The adsorption of lead from aqueous solution using surfactant-modified oyster shell has been studied by batch adsorption technique. The main objective of this study was to determine the adsorption capacity of lead from aqueous solution using anionic polymerizable surfactant-modified oyster shell in the presence and the absence of polymerization process. In this study, the admicelle aggregate of polymerizable surfactant (Hitenol BC-20) was adsorbed onto oyster shell adsorbent. The concentration of surfactant was selected at 90% of its CMC with a pH adjusted in range 5-6 where it was lower than the PZC (point of zero charge) of oyster shell to form an admicelle structure. Admicellar polymerization process was introduced to aggregate admicelle formed by adding 0.1g of sodium persulfate as initiator and irradiating the surfactant solution with 254 nm of UV light. The effect of contact time, pH and initial concentration for lead removal was investigated. The equilibrium contact time was found to be 300 min for lead adsorption by surfactant-modified oyster shell for polymerization (PO) and non polymerization (NP). The most effective pH for lead removal was 6 and 4 for PO and NP system, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity of lead was found to be 18.34 and 12.93 mg/g for polymerization and non polymerization, respectively.