Shampoo and Conditioner Bars

[MittenSoapCo]

What type of Ingredients do you use for your shampoo and conditioner bars? I've been thinking about making my own. My hair has gotten so dry over the last year, and store bought conditioners aren't doing anything. Thanks for any advise!! Also, Thank you Dibbles for helping me out!

 

[amd]

First, if your hair has suddenly gotten dry over the last year, I would have a reputable hair dresser check it out. It may be that your hair is severely damaged and your regular haircuts are not removing all of the damage. I used to get my hair cut only once a year (long hair) and my hair dresser very bluntly told me that either I would need to come in more often, or I would have to let her cut more hair off because the amount I was telling her to trim wasn't enough to remove the damage. Once hair is damaged it can't be fixed and needs to be cut. (Commercial hair products lie telling you the product can fix damaged hair. It can't. It won't.)

Ok... that said... you're going to find a lot of ingredients, a lot of variables once you go down the rabbit hole that is making your own hair care. Typically a good shampoo bar will use at least two surfactants, typically SCI or SCS, with coco b* and SLSa. *sorry I shortened this because I can't ever spell or pronounce it right. Google CAPB and you'll find it.* A conditioning "wax" such as BTMS-25 or BTMS-50, some may use cetyl alcohol depending on the BTMS used. Optional ingredients may include oils, butters, panthenol, various proteins, silicones and sodium lactate or stearic acid. It's not anywhere as simple as soap, there's no shampoo bar calculator, and you have to take pH into consideration, as well as the molecule charge (cationic/anionic etc) - dear lord, I hope I said that right. I confess that last part still confuses me and I'm still working my way around understanding it.

 

[MittenSoapCo]

First, if your hair has suddenly gotten dry over the last year, I would have a reputable hair dresser check it out. It may be that your hair is severely damaged and your regular haircuts are not removing all of the damage. I used to get my hair cut only once a year (long hair) and my hair dresser very bluntly told me that either I would need to come in more often, or I would have to let her cut more hair off because the amount I was telling her to trim wasn't enough to remove the damage. Once hair is damaged it can't be fixed and needs to be cut. (Commercial hair products lie telling you the product can fix damaged hair. It can't. It won't.)

Ok... that said... you're going to find a lot of ingredients, a lot of variables once you go down the rabbit hole that is making your own hair care. Typically a good shampoo bar will use at least two surfactants, typically SCI or SCS, with coco b* and SLSa. *sorry I shortened this because I can't ever spell or pronounce it right. Google CAPB and you'll find it.* A conditioning "wax" such as BTMS-25 or BTMS-50, some may use cetyl alcohol depending on the BTMS used. Optional ingredients may include oils, butters, panthenol, various proteins, silicones and sodium lactate or stearic acid. It's not anywhere as simple as soap, there's no shampoo bar calculator, and you have to take pH into consideration, as well as the molecule charge (cationic/anionic etc) - dear lord, I hope I said that right. I confess that last part still confuses me and I'm still working my way around understanding it.

Thank you for all the information. I've got some researching to do for sure! Sadly, I am also one of those people that don't get their haircut very often! confession time, I wanted to go get a healthy trim like a month and a half ago, but then COVID happened and closed all the salons, so I did it my self. I'm also starting to notice that I don't really like all the chemicals in the conditioners and shampoo that I am buying.

 

[amd]

There's a lot more surfactant choices than what I listed above, so it will depend on what you care about - some formulators care about using "green" products such as foaming apple - some may care about cost, while others are working with what's available to them and/or performance. Some people say not add any butters or oils at all. I find soapmaking much easier to understand than shampoo bars. At least if I don't like a soap I can throw it in a box for a few years and maybe it will be better.

 

[KiwiMoose]

There a re few threads about shampoo bars in the bath and body forum, and the recipes forums - knock yourself out!

 

[atiz]

Humblebee&me has a pretty good encyclopedia on the different surfactants you can use. (She also has a bunch of recipes; I have tried a few and they worked well for me.)