Making Shampoo

Well, I have come to another fork in the road on my journey to be more self sufficient. I am leaving commercial, sulfate filled, drying shampoo behind and making my own.

It goes along with the decision to use organic henna hair colour (which has gone splendidly, I might add! See post here.) It's not really that big of a step, since I make my own soap anyway, but shampoo is different, and more expensive.

I have done some research for years on how to make shampoo but the ingredients for making a moisturizing, repairing, softening, organic shampoo are almost prohibitively expensive, so I have waited until I just couldn't stand to buy it anymore. I am at that point now.

After doing a lot of research into recipes and ingredients, I have come up with the recipe below. This will be my first trial.

I am using potassium hydroxide lye instead of the standard sodium hydroxide crystals because it makes a soft, liquid soap that is gentle on your hair. It's what you get when you leach hard wood ashes. Potassium hydroxide is what our ancestors used to make "soft soap" years ago and it reportedly left very soft hair behind, so I am using it to make my shampoo.

Since the potassium hydroxide will make a soft soap anyway, I am using only oils, not hard fats, to make a liquid shampoo, or so the theory goes...

This is the recipe I have decided to start with. I would love to hear from those of you who have made your own shampoo successfully and are happy with it's softening and conditioning effects.

Shampoo
Rooibos tea
160 ml Water (steeped with the Rooibos tea above)
408g olive oil
25g cocoa butter
42g shea butter
90 jojoba oil
63g castor oil
300g coconut oil
15 g panthenol (Vitamin B5)
180g coconut milk
241g potassium hydroxide lye

I know that no more than 10% of fats should be coconut oil because it can be drying on the skin, however, since coconut oil is the only oil out there that actually penetrates the hair shaft, it's a good thing to put into shampoo and to use by itself as an oil treatment.

When the ground thaws, I will be able to add burdock root extract to this recipe.

I have decided to order the things in this recipe that I don't already have for soap making from a company called "Voyageur Soap & Candle Company Ltd". They are a Canadian company and I can order these ingredients in small and less expensive amounts. I will order from them provided their shipping is reasonable and I can pay with Paypal. No PayPal, no order from me. I don't know how much the shipping will be. I have a real problem with companies who make a profit on the shipping. If you want more money for your stuff, just charge more so people know what the real cost is!!! (Sorry for the rant, pet peeve...)

I am a little nervous about my first liquid shampoo venture. It's not going to be cheap, but will be well worth it if it makes great moisturizing shampoo! I have to buy shampoo of some kind anyway. I went the no shampoo route for about a year, but the baking soda and vinegar or conditioner cleaning just didn't moisturize and condition my hair. It was also just too time consuming and didn't get rid of dandruff. I need a quick wash and go so I went back to commercial shampoo.

My hair is important to me. Since I decided to grow it very, very long and make it permanently red with henna, it has become a hobby on it's own.

So, wish me luck!