The Great Shampoo Experiment III !

Update to the shampoo recipe posted here.

I found out that the baking soda shampoo can leave a white powder in your hair too. I saw some on my brush all of a sudden, and was not pleased.

I used apple cider vinegar for the first time in the rinse recipe, and I noticed that I didn't like it as much. I ended up with the first residue in my hair, and sometimes I felt like the scent of vinegar was lingering a bit.

So, I started over and reduced the baking soda to 1/4 cup and went back to white vinegar in the rinse. I'm already feeling the results, which are very positive.

My hair feels far less heavy using this shampoo/rinse, but I also feel like it is a bit dry. I want to experiment with making a jojoba oil conditioner for occasional use.

My scalp is feeling a LOT more healthy using this shampoo/rinse, and my psoriasis is practically non-existent at the moment. I've also noticed that I seem to have less hair falling out.  Nice!

~ Patty

The Great Shampoo Experiment II

You'd be lost without this picture...I'm sure of it!

Shampoo experiment #2:

1/2 cup baking soda (Update: I now recommend 1/4 cup baking soda, due to this experience .)
 3 cups water

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

Rinsed with:

4 Tbsp white vinegar or apple cider vinegar (Update: I now recommend white vinegar over apple cider vinegar, due to this. )
3 cups water

Yup, I used another (separate) Dr. Bronner's container. I shake it up as well.

Verdict: 

It is very weird to shampoo with something so watery, and that has no lather. You have to shake it up every time you use it, and if it has been in the bottle for awhile it will get more gritty.

What the shampoo looks like if you let it sit for awhile

It will feel like you are dumping grit water on your head and then washing it off, which is pretty much what you are doing. That said, it seems to clean my hair pretty darn thoroughly.

I've been trying this one for a few weeks, and I really like it so far! This seems to work out a lot better in hard water, and I haven't noticed any build up on my hair or brush.

This is what it looks like when it is new and well shaken.

The rinse is really key, and so far I've only used the white vinegar version. It makes it smell like Easter in the shower for a few minutes, but once I rinse off the smell is all gone. I am trying apple cider vinegar tomorrow, so we'll see how that works out.

My hair feels lighter since using these on my hair instead of shampoo, and my scalp psoriasis has been clearing up. I have no idea if that is related to this, or just one of those things that happens sometimes.

I'm going to keep using this for now, and hope that it doesn't dry out my hair and make it brittle. I'll tell you if it does.

As you can see, I use fancy masking tape on the bottles to remind myself which bottle is which (even though it is actually pretty obvious).

Oh, and two fun tips:

1. Add the baking soda first, and then add the water. If you get your funnel wet and try to pour into it, the whole thing becomes a pain.

2. Don't pour vinegar into bottles while having them on top of a tablecloth. You'll inevitably spill vinegar and have to do laundry. Okay, maybe YOU won't...but I will.

~ Patty :)

PS  If it isn't obvious, you wash your hair with the shampoo first. Then, you rinse with water. After that, you use the rinse. Then, you rinse with water again (or you'll smell like an Easter Egg).

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 :)