All-natural bar shampoo made by hand in Cornish, New Hampshire since 1982
✅ American Manufacturing
Where J.R. Liggett’s products are made
Cornish, New Hampshire
The company works from 973 NH Route 12A in Cornish, the family farm where the first shampoo bars were made by hand in a renovated old cow barn. Production never left the property.
Handmade in small batches
J.R. Liggett’s states its products are handmade in small batches rather than run on a high-speed line, and that every item still follows the original mission of being safe for people, pets and the planet.
Solar-powered operation
The company says the business and the family farm are both about 95 percent powered by renewable solar energy, and bars ship wrapped in paper rather than in plastic bottles.
J.R. Liggett’s describes its bars as made by hand on its New Hampshire farm, and its About page states the Original Shampoo Bar has been produced there since 1982. The company does not carry a blanket “Made in USA” mark on individual product pages, and bar shampoo is formulated from plant oils — coconut, olive, castor and jojoba among them — that are agricultural commodities grown largely outside the continental United States. We therefore list J.R. Liggett’s under American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA. We have asked the company to confirm the origin of its full 35-product line, including accessories, and will update this page with their answer.
The story
The story starts on a farm in Denman, Nebraska, where a five-year-old J.R. Liggett helped his Great Aunt Ann render a year’s worth of saved fats and oils into her annual batch of all-purpose soap — one batch that had to serve for bathing, laundry, dishes and general cleaning alike. The company says that afternoon left a permanent mark.
Decades later Liggett was living in New York City, working as a Clio Award–winning art director at Ogilvy & Mather, when he came across a handwritten recipe card titled “Hair Soap” tucked inside an old 19th-century book. At the time virtually every shampoo on the shelf was a petroleum-based detergent sold in a plastic bottle. He made a batch, and people who tried it came back for more.
J.R. Liggett’s was founded in 1982. The Original Shampoo Bar was made by hand in a renovated cow barn on the family farm in Cornish, New Hampshire, and wrapped in paper rather than bottled — petroleum-free, plastic-free, minimal packaging at a time when none of that was a selling point. Liggett applied his advertising training to the now-familiar packaging himself, and he and co-founder Diane left New York for the farm full time.
Forty-plus years on, the company calls itself “An American Legacy Brand” and has grown the line past 35 products sold nationally and internationally. The farm and the business both run on roughly 95 percent solar power, and the bars are still made by hand in Cornish.
Why they matter
Bar shampoo is one of the few personal-care categories where the low-waste version is also the American-made version. Liquid shampoo is mostly water shipped in a plastic bottle; a bar is concentrated, light and simple enough to produce domestically that there is no real cost argument for moving the work offshore.
J.R. Liggett’s has held that position since 1982 — decades before “zero waste” became a marketing category — and did it as a family business on a working New Hampshire farm rather than as a line extension from a personal-care conglomerate.
For a shopper trying to move household spending toward American production, this is an unusually clean swap. Same shelf, same job, made in Cornish rather than contract-filled overseas, and the company has kept the recipe and the method largely unchanged for four decades.
Featured products
Browse J.R. Liggett’s shampoo bars, conditioner bars and sampler packs available now in the Buy American store.
Frequently asked questions
Where are J.R. Liggett’s shampoo bars made?
At the company’s own farm at 973 NH Route 12A in Cornish, New Hampshire, where the bars have been made by hand since 1982.
Is J.R. Liggett’s “Made in USA”?
The bars are manufactured in New Hampshire. We list J.R. Liggett’s under American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA because bar shampoo is built from plant oils — coconut, olive, castor and jojoba among them — that are agricultural commodities grown largely outside the continental United States.
When was J.R. Liggett’s founded?
1982, by J.R. and Diane Liggett, after Liggett found a handwritten 19th-century “hair soap” recipe and started making bars on the family farm.
Who owns J.R. Liggett’s?
It remains a family-run company, J.R. Liggett Ltd., operating from the founders’ Cornish, New Hampshire farm.