My First Recipe

[gnlmoreno]

Hi, I'm new to soap making. As a matter of fact, I still need to buy all the essentials in order to make my first soap. My main quest is to make a shampoo bar that is conditioning yet cleansing at the same time. My husband has psoriasis, so I want something beneficial in that sense. This is what I came up with, what do you think?
Thank you in advance

 

[Navaria]

Welcome to the board! Wow, you sure picked a couple hot button issues for your first post lol. Before you set your heart on a shampoo bar, please do a LOT of research on them. I personally will not use one because I have enough trouble with my hair due to genetics, I don't need the additional kind of damage a shampoo bar has been known to do. Soap, by nature, must have a higher ph. You cannot make a neutral soap or it would cease to be soap at all. Hair in general does NOT like high ph. It raises the cuticle and causes it to be frizzy and brittle, and eventually break off. There will be others along who can testify to this first hand.
Soap is not conditioning. Again, it's not the nature of soap. It removes the oils from the surface of your skin. Some soap removes more oils from a slightly deeper layer, and some only remove the surface oils. So it's really a matter of how little oil a soap removes as compared to how "conditioning" it is. A soap with a cleansing number of 0 will still clean. I personally do not like that much coconut oil in my soap. It would dry me out to no end. But each person is different, and what works for me may not for you.

 

[lionprincess00]

Many here do not recommend shampoo bars at all. Hair needs a lower ph than soap is. Another thing is your cleansing number is very high for sensitive skin, and I would think soap for someone with a skin condition such as psoriasis would need a much lower cleansing number. Hopefully our shampoo bar guru's with better info onto why it may be a poor choice (especially for your husband) will be here in a bit to give better detailed information. Also, many here with sensitive skin (and even possibly psoriasis or those that have made soap for people with psoriasis) can better direct you to a good first recipe. No expert, but I would think the best bet to start would be along the lines of, for soap, not shampoo bars:
10-15% coconut
5% castor
20-30% olive or sweet almond
Remaining lard (we LOVE our lard), palm or tallow

 

[cmzaha]

Shampoo bars are exactly what the word is "Shampoo" not Soap. Soap cleans and is not moisturizing. When it comes to psoriasis that can be a whole different ballgame. Years ago I had a customer with many medical problems and severe scalp psoriasis, believe it or not, her dermatologist prescribed tide for shampooing her hair, after he went through all the prescription shampoos for psoriasis. This particular dermatologist was very eccentric but also a registered Mensa member. Interestingly enough it did help her scalp but did not much for her hair. I would try my best to keep the Tide on her scalp and shampoo her hair with shampoo. I also had a cosmetology instructor whom had terrible psoriasis on her hands and arms, her method was to soap them in per solution when her outbreaks were extremely bad. These 2 methods would soften the hard crust enough to slough it off then the medicine could be applied. Pine tar was also another standard for psoriasis. psoriasis is certainly not the same as eczema. Like every type of allergy or skin problem you need good doctor care and also find what help you. As my dermatologist told me years ago, 'You know what helps you better than me". When I would go see him he would ask me what I needed... Of course now, many of the prescription ointments are obscenely expensive. My favorite cream for treating my eczema breakouts has gone up to $400 with medicare. This is an ointment that has been around a 20+ years. Bottom line is if you like your hair do not use soap on your hair, for your hubby if it helps his psoriasis go for it but hopefully he does not have long hair he loves because it will damage hair

 

[GeezLouise]

As a middle aged person, my hair and scalp only need cleaned two or three times a week. Once I stopped believing the ads anyway, that aim for daily.

For a couple years, I did use home made soap (my skin likes it better than grocery store soap) without apparent damage to the hair. But. The hair was hard to keep neat. Also, we have hard water and there would be buildup on my hair and what looked and felt like soap scum on my brush. I have since switched to washing my hair with conditioner, avoiding those with sulfates.

IF I went back to regularly using soap on my long hair, I'd choose one that has lower cleansing effect (less stripping) and follow that with a vinegar rinse for smoothing and in hope of avoiding soap scum, and follow that with conditioner. For short hair I'd skip the conditioner.

If while away on short trips I've forgotten to bring conditioner, I wait until my hair must be washed and use the hotel bar soap once rather than hotel shampoo or conditioner, to avoid itchiness.

But that's my skin type, my hair type, my arid environment, and my hard water, without psoriasis or eczema.

 

[Steve85569]

I'll echo the high cleansing problem.

For skin hat has psoriasis I'd drop the coconut and palm, up the olive, look for some rice bran oil or lard and add about 10% pine tar. The pine tar will tend to give you "soap on a stick" if you are not ready. It really does accelerate the soap setting. It does seem to work wonders on those skin troubles though.
A cleansing value below the recommended value will still clean it just won't dry the skin as much. I have "old guy" skin mostly because I am one so I use a cleansing value of 8 to 12 regularly.

Just my thoughts.
And welcome aboard!

 

[gnlmoreno]

Thank you so much for the replies. After further investigation, I come to realize that coconut oil really isn't needed for cleaning. I will redo my recipe.

 

[Susie]

Please pay attention to the people who say that soap is not good for everyone's hair. It just isn't. And for a first batch, you really need to be making soap for skin, because that is going to be as much of a challenge as you need for a first batch.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree with others. I tried and failed even with a vinegar rinse. It took about 8 months but then I had to cut my hair short and it too another year for it to start being healthy. It was falling out, kind of mushy feeling and strawlike. Mine had no CO in it at all. Some people just need to try and find out for themselves though. I'll stick with what's made for my hair. It was a costly mistake on my part.

 

[gnlmoreno]

I just read gennys thread about shampoo bars. Although there are a lot of success stories, I have decided to take another natural route for hair cleansing. I have hip length hair that I am not willing to risk with ph experiments

 

[gnlmoreno]

I'm incredibly thankful for all of your replies. You guys saved me money and hair.