Shampoo Bar Formulating

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hmlove1218

hmlove1218

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I would like som ehelp formulating a shampoo bar. I've read some of the other threads here as well as some recipes online and I've taken little pieces of information from each one. I just would like some help fine-tuning everything.

For starters, I have thick, curly hair that I would say is average or normal as far as dryness/oiliness. I don't want to dry my hair out and make it frizzy, so I figured I'd keep the coconut oil low (10%-15%).

I'm also thinking about adding about a tablespoon of both salt and sugar to my lye water to increase bubbles and hardness, as well as an egg yolk at trace. I know I'd need to temper the yolk to help prevent cooking it. I'm also contemplating using coconut milk as at least 50% of my liquid, but I have beer as well that I might use.

Feel free to offer any advice or oil/butter swaps, and thank you for your help!

Because of the extra fats I'm going to add, I'm super fatting at 5%, but I expect the final SF to be higher.

Recipe #1

Castor Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 10%
Olive Oil 40%
Shea Butter 10%
Sweet Almond Oil 8%
Avocado Oil 17%

Recipe #2

Castor Oil 20%
Coconut Oil 10%
Olive Oil 30%
Shea Butter 10%
Sweet Almond Oil 5%
Avocado Oil 25%

Recipe #3

Castor Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 15%
Olive Oil 45%
Shea Butter 10%
Avocado Oil 15%

Recipe #4

Sweet Almond Oil 10%
Castor Oil 20%
Coconut Oil 10%
Olive Oil 44%
Shea Butter 7%
Cocoa Butter 7%
Beeswax 2%

Also, I'm really impatient and would like to HP it so I could go ahead and use a bar while the others are curing.
 
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Personally, I would go with recipe #1. It has a good amount of castor and not too much coconut. You want a shampoo bar to be low cleansing, I only use 5% coconut and its plenty cleansing for hair.

I wouldn't use coconut milk, it will raise the superfat significantly which can weigh the hair down, beer would be good. The beeswax will also leave a film so I wouldn't use it either. If you have any scalp issues, neem at 5% is a good addition but it stinks.

I've used salt and sugar both along with egg yolks and liked the results. I blend my tempered yolks into my warm oils though, I want to make sure its mixed in really well. The yolk do leave a eggy smell but it will fade with time, I usually don't scent my shampoo bars so it more noticeable to me.

HP works well but anymore I use my CP bars at 2 weeks, my hair doesn't seem to mind a shorter cure.
 
Oooh, I am SO interested in this!

Last month, I made a pH balanced shampoo bar as per the Soap Queen's recipe. I absolutely love it, but am always on the lookout for improvements. I too, was unable to wait the recommended 8-10 weeks, and used it after only a 2 week cure, and my hair has never felt so clean and so soft. I will never use commercial shampoo again.

Wish there were a better way to condition than diluted apple cider vinegar though, I just don't like the smell of it.

Soap Queen's recipe uses citric acid to bring down the pH, but some threads in the forum say that putting citric acid in soap is not a good idea. I am not experienced enough to know if this is true or not.

From what I discovered so far, we want it to be less cleansing, but more conditioning.

So since a lot of commercial shampoos tout jojoba oil, shea butter and argan oil (although they put merely a drop or two in the product) as great conditioners, should we put those in our shampoo bars also? How do we ensure that these oils end up superfatting instead of saponifying all the way?
 
Obsidian said:
Personally, I would go with recipe #1. It has a good amount of castor and not too much coconut. You want a shampoo bar to be low cleansing, I only use 5% coconut and its plenty cleansing for hair.

I wouldn't use coconut milk, it will raise the superfat significantly which can weigh the hair down, beer would be good. The beeswax will also leave a film so I wouldn't use it either. If you have any scalp issues, neem at 5% is a good addition but it stinks.

I've used salt and sugar both along with egg yolks and liked the results. I blend my tempered yolks into my warm oils though, I want to make sure its mixed in really well. The yolk do leave a eggy smell but it will fade with time, I usually don't scent my shampoo bars so it more noticeable to me.

HP works well but anymore I use my CP bars at 2 weeks, my hair doesn't seem to mind a shorter cure.
Click to expand...

So would you suggest lowering the CO even more to 5%? Like I said, I really don't want to dry out my hair. I've been using my MP "shampoo" bar that I made back in January and finally used it all up. Figured why not try one from scratch lol.
 
It might not be a bad idea to try 5% CO, add the other 5% to the olive oil or avocado. I have fine, dry curly/wavy hair that goes frizzy very easy and 5% CO doesn't dry it out. I do use a vinegar rinse a couple times a week. Another option is to rub a tiny amount of straight CO onto your hair if it seems a bit dry.
 
I find it very easy to make a lather on my head regardless of which soap I use... I think the hair makes more friction & generates lather easier. Also, an alternative to a vinegar rinse is a citric acid rinse.
 
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Austin is right about the hair/lather ratio - a soap that won't do much on your hands can get really sudsy in the hair.

As for HP, the cure still improves the bar a lot. You can technically do CP and wait a day or so for the saponification to finish, that is really no different than using a HP bar after the cook.
 
I'm gonna try a shampoo bar as well. I've made several before, but they were all to heavy for my hair.
 
I thought that all my attempts at shampoo bars were to heavy for my hair too, but from reading some other threads on here it seems that the silicones and waxes in standard shampoos can take a while to wash out completely, leaving your hair feeling heavy and sticky. I am using a shop bought detergent based shampoo which is silicone and wax free to try and rid my hair of the horrible stuff before starting on my shampoo bars. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks if it's helped.
 

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