more shampoo bar questions

[Bex1982]

Right, most shampoos leave your hair dry and you have to follow up with a conditioner.
I put my acid rinse in a spray bottle, a dark tinted one with a lid on it. It's acidic so I very highly doubt anything will grow in there, especially since i am not removing the lid and allowing air in the container. It's like when people make their own toners and they add vinegar and water, it doesn't go bad as far as I know. Besides the rinse is a wash off product so I doubt it will give me moldy scalp or something outrageous. Anyway, that's easy enough, just as easy as conditioner. Conditioner also has citric acid in it to make hair shinier, make the cuticles lay flat etc. Shampoo is damaging your hair while it's cleansing it.
Hair likes an acidic ph and there is are no natural shampoo bars that are acidic. Even lowering the ph of shampoo bars won't really make much difference since you follow up with an acid wash anyway. JMO.

 

[CanaDawn]

You definitely won't go moldy , even if you didn't rinse off the vinegar (not everyone does rinse it off, I guess). Just make small batches of rinse, and don't worry about it. Vinegar is made by things growing in juice, but you are designed not to be sterile. And generally what grows in vinegar is GOOD for you.

Obviously, for some people, maybe their hair and water and soap will all work together happily, or the slight damage of an alkali won't show on their thick hair like it does on my fine strands, or they have shorter hair that gets cut more and they can blissfully not use an acidic rinse but for me it makes all the difference in the world (and we're not talking glacial acid here, but a highly-diluted moderate-pH solution).

 

[Dahila]

Maybe that stupid question; but...What proportion of AC to water for hair rince?
It makes sense to rinse with vinegar.
I remember my mom always rinsed my hair with it..

 

[kmarvel]

CanaDawn, I rinse after I shower and shampoo my hair. I do not use a conditioner on my hair.

 

[Obsidian]

I use 1/4-1/2 teaspoon vinegar to 1 cup water. Sometimes I rinse it out, sometimes I leave it.

 

[CanaDawn]

CanaDawn, I rinse after I shower and shampoo my hair. I do not use a conditioner on my hair.

Well ok. I'm sure you've heard of it though.

The chemistry is sound. There's lots of people happy with the method and the science. If you're not - do something else. I'm not sure what your objection is, but clearly you're firm in your distaste for using a rinse. It's not my job or my interest to convince you to do something you find distasteful, now that the reasoning for the choice has been explained.

Good luck! :smile:

 

[soapysarah]

I've just made my first green tea and soapnuts shampoo bar and it is proving to be really good. I warned my husband that it would not make foam like a commercial shampoo...his head disappeared under a mountain of bubbles! (I've become a soapnuts fan.)

I'm not an experienced soaper but started playing around with soap a year or so ago when I studied aromatherapy and haven't bought soap since. I love cooking and this is just a variation for me. I've not made the transition to commerical production because of the cost and regulations involved.

 

[MagicalMysterySoap]

This thread has inspired me to make some shampoo bars. I thought I just couldn't use them due to my hard water but hearing people have success even with hard water, makes me happy. I bought some Citric Acid because I can't stand the smell of vinegar and now I am off to soapcalc to create some recipes and experiment to see what works best with my hair I'm excited!

 

[Bex1982]

I've just made my first green tea and soapnuts shampoo bar and it is proving to be really good. I warned my husband that it would not make foam like a commercial shampoo...his head disappeared under a mountain of bubbles! (I've become a soapnuts fan.)

Did you put the soap nuts in CP soap, or how do you use them/it?

 

[Dahila]

Thank you Obsidian, thank you very much :clap:

 

[Obsidian]

Another tip for the vinegar rinse. Keep a small bottle of apple cider vinegar in the shower with a 8 oz yogurt cup. You can quickly mix a fresh batch of warm rinse every shower. I used to keep remixed rinse in the shower but it was always too cold.

 

[Bex1982]

I just made my first shampoo bar yesterday ~ so excited to use it and let my friends/fam test it out n get some feedback. I made a 20 oz batch which came to 9 bars. Three are super ugly so those will be mine and I'll give the other six away. Just impatient and it will be hard for me to wait some weeks to try it out...

 

[beckster51]

I can relate. I need a product because I have hypothyroidism. And yes, just tons of hair falls out. When I used the soap these 3 times there was way less. Like you, I can see the roots attached to the hairs in the brush also. When I use Organix brand my hair falls out like crazy, it also strips my color so there must be something harsh in there!! And it's considered a good sulfate free poo. So I can't blame it on sulfates. When I use the brand Shea Moisture my hair doesn't fall out as much but it leaves my hair feeling weird, frizzy I guess.
I think my hair is just barely hanging on by the roots and anything it doesn't like will just cause it to fall out. Not strongly rooted.
I'm also unsure of the ph, but it seems that if it's neutralized fairy fast there wouldn’t be much to worry about.

I'm late to the party here, just joined the forum. I have fine, thin hair that has been falling out due to keratoses on my scalp, and of course it is all in the front center - yikes. I am in my early 60's. I started using shampoo bars about 3 months ago, then about 2 months ago, I started mixing up ACV with herbs for a rinse. I am currently using ACV with sage infused in it. I now have growth that is about 1/2 inch long where I was bald before, and I have a lot less falling out. It may be that some of us are allergic to something in synthetic shampoos. I have used many types of shampoo and nothing helped. Shampoo bars to the rescue! The one I favor has babassu oil in it.

 

[Bex1982]

That's awesome Beckster51, I'm so happy your hair is growing back :clap: I'm glad you found a bar that works for you. It's been about a week since i've been using soap to wash my hair and so far so good

 

[Dahila]

I definitely stopped hair loss by switching to soap. I have a hormonal condition, but the difference happened immediately on changing to soap. It was not hair breakage, as the root of the hair was visible on the lost hair. I now lose a normal amount of hair (a small number in my comb and not gobs and handfuls throughout the day, to the point that I fear cooking for others, and can scrape a clump off my clothing at any time). The ONLY change was shampoo to soap and vinegar. And it was immediate and sustained.

I agree!!!!
I had the same situation, my hair was falling like crazy, all tests came negative, so the stress is probably the quilty one
I made gennys shampoo bar and started to use it, I am using it from December 2013, and so far so good. I added AC rince also for the last two weeks my hair is really shiny, even with the need for color. It does not fall out anymore, just few when i wash it
I am allergic to a lot of chemicals and medications. My mom was washing my hair with CP soap and vinegar rince and it was a wonderful hair, even baby thin, and no itching scalp.
I have no doubts that chemicals in shampoo (I used Nioxin for visibly thining hair #4)were one of the cause of my hair falling.
My soaps plus my lotions and I do not need any meds for my sensitive skin...
I love Susan but as someone said (I think it was Sussie) everyone is different and we have the right to share our expierences
:mrgreen:
uff my longest post.....

 

[Dahila]

Another tip for the vinegar rinse. Keep a small bottle of apple cider vinegar in the shower with a 8 oz yogurt cup. You can quickly mix a fresh batch of warm rinse every shower. I used to keep remixed rinse in the shower but it was always too cold.

This is exactly what I do, I use one quart plastic jar and mix it when I am ready to rince my hair

 

[Antonia]

Hi there,

I am relatively new in soapmaking, but I have already switched all the way to soap. Of course one of my first challenges was switching shampoo. I did not want to risk being disappointed with my own experiments so I purchased an artisan shampoo bar which sounded pretty nice (argan oil, shea butter, high superfat, pretty expensive also). I have very fine shoulder length hair which turns greasy within 24h (I usually wash every day) and I was not happy with this shampoo bar at all. My hair was dull and hard and did not feel clean at all, it felt like loads of soap scum was building within just one-two washes, even though I used ACV rinse. Luckily I had made a basic soap recipe and I decided to give it a try on my hair. It was not perfect but it was much better than the old one - less superfat and less clinging oils worked great on my fine hair. Meanwhile I had made Humblebee's "All in one soap", I tried it on my hair and it worked like a charm. My hair looks and feels great, I use it almost every day (followed by a simple ACV rinse that I mix in the shower) - my hair has more body and is sturdier than ever. Nowadays sometimes I wash every second day and even though my hair does not look fantastic on the second day, it is not awful. Even though I aim to try different recipes because I am still a newbie and want to experiment, I still come back to this recipe because it works so well and I love the fact that I can have only one bar of soap in my shower. I am still looking for an amazing shampoo bar recipe, but I am currently happy with the result. I just though it was worth sharing my experience, I hope that you will end up with a shampoo bar that you love.

 

[MagicalMysterySoap]

So I have made a small batch of soap to use on my hair. I have used it 2 times already and my hair feels clean, no soap scum since I rinse with citric acid and I don't have dandruff anymore (yay!). I absolutely love it but there is one issue, I am getting a lot of hair fall out when I use it. Is there anyway to stop this? I don't want to stop using it but I am scared that my hair will thin out if I continue with it

 

[CanaDawn]

Can't really help much, MagicalMysterySoap, because using soap STOPPED my hairloss. Citric acid is quite powerful, so you could try cutting back the strength of that and see if it helps?

Antonia, good to hear re Humblebee's recipe, I follow Marie and just hadn't tried it yet, but I am having some trouble getting the superfat/conditioning right (and I keep feeling that although CO soap was working I "should" try something else.... ) so I will try her bar next. (Need to make soap anyhow)

 

[MagicalMysterySoap]

Can't really help much, MagicalMysterySoap, because using soap STOPPED my hairloss. Citric acid is quite powerful, so you could try cutting back the strength of that and see if it helps?

Antonia, good to hear re Humblebee's recipe, I follow Marie and just hadn't tried it yet, but I am having some trouble getting the superfat/conditioning right (and I keep feeling that although CO soap was working I "should" try something else.... ) so I will try her bar next. (Need to make soap anyhow)

I use the tiniest amount of CA, plus my hair loss happens when I am scrubbing my hair and rinsing the shampoo off of my head so the Citric isn't the culprit.