would usually require two or three different skincare products (to exfoliate, cleanse, and moisturize) is all packed into one bar of seaweed soap. This is one of the best benefits of seaweed soap.

My one caveat here is patch test first. You should patch test any product that you’re about to rub all over your face! There’s always a chance that you’ll discover an allergy you never knew you had. With regards to seaweed soap in particular, some people have negative reactions to the iodine in seaweed, which can cause breakouts. If the patch test doesn’t go well for you, you’re probably iodine-sensitive. 

But if you find yourself in the clear on that patch test, then scrub away. You won’t regret it.

Another great soap with great benefits for your face is goat milk soap.

Does Seaweed Lighten Skin?

Lighten might not be the right word here, but “brightens” and “freshens” are closer to hitting the mark.

You’ve probably heard of seaweed facial masks. People love using seaweed at spas and for at-home self-care because it gives you that glowy, smooth skin feeling.

Not to sound too much like a 90s commercial, but do you ever wake up with dull skin? That might be because you’re short on vitamins and minerals, or your face is in desperate need of moisture and TLC. Seaweed soap is one of those fast-acting skin cure-alls for whatever is going wrong. That’s why people feel like it works as a skin lightener; it’s not actually lightening anything, it’s just restoring your skin to it’s healthiest tone, smoothing out any rough edges.

Does Seaweed Have Healing Properties?

Lots of mom-bloggers like to say that seaweed has healing properties, but that’s slightly misleading. It does contain lots of antioxidants, and it works wonders for dry skin conditions (which also happens to be one of the best benefits of olive oil soap), but saying it heals skin or body parts is a bit of a bold claim.

I like to think of it as healing only in the sense that you’ll be surprised at how nice it makes your skin feel. Lots of natural soaps do a fabulous job of minimizing blemishes, but seaweed soap is an overachiever. It detoxifies, moisturizes, exfoliates, and more. I would even call it the ultimate skincare package wrapped up into one bar of soap.

So healing? No, that’s a stretch. But surprisingly healthy and nourishing? Yup, easily.

Does Seaweed Clog Pores?

This is why patch testing is important. Whether or not seaweed soap clogs pores is very much a person-to-person question.

As we mentioned previously when we talked about using seaweed soap as a facial soap, one of the reasons some people react negatively to seaweed is the iodine. We only need a little bit of iodine every day, but kelp contains a lot of iodine. This is no problem for a lot of people (we just sweat out the excess). But for some of you, it might become a pore-clogging skin irritant.

But that’s also the benefit of using a seaweed soap rather than applying a facial mask or eating the seaweed directly. Because you’re just applying the soap lather to your skin, you’re coming into contact with a lot less iodine. So even if you’ve had kelp problems in the past, but still want those seaweed benefits, a seaweed soap might be a good option for you.

Is Seaweed Anti-Aging?

Tons of anti-aging products tout seaweed as an ingredient. Now whether or not you believe in the anti-aging sales pitch, seaweed does give you a collagen boost, and lots of people report faded stretch marks and plumper skin.

I won’t say it’s going to make you look 10 years younger, because that kind of sales pitch is too good to be true. But seaweed soap will help you look your best, toning and nourishing your skin.

What Are The Side Effects Of Seaweed

Here’s the one big catch: if you don’t like the smell of kelp, then you’re not going to enjoy the smell of seaweed soap.

I know, that’s a huge disappointment…we specifically use soap to smell good! And what about all of those skin and health benefits?! The good news is that, if you find the right soapmaker, they can help dull the soap’s scent.

The trick is to figure out how the soapmaker harvested their seaweed. If they picked it up off the beach, it’s going to be pungent. You want to find someone who picks their seaweed while it’s still alive, straight from the seaweed bed.

Besides that, you should also know that seaweed does contain iodine. This is more of a concern if you’re eating seaweed—don’t eat too much at once. Just using it as a soap, you don’t really have anything to worry about.

Frank Edwards is a men's grooming & style expert who is "internet famous" for being able to simplify complicated grooming routines into easy, yet effective rituals any man can do. As a professional analyst, he has spent years researching the biggest brands, products, experts, best practices, and breaking news in the space. He takes this analysis, tests it out on himself, and then documents everything in his writing. As a result, his experience-based articles are considered by some to be the gold standard in men's grooming and men's style.