diff --git a/bin/omarchy-restart-shell b/bin/omarchy-restart-shell
index c6b38985..d6e06f5f 100755
--- a/bin/omarchy-restart-shell
+++ b/bin/omarchy-restart-shell
@@ -5,5 +5,11 @@
 
 CONFIG_DIR="$OMARCHY_PATH/default/quickshell/omarchy-shell"
 
-quickshell kill -p "$CONFIG_DIR" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+# Skip `quickshell kill` (graceful IPC exit) — it currently trips an upstream
+# crash in IpcKillCommand::exec (Quickshell #539), which leaves the Wayland
+# surface lingering and produces a duplicate bar when the new instance starts.
+# A SIGKILL drops the client connection and the compositor cleans up surfaces
+# immediately, with no state to flush since the shell holds nothing persistent.
+pkill -KILL -f "quickshell -p $CONFIG_DIR" 2>/dev/null
+
 setsid uwsm-app -- quickshell -p "$CONFIG_DIR" >/dev/null 2>&1 &