Brightening Shampoo Bars?

Little-Bits-N-Pieces · Jan 12, 2016

So after talking over shampoo bars with my family, they were wondering if a brightening shampoo bar can be made. It would be used for horse manes and tails. Some of our horses have white manes and tails that turn yellow, sometimes brown, depending on how dirty they get (they're out on pasture year round).
We spend quite a bit of money actually on those purple shampoos that are supposed to whiten white hair and get rid of the yellow, or we buy the shampoos with the "gentle" bleaching agents to try and lift the yellow, some work okay-ish, some don't do squat.

Then I ran across these people that make horse shampoo bars, and I see that theirs are made from CO, PO, Veg Glycerin, and Neem. They claim the bars brighten whites, what do you guys think?
Do any of you think a regular shampoo bar will brighten and help lift yellow?

Here is the link -- http://washbar.nz/products/horse-hound-shampoo-bar/#frb_tabs_1032670167_2

Thanks in advance!! :mrgreen:

Seawolfe · Jan 12, 2016

Not sure what would lighten a mane, but I was wondering if the titanium dioxide in their soap did anything beyond making the soap white?

I know that you can use a diluted vinegar rinse to get chlorine out of hair, not sure how that helps a mane though... When I was working with show ponies we used to rinse their manes and tails with rainwater - made them soooo soft.

Sorry, not much help, just reminiscing

I'm jealous that you have sweetie horse manes to play with.

Little-Bits-N-Pieces · Jan 13, 2016

I'm not sure about the TD, it's in the other peoples bars, but I assume that's just to keep them white, but maybe not?

We have a couple palominos and appaloosas, and they get DIRTY! Especially my big leopard appy mare in the winter. All that white doesn't stand a chance against the mud!
See how yellow their tails get? Ick!

Here is our Palomino stud, Pippin, pictured as a yearling

My appy mare, Rain, and her filly Duchess :mrgreen:

Shockingly, the bigger mare has a naturally white tail, but you would never guess that on your own!

And quite frankly, I think Prissy could use some brighter socks LOL!

Susie · Jan 13, 2016

Gorgeous horses!

Sorry, can't help with the question, but, gorgeous horses!

nsmar4211 · Jan 13, 2016

Pretty horses!!

When I showed Peruvian (long hair) guinea pigs, they used to have urine stain issues. I used the purple shampoo quite a bit on them. I discovered that the purple was actually just old fashioned laundry bluing! I did experiment with the laundry bluing but after overdoing it I ended up a blueish guinea pig and a new bottle of purple stuff LOL. However, you use a LOT more shampoo on a horse, so it might be worth experiementing with.

The other things I used to whiten them were baking soda brushings (work in, wait half an hour, brush out) and vinegar soakings. I'd mix white vinegar half and half with water, pour on (after a shampooing), let sit half an hour, and then rinse well and apply Mane and Tail conditioner. Worked great on them! Obvsiouly don't do a vinegar rinse while there's baking soda present...although that might be interesting (and you might never catch the horse again).

In a moment of desperation after I accidentally wrapped a guinea pig while his hair was damp and he turned greenish...I also have used lemon juice rinse. Soaked the affected hair in straight lemon juice , rinsed well and conditioned. He went back to regular color pretty quickly! That would be a lot of lemon juice for a horse, but maybe put in the rinse water it would help?