The Great Shampoo Experiment!

My husband isn't a fan of fake scents, and most shampoos have a scent. I found a few "all natural" and "organic" shampoos, but they were usually scented too.

So, I started thinking about making my own. How hard could it be, right?

I googled around for a bit, and it seemed like Natural Homemade Shampoo Recipes – How to Make Organic Hair Shampoo by Heather Levin was the most succinct and easy to understand version without adding a bunch of smells to the mix.

There are a lot of very good articles about this, but I figured that I'd mention the one that I actually used.

Homemade shampoo recipe #1 (in trial size):

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup liquid Castile soap (Dr. Bronner’s Organic Castile Soap Unscented Baby-Mild)
1/2 teaspoon olive oil

I mixed this in an old Dr. Bronner's container by shaking it.

Verdict: 

I tried this a few weeks ago, and used it for about four days. It sucks if you have hard water, as it will form soap scum on your hair that will become apparent when you brush (and see the film left over on the bristles). I don't know how it does in soft water, but I imagine it could be quite nice.

It made a very thin shampoo, and it felt like I had to use a lot to get all of my hair clean (although it actually didn't take very much at all when I measured). I thought about putting it in an old foaming soap dispenser to make it feel more like lathering shampoo, but I never got around to that.

It definitely cleaned my hair, so much that it squeaked all over. That is how hair screams, so I didn't really love that. Still, my commercial shampoo does the same thing.

I didn't use conditioner, and my hair felt pretty soft and brushed out easily. It didn't have a scent, and that was odd to me...even though it was my goal. (I was super happy about this, as I'd wondered if I was going to smell like olive oil.)

I have psoriasis on my scalp, so I was curious about how it would respond. It didn't irritate my scalp during the short trial.

(Dr. Bronner's website talks about the soap scum issue a bit, and it offers a rinse for those that want to use their soap as a shampoo. The thing is, those are scented rinses that I can't make myself very easily. So, that is the opposite of where I want to go for now...)

~ Patty :)