Shampoo bar soap works very well, is a lot better for you and is very economical. This is where making your own soap saves you a lot of money and frustration (shampoos that don't perform).
For recipe, scroll down past Pro's and Con's
Pro's and Con's of Using Soap for Shampoo
You will find endless arguments about calling soap, shampoo but lets just be normal and not get precious about washing hair. For practicalities sake I'll happily call it a shampoo bar soap and now normal people know what I am talking about.
You will also find arguments about using soap on your hair. Here it is:
Soap is alkaline which causes the scales on the hair shaft to open. This apparently is the cause of the stubborn tangles which makes it essential to use an acid conditioner (hair and skin is acidic) eg vinegar to close the scales hence making your hair smooth.
-Some say it ruins your hair and you need a pH balanced shampoo.
-Natural health proponents say that the pH balanced comment was the only marketing gimmick synthetic shampoo companies could use when it first arrived as no one wanted to use petrochemical based product on their bodies.
This is the great divide; toxic chemicals or natural soap. Being on the greyer side of 50 I have seen and heard enough to justify questioning anything that comes out of the cosmetic or hair industry. Of course we are told that the chemicals that cause cancer and other serious health issues are only in small quantities.
Natural health proponents say that because so many things have these small amounts, they do build up and distrust the company paid scientists who tell us they are OK pointing to the numerous court cases against companies such as Johnson and Johnson who knowingly sold high risk products. They also point to the huge numbers of people who now suffer chronic illness and independent research that finds a connection between these and chemicals
Historical use cant be ignored. Those against using soap say, people back in the day knew soap wasn't good for their hair but had no option. Who told them that? Did they do a séance?
You are always going to get a difference between rich and poor people and also informed and ignorant people. When I was a very little girl soap was used but my mother never used an acid rinse. Ouch! Others however knew to use tea and other infusions. Looking at old photos I can only see, a lot of long, luscious hair on women, not broken off and ruined hair.
Yes, it is no doubt true they washed it less and who is to say they needed to wash it more. Their food was more natural and they had never used shampoo that made them wash it every day.
Using examples from the dark ages is pointless as Europe was under the tyrannical grip of cruel religious clerics who burnt people who knew more than they did and supressed genuine knowledge.
SO...I am left to go by my own experience and what I personally have witnessed.
- Using shampoo I constantly had to keep changing shampoo brands as I didn't want to have to wash my hair every day and could only get it stretched out to every second day. I also had to often use medicated shampoo because of dandruff.
-
After many years of using soap, my fine long hair is in far better condition than it was while using commercial shampoos and I no longer get dandruff or an unbearable itchy head and back.
Yes I had to experiment with how strong the acid should be and what works best. For me I dilute vinegar 50% or use diluted citric acid and rinse most of it off. This is individual.
I know people who use soap and their hair is in good condition (very long hair).
If people who try to eliminate toxic chemicals from their lives have better success at using natural soap then I have questions why those who aren't concerned don't.
- Do they persist to get the acid rinse right?
- What other chemicals are they using in their hair that could be problematic?
Conclusion: If people want to use a commercial shampoo that is their choice but don't go tell people not to use soap - that it will permanently damage their hair. Not true.
Keep it Simple
Maybe I am uninformed but I don't know why all the extra ingredients are needed for shampoo bars when a standard good lathering bar does the job. I hope that it is not to justify charging the silly prices for them and entice customers with exotic engredients.
The ones I have checked are soft and waste easily making them uneconomical.
You can use any natural soap, however we do like lots of lather. An exceptionally hard bar (economical) may be take longer to spread the soap over long hair. A very soft bar will waste quickly.
Using a natural soap recipe, we can now individualise it to your needs.
Dry hair, increase the super fat or free oil in the soap recipe.
Oily hair reduce this.
Dandruff and scalp conditions, choose Essential Oils that are known to help these conditions.
Vinegar or Citric Acid Rinse
If you don't rinse your hair in an acidic conditioner you probably will end up with hair that feels like straw. The benefits of rinsing are less tangles and my hair doesn't get oily the next day. It may be individual how strong you make this. Vary it till you are happy with the result. 50/50 vinegar/water works.
Vinegar smells when you rinse but not when it dries. Citric acid doesn't not smell. I keep a spray bottle in the shower for the final rinse.
If you like pretty smells there is no reason why you can't mist your hair with an Essential Oil after you have washed it.
See my September posts for directions on making soap if you have never done this before.
Shampoo Bar Recipe
Good Lathering Soap
Beef Tallow 440gm
Castor Oil 65gm
Olive Oil 126gm
Coconut Oil 169
Sodium Hydroxide 113gm (5% Super Fat)
Water 280gm
Essential Oils 25-30gm
SoapCalc's Characteristic Table
Hardness 51 Cleaning 19 Conditioning 45 Bubbles 26, Creaminess 40
I use colloidal copper for the water content. Because I find a milk soap is best for a shampoo bar, I have used milk powder. Next time I plan to make the colloidal copper stronger so I can use that at 50% and goat milk at 50%. My essential oil blend has a higher ratio of Rosemary oil.
800gm Coconut oil
117gm Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) 20% Super Fat
280gm Filtered or distilled water.
24gm Essential Oils of choice.
(I use 16gm Lavender and 8 Lemon Myrtle - but you could use Lemon Balm or Lemon Grass with similar effect and smell)
Coconut oil soap is normally a very strong cleaning, but drying soap. With the super fat so high it offsets the drying. Normally you could not use a super fat so high (the soap would become a oily blob) with a standard recipe but the extreme hardness of the coconut soap allows for this.
It should not become rancid with such a high superfat very quickly as coconut oil has a long shelf life. Because of the high level of free oil, it may not be suitable for those with oily hair.
Additional information.
Many people who changed from commercial shampoos to natural soap have found their heads stopped itching. Some don't have the oil problems they had and experience far less scalp problems - which can be treated naturally.
You may find it takes a little while for your oil secretions to settle down after changing from shampoo.
I have read that natural soap as shampoo doesn't affect the dyes and bleaches people use on their hair and they don't have to get them redone so quickly if they use the acidic final rinse. This is far better as the less you re do this the better as bleaches and dyes have strong links to miscarriage along with other problems.
For an dandruff problems, add essential oils such as Tea Tree oil, a little Clove, Lemon Grass or Lemon Myrtle and Lavender which are antifungal and things such as honey.
