oil and hair

[SunshineGirl]

Im trying to make a GREAT shampoo bar for blak women who have natural hair so oils are very important to keep it moisturized but i dont know where to began to look for base and/or eo that will keep hair strong, moisturized and healthy. I was really hoping for a book on oils. and how can i tell if an oil is a base oil or not?

 

[bodhi]

Hi Sunshine. All oils(except essential oils) can be base oils. The term just means it is being used as a base for a product. You can google properties of oils, and essential oils for hair, etc and get some good info that way. Have you made soap before?

 

[SunshineGirl]

bodhi, Ive only mad 2 batchs of MP saops, but im taking a break from soapmaking to do more research and to get more tools. i have yet to make cp soap. right now im just trying to read up and learn more (i love doing research and reading) so i will spend more time doing that then needed. also trying to figure out what type of soaper i want to be also if i do decide to sell what would i sell and who would be the buyer. so im just really taking my time until i find my way.

 

[bodhi]

You could play around with SoapCalc to see properties of different oils once they are saponified. And good luck to you, that is quite the undertaking.

 

[Sanguine]

Coconut and babassu are the oils, that I know of, are used a lot on hair. I believe they have a similiar profile but a very unsimiliar price tag. You can give coconut oil a try but know that it's a cleansing oil in soaps. You didn't say what type of shampoo you're making, soap or surfactant, but if you go for soap, I wouldn't go coconut entirely. As you want it to be conditioning, I probably wouldn't use coconut oil at all or only in a small amount. As said above, soapcalc will be able to pick your oils and it's fun to play around with. http://www.soapcalc.net/info/Soap Qualities.xls
If you just want to make a hair mask: warm up some coconut oil (not to warm!), put it on wet hair and wrap a towel around it, wash out with a daily/mild shampoo. Not for the oily hair girls among us.... (Except maybe on the roots for a few minutes)
If you would like to make a surfactant based shampoo, this blog will be an amazing treasure on information: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/p/hair-care.html
Good luck!

 

[judymoody]

I would check out Swiftcraftymonkey's site, Point of Interest, at swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com

She has a lot of information about hair products and the needs of different kinds of hair, including African, Caucasian, curly, oily, aging, etc.

From what I remember, African American hair is particularly fragile and may require more specific ingredients and methods. Coconut oil, for example, is great when applied neat but in CP soap, it can be very drying. The pH of CP soap is also higher than neutral (typically around 9-10) and could damage hair if not followed by an acidic rinse. An alternative would be to experiment with surfactants to make solid shampoos that are specially formulated for African hair type.

Good luck and let us know how your experimenting turns out!