Holy curls!

[JenniferSews]

Wow! I made a shampoo bar as one of my first soaps. It was before I found soap calc so I used way more castor oil than anyone with any common sense or soaping experience would use. But I used it yesterday and today and I've never seen such a dramatic change in my hair! I have curly hair, but the kind of curly that can't make up it's mind. It's 1/2 waves and 1/2 straight and generally a pain. For 35 years I've been fighting it by straightening it or using a curling iron to curl the parts that were straight. Then I got a REALLY bad haircut and can't even straighten it anymore to make it look decent. Anyway long story short I guess my hair likes castor oil. I have curls and body like I haven't seen in years. I can't wait to try it on my daughter, poor kid got my hair. Yay for homemade soaps!

 

[Dixie]

That's great!

 

[heyjude]

I'm so happy for you!!! I totally get where you're coming from. I am never happy with my hair.

When I was 4 years old my mom cut my thick long curly/wavy hair because I would not let her comb or brush it. I have never forgiven her and that was 47 years ago!!

After many failed attempts to grow it out, I've just accepted that I was meant to have short hair. When short it's more wavy than anything.

I've never made a shampoo bar. Maybe I should try one too.

Jude

 

[Guest]

That is great news for you . I love handmade shampoo bars too.
I have hair like yours. The last bad haircut I got was Jan 2008 , I gave up and let it grow .

Kitn

 

[Milla]

Good for you! Isn't it great to make your own stuff and have it work?!!

Me, castor, and my straight/somewhat limp hair does not mix. Not even 5%. Gotta keep it light for me.

As for bad haircuts. My new screening tool for my hair dressers is that they had to be trained at an Aveda school. My hairdresser also taught at a school too. Can't go wrong with that. I'm getting my bangs trimmed today and instead of tipping I'm bring her a homemade bottle of wine and two soap samples.

 

[JenniferSews]

When I was 4 years old my mom cut my thick long curly/wavy hair because I would not let her comb or brush it. I have never forgiven her and that was 47 years ago!!

My mom did the same thing to me. DD is 3 now and I'm terrified every time I cut her hair that I'll do the same thing to her.

Milla- I can see that would be a problem! I read the "does castor oil leave a film" thread a few days before mine was ready and was expecting a disaster.

 

[Milla]

Milla- I can see that would be a problem! I read the "does castor oil leave a film" thread a few days before mine was ready and was expecting a disaster.

I might be the exception to the castor thing, however.

 

[ewenique]

For those with wavy/curly hair, check out www.naturallycurly.com for loads of info from other curlies about hair products and techniques used by those who have learned to embrace their curls. There have been lots of posts about soap/shampoo bars.

 

[Nikobee]

Would you be willing to share your recipe? I would love to embrace the tweekyness some might call curls!

 

[gekko62]

Wow! I made a shampoo bar as one of my first soaps. It was before I found soap calc so I used way more castor oil than anyone with any common sense or soaping experience would use.

I looove soapcalc,but it's also (for me at any rate) a bit of a tyrant! I live in fear of high cleaning & low conditioning! My two fave recipes I designed before I met soapcalc.Great soaps...Soapcalc doesn't like em much tho...we've had to agree to disagree on that one!

 

[JenniferSews]

Wow! I made a shampoo bar as one of my first soaps. It was before I found soap calc so I used way more castor oil than anyone with any common sense or soaping experience would use.

I looove soapcalc,but it's also (for me at any rate) a bit of a tyrant! I live in fear of high cleaning & low conditioning! My two fave recipes I designed before I met soapcalc.Great soaps...Soapcalc doesn't like em much tho...we've had to agree to disagree on that one!

Well I'm so glad to hear that. Soapcalc had me thinking I made something terrible. But I've loved the tool anyway, it's so helpful. I want to experiment more before I call this recipe done though.

Nikobee I'd be happy to send you a bar if you want to PM me, I'll never use it all and already want to tweak. I'm not confident enough in my recipes to share, I'd be too embarassed. I think this was my 3rd or 4th batch EVER and the first recipe I created myself.

 

[Vinca Leaf]

We will not laugh. Promise.

 

[JenniferSews]

All right.

4 oz Coconut oil
2 oz jojoba
6 oz olive pomace
2 oz palm oil
2 oz almond oil
5 oz castor oil
2 oz grapeseed oil
1 oz shea

3 oz lye
8.28 oz water

It's a softer bar, but not super soft. I didn't realize the solid/liquid oils percentages mattered until later. I use it for my hair but also as a body soap, it's nice and moisturizing. I guess I'd be from the kitchen sink school of soap making. I have all these yummy oils and want to use them all. I used TTO and it smells too mediciney for my tastes, but that's the EO I had on hand.

 

[topcat]

You have some lovely oils in there.....if you really want to tweak it, may I suggest adding some sodium lactate liquid? It helps firm up a batch amazingly well. I use MMS lye calc if I want to find out how much SL to use. You just add it into your lye water once the lye crystals have dissolved. It doesn't seem to accelerate trace or otherwise affect a batch, but unmoulding is a breeze and the bars firm up very nicely. It seems to add a slightly different feel to the lather. SL is basically milk salt so perhaps it adds some of the properties of milk to soap? I know that I love it!

MMS link:- http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

Tanya

 

[JenniferSews]

Thanks so much Tanya, that is really helpful! I kept playing with the recipe in soap calc but had to take out too much to make it harder and was going to give up, but that may be just the tip I needed.

 

[bridger]

as an experiment I made a 100% castor oil soap. it's the nicest thing I have ever used in my hair. my hair is very fine and straight, BTW.