Shampoo Bar - Thanks Lindy!!

[Genny]

Could I sub out the avocado oil with rice bran oil? Do you think that would turn out okay?

Honestly, I have no idea. I recently wrote a post about subbing out my olive oil for rbo in another recipe & it was very, very drying to my skin. So personally, I wouldn't do it.

Congratulations on your successful shampoo bar!

So did you HP the batch? and is it a hard bar( I know it has to cure but still curious:smile)

I CP'ed it. It is surprisingly harder than I thought it was going to be considering the high OO content. But it's not as hard as a soap that has po or co in it.

Do you need a vinegar rinse after using the shampoo bar?

I've read a lot of the recipes call for one. I would definitely not want to do that to my hair. The smell...yuck!

Is it the avocado that makes it better for hair as opposed to other soaping oils?

I've been using this every day for a week or so & I haven't had to use a vinegar rinse at all. But I also think that the vinegar rinse thing has something to do with the hardness of your water, which we do not have hard water at all.

It's not just the avocado, it's the combination of using high conditioning oils & no cleansing oils.
If you want to sub out oils in the recipe you could use this chart
http://thesoapdish.com/oil-properties-chart.htm
and find oils that are high conditioning instead of cleansing.

 

[deirdreanne]

I like to try all my soaps as shampoo bars, just in case I stumble across something that works well with my hair. About 6 weeks ago, I started using a Castile soap that I made (100% olive oil with honey added). It had cured for about two and a half months. I wasn't expecting much, but it was fabulous. My hair is glossy, soft and I have no split ends. I was kind of stunned, as I'd always assumed that a good shampoo bar would have to be cleansing to work well. It's become my regular shampoo bar, and I use a more cleansing bar only once every two weeks or so (and I'm not even sure if that's necessary, as I haven't noticed any buildup).

 

[dudeitsashley]

Do you need a vinegar rinse after using the shampoo bar?

I've read a lot of the recipes call for one. I would definitely not want to do that to my hair. The smell...yuck!

Is it the avocado that makes it better for hair as opposed to other soaping oils?

The vinegar rinse is to close the cuticle back down, because generally the CP soap is on the alkaline side of the ph scale where the vinegar is on the acidic side. So the alkaline side softens and swells the cuticle where the acidic side hardens and closes the cuticle. I hope that answers your question.

Boy those two years of cosmetology school really payed off

 

[Genny]

So it's been about 3 weeks since I've started using this and I am still enjoying it.

My scalp before using this was a dry and flaky around the hair line and I was always having to put lotion on it. That's all gone now
There's still no straw-like crunchy dry feeling that I've gotten from using regular CP soap recipes as shampoo. My hair is thicker looking and after washing when I let my hair dry, I can run a brush right through it without any problems.

I will be having a few other people testing it once it's reached 4 weeks. I've chosen a woman with long, thick hair who has problems with oiliness. An older woman with short thick dyed hair. A man with thinning short hair and problems with dry scalp. A man with thick hair and problems with oiliness.

 

[dianne70]

Thanks Genny for sharing that recipe....I have very fine hair...and since having my babies, it has gotten finer and sometimes its kind of weird, and I can't do anything with it......yet another thing on my to try list

 

[melstan775]

How about finding a tester with fine hair and/or problems with oiliness as well? It absolutely is possible to add volume and thickness with the right shampoo formulation. Since you note your hair feels thicker after using it, why not get another test subject and see if it holds true? Just a thought.

 

[lizflowers42]

How about finding a tester with fine hair and/or problems with oiliness as well? It absolutely is possible to add volume and thickness with the right shampoo formulation. Since you note your hair feels thicker after using it, why not get another test subject and see if it holds true? Just a thought.

I volunteer! Fine hair here! Oily scalp too!

 

[Lindy]

Genny I can't even begin to say how thrilled I am for you! Go you!

 

[Tralaaje]

I made this recipe once I saw it. We have been using shampoo bars for over a year now. I have 5 other shampoo recipes I have used in the past but none was "just right." This recipe is awesome and the best by far.

I followed it to the tee for one batch and subbed out the soybean for more castor in a second batch (most of my bars have 20% castor so its what I am used to).

Gave both bars to my daughter, son, mil, fil, and husband to test. They have all used my other 5 recipes in the past. My daughter and son have baby fine hair with oily scalp and both love the original, think its the best. My daughter told me her hair is the nicest its ever been (it was so soft to touch it was amazing). My mil who has baby fine hair color treated loves the original one too best. My fil who has thick dry hair liked the original one for conditioning but the bubbles of the second one. He liked both. My husband like the increased castor one, he has baby fine hair but not much of it (so glad he doesn't read this forum) so I don't think he counts :wink: I have alot of normal hair. I liked the increased castor one since my hair felt a little over moisturized with the original. But, the increased castor takes a little more effort to rinse out.

Thanks for posting this awesome recipe , we all definately have a new favorite shampoo bar

 

[kdaniels8811]

I just made this, in the kitchen in the mold right now. I have several friends eager to try it, how long should it cure? Can I use it after 4 weeks or should I wait longer? Excited to try it!

 

[Genny]

I would suggest 4 weeks.

 

[hoegarden]

That sounds interesting. Would the soap be suitable in summer?

Not sure of the weather that most of you are residing now. I live in Asia, thus, all year round, its only rain and sun. The weather is so humid that the scalp will be sweating under the sun almost immediately. Thus, I cannot imagine a formula without CO inside as cleansing is almost very important inview of the impurities that are trap in the hair everyday.

Thanks Genny. You have shown me a new horizon.

 

[dudeitsashley]

Just curious can I add clay into my shampoo bars or would that not be good for use on the hair? Seems like a silly question haha. If I were to add a clay it'd be either kaolin or bentonite at one tsp ppo.

 

[Lindy]

Hmmm - not something I've tried, my first reaction was no, however since I've not tried it, I don't know what it would be like....

 

[Crocoturtle]

Do you need a vinegar rinse after using the shampoo bar?

I've read a lot of the recipes call for one. I would definitely not want to do that to my hair. The smell...yuck!

Is it the avocado that makes it better for hair as opposed to other soaping oils?

If you do a vinegar rinse it does not leave any smell in your hair but that being said, if you want to lower the PH of the bar you can add 1T ppo of citric acid, it will keep the cuticle of the hair smoothed.

Just curious can I add clay into my shampoo bars or would that not be good for use on the hair? Seems like a silly question haha. If I were to add a clay it'd be either kaolin or bentonite at one tsp ppo.

clay is good for curly hair. I wouldn't put a lot at first.

 

[Lindy]

If you do a vinegar rinse it does not leave any smell in your hair but that being said, if you want to lower the PH of the bar you can add 1T ppo of citric acid, it will keep the cuticle of the hair smoothed.

Broken record here but you don't necessarily need a vinegar rinse for a CP shampoo bar if you have formulated your bar right.....

 

[lizflowers42]

clay is good for curly hair. I wouldn't put a lot at first.

Suggested amount 1 tsp per pound? This girls got curls!

 

[Crocoturtle]

Suggested amount 1 tsp per pound? This girls got curls!

That sounds like a good amount to start with. I'd just do a 1 pound batch and see how you like it.

 

[ThenCameJen]

For those that have tried this recipe, did it take an especially long time to firm up enough to cut? I think I may have whoopsied on this one - I'm pretty sure my measurements were right, so maybe I soaped too cool? I used a PVC pipe mold, which I figured would mean an extra day or two in the mold before I could cut, especially given the large percentage of soft oils.

I'm pretty sure this gelled, because about 4 or 6 hours after pouring, the soap visible from the top of the mold had gone from a little milky to clearish green (I used chromium green oxide), similar to the other batches I've done, and the outsides of the PVC were uniformly warm from top to bottom.

After about 80 hrs in the mold, it was still really soft on either end, so I figured at this point, I couldn't hurt much by trying to gently remove it. It came out pretty well - not cleanly, but I didn't have to scoop it out! I left it to sit on a piece of freezer paper, where it's only managed to firm up a little bit - to the consistency of soft modeling clay. I'm now at about 95 hours outside of the mold, give or take - just over 7 days total since pouring it into the mold.

Anyway, I'm an impatient and inquisitive child of the world, so I decided to cut into it to see what strange horrors might await me inside. It's soft enough to leave messy fingerprints on the surface with just a light touch. No zap, and the pH strips I bought show it's about 9 or 10, slightly higher than my tap water alone. However, I also have some clear/yellowish dots, blobs, and streaks that remind me of shea butter.

I soaped at about 100° to 105°. This was a 2lb batch (880g actually), so I used my last 10g of peppermint EO and topped it off with half an ounce of green clover & aloe. The only sub I made to the original recipe was to replace soybean oil (which is hard to find in my area) with an equal percent of Crisco (recalculating in SoapCalc, of course.) I did everything else exactly as written (36% water, 6%SF, 1T sugar.)

Any guesses where I might've gone wrong, and what a possible solution (if any) might be? I've done a little more reading since to try to figure this out, and I read that sometimes soaping at cooler temperatures with shea butter might cause the butter to resolidify. Could that be what happened? This is my first time using shea butter.

 

[Genny]

ThenCameJen ~ I'm the one who posted the original recipe and I was able to unmold it within 24 hours. It was harder than my usual soap recipe.

I soap room temp and there's been a couple times that the shea butter's resolidified on me and our house in the winter is about 60 degrees. They ended up being small white spots (because I use refined shea).

I don't use Crisco, but if I remember correctly, it has palm in it. I don't use palm either, but I know that palm can cause stearic spots when not stirred properly or when it starts to resolidify (which are usually clearish).

The spots won't hurt the soap though. So honestly, I'd just leave it and maybe give it another week to see if it hardens. If it doesn't then maybe I'd rebatch it.

P.S. Most "Vegetable Oils" in grocery stores are actually Soybean Oil.