Anyone here have dreadlocks and make shampoo bars?

[Mary_White]

Sea salt and baking soda

I no longer have dreads, :sad: but when I did, I found that the only thing that completely removed junk from my hair was baking soda to wash and rinsing with sea salt water. I tried using a bar soap one time (a dread head on YouTube used Simple Soap), and I felt yucky. When I did comb/ rip/cut my dreads out, I found all kinds of white gummy residue inside them and my brush, it was soap scum from the soap. If you DO make or use a shampoo bar on dreads, I recommend 0% superfat with olive, and castor oils, you can even add sea salt to the bar. I would opt out of coconut as it is very drying

 

[bridger]

when I had dreads I washed them with dish detergent. I tried dr bronners but didn't like how it left my hair feeling.

white guy with fine straight hair.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

I no longer have dreads, :sad: but when I did, I found that the only thing that completely removed junk from my hair was baking soda to wash and rinsing with sea salt water. I tried using a bar soap one time (a dread head on YouTube used Simple Soap), and I felt yucky. When I did comb/ rip/cut my dreads out, I found all kinds of white gummy residue inside them and my brush, it was soap scum from the soap. If you DO make or use a shampoo bar on dreads, I recommend 0% superfat with olive, and castor oils, you can even add sea salt to the bar. I would opt out of coconut as it is very drying

So... a salt bar with no coconut oil...just olive and castor? .... interesting.
I have dread s..three yrs now. Nothing works like baking soda and a vinegar rinse.
I was asked to make a dread bar... not sure what to make/ do with it, lol.

 

[dreadhead]

I've dreads and make shampoo bars with sf +3. I use 10% castor oil in all my shampoo bars and at least 50% olive oil.

 

[AlicesWonderhands]

have you stripped your hair to test for residue?

 

[DeeAnna]

"...left some residue..."

No experience with dreads, but I'm not sure I'd would have subbed jojoba for the hemp. Unlike hemp, very little of the jojoba "oil" (technically it's a wax) actually saponifies, and I would expect these non-saponifiables might leave a film on the hair. With non-dread hair, that might be a plus, but I'd think you'd want a shampoo for dreads to rinse off pretty cleanly.

Another issue with using "real" soap is your water hardness. The borax or baking soda wash/rinse that some are describing will help prevent or reduce any soap scum build up on the hair that forms from using soap with hard water.

 

[dreadhead]

I use 55% olive oil, 25% coconut, 10 neem oil and 10 castor oil in my shampoo bar with sf3. And lemongrass eo to hide the neem smell.. I cut one in the neck after I've used this shampoo for two years and look inside the dread. It was 100% clean I wash my hair once a week and sometimes, maybe once a month I make a deep wash with baking soda. I rinse with acv after every wash. It works fine

 

[cm4bleenmb]

My DIL has decided to dread her hair and she mentioned that all the dreadlock-specific products she was finding were quite expensive so I offered to do a little research and see if I could come up with some things for her to try. I am a hobby soaper who doesn't do a lot of batches or have tons of supplies, so I want to have some good ideas before I start throwing things together. I guess it would be good to do some research into scalp health and hair care in general to help me determine what qualities I want my ingredients to bring to the table in a shampoo--whether it's bar or liquid.
I've read that KOH is more water soluble, so would a LS rinse better? Or is it really more about the formula and things like superfat % and unsaponifiables in the oils, so bar vs liquid is a matter of preference? They do have medium hard water, so I probably need to include a chelator.
I've just started, so I don't have much information yet, but I will try to remember to come back to this thread on occasion and report on my progress.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

i do not know what regiment dread-heads use but in my opinion a shampoo or liquid soap is better. i've tried using a shampoo "bar" and found that my locks ate up too much of the bar so i got like two use out of it . a nice concentrated soap liquid can go a long way . i still use tresse'me or liquid castile diluted...and i use conditioner

 

[Obsidian]

My daughter is about 4 months into letting her hair dread and she has tried numerous shampoos/soaps including handmade liquid castile and a shampoo bar with 3% SF, both left her hair really nasty. Now she is using suaves daily clarifying shampoo.

 

[jadiebugs1]

Salt Soap, Baking Soda, and ACV!

Hi! I posted earlier (years ago) about what I wash my dreads with. They are no longer babies, about 2 1/2 years old and for the most part they are behaving quite well. I've never cut open one of my dreads to check for build up of any kind, but I'm pretty sure they are not gross. :wtf:
I am a 50ish yr. old white woman with thick hair. To help keep my hair 'dreadable' I sometimes use my salt bar recipe (co, shea, castor, 80% salt/oil and a SF of 18%?). Get it nice and wet and just keep adding lather to my scalp, I usually do not apply the bar directly to my scalp. I do end up using a good portion of the bar though, but what's nice about it is I just keep lathering and rinsing my whole body with the same soap. Feels so nice afterwords. I freakin LOVE salt soap...it's definitely the best soap eVeR.

Most often (weekly in the summer, bi-weekly in the winter) I just mix some baking soda (bought a huge bag at Sam's) in a large cup of water. Wash it over my hair and repeat like 4-5 times, 'washing' my dreads and scalp then rinse, rinse, rinse! This leaves my hair feeling so clean, deodorized, and healthy. Sometimes I follow with ACV mixed in that same large cup and rinse with that, but only like 4 times a year.

I tried Dr. Bronners, didn't do much to impress me, though I DO use it to clean everything else in my house!

So....give baking soda a try, salt soap if you dare, and an occasional ACV rinse and I think you will find that simple is the best solution. Let me know if anyone tries this, because I really have no one that I know personally to compare notes with.

 

[hozhed]

Okay I've done a search here and didn't find much info. I was wondering if anyone makes dread shampoo bars. I'm not looking for a recipe per say as much as just helpful information on making shampoo bars. Mostly what is a good superfatting %

Dreadlocks don't need as much conditioning in the beginning stages because we don't want to un-knot the hair. But instead cause the hair to keep knotting and to tighten down to hold the knots. We want to avoid as much residue as possible so oils and yuck doesn't build up on the inside of the dread. Also we don't want to dry the hair out so much as to cause breakage.

I wash my hair 1-3 times a week depending on weather (hot and sweaty) or what type if work I'm doing at the time. (Sometimes I groom dogs or garden etc.) And I do a deep cleanse 1-2 times a month of baking soda and vinegar.

The purchased shampoo bar that I was using has palm, coconut, castor and hemp (in that order) of coarse I don't know what %s to use for superfat or oils. But I made a bar with those oils and used jojoba instead of hemp with a 2% supefat but it doesn't feel quite right.

So any opinions, ideas, or knowledge sharing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Being married to a beautician, for 15 years, all I can say is nothing will work perfectly. Dreads are VERY hard to keep as clean as free hair. I am sure some things work better than others. They are tough. Like trying to clean steel wool with bubble gum in it. lol Good luck to you.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Hozhed, please keep an eye on the posted date - that quoted post was from 2013! Someone else posted recently though, so maybe you can shed some light on their problem?

 

[hozhed]

Hozhed, please keep an eye on the posted date - that quoted post was from 2013! Someone else posted recently though, so maybe you can shed some light on their problem?

Yeah, how I got jadibugs mixed up with the first....I don't know.......been making too much soap I guess.......lol

 

[Lion Of Judah]

most of these regiments are suited for dread heads and do not work for me or others like me. raw aloe and flat leaf cactus are the ideal remedies as well as yucca due to their natural saponificaton qualities . cleaning techniques become tailored and personal as time goes on . my dreads are more than 6 feet long and 30 years old and my maintenance now is different from when i started. my hair will eat through a shampoo bar easily and a bottle of shampoo lasts me two months and a half at best [washing every 2 weeks] . it takes me 1 hour 10-15 minutes to wash my hair and 4-5 hour for it to drip dry and still be moist up to a week later. reason dreads may be hard to keep clean is because of static electricity that attracts particles .
in the end in my humble opinion liquid soap is better than a soap bar because it can be diluted and it is easier to apply to scalp and locks.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

shampooed my locks today , these are them drip drying .

 

[not_ally]

Cool dreads, Lion! Very leonine, somehow I have had the same hair cut for years too, but mostly because I just snip pieces off when they stick out or get in my eyes, not cool like yours.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

yeah i just stick to what works

 

[jadiebugs1]

yeah i just stick to what works

Have you used any salt base products? You really don't say what it is that you use. I'd be very interested in knowing. How about baking soda?

 

[Lion Of Judah]

i don't use none of those , no salt and no baking soda. liquid soap / shampoo works for me with a conditioner followed by a disinfectant rinse . when i started aloe plus leaf cactus did the trick .