Shampoo Bar - Thanks Lindy!!

[squyars]

Thanks JudyMoody!

Obsidian also sent me one of her pine tar bars. Giving that a go to see how it works. I have to say, that only after one use,I woke this morning to my patches of eczema drying out. Of course, it could be happening by coincidence, or a fact that I only used her shampoo bar, and not commercial shampoo that tends to burn my areas of eczema. In any regard, I will continue to use both to see how it works.

I also agree with diet and stress being big factors here, but unless I win the lottery to pay my bills, I think the stress part is always going to play a part. And, not quite ready to go to a gluten free diet.... I LOVE my pasta and bread too much. LOL.

 

[stargazer44]

squyars - I tried to message your but your box is full!

 

[forherbs]

Squyars, instead of using baking to cleanse your hair until your shampoo bar is ready to use, you can use honey and water. Generally, it's 1 TBLS to 3 TBLS distilled water. That's what I use when I take a break from shampoo bars.


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Just leave the honey water in your hair for a couple minutes and rinse


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[squyars]

Squyars, instead of using baking to cleanse your hair until your shampoo bar is ready to use, you can use honey and water. Generally, it's 1 TBLS to 3 TBLS distilled water. That's what I use when I take a break from shampoo bars.


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Thank you so much. Can't wait until my shampoo bars are cured. I'm thankful that Obsidian sent me one of her shampoo bars. This is my third day using it, I'm a little concerned about making it through the adjustment period. However, after two days of waxy, grubby hair,I realized that the problem was that I'm a lazy shampooer. With such long hair,I never really had to do much when using commercial shampoo. I now realize that if I take a few extra minutes to really massage it into the scalp and down the length of the hair, then rinse, rinse, rinse and when you are done, rinse some more, the hair feels unbelievably thick and clean!

I like to wash daily, but I won't need to with the shampoo bar. It's nice to realize that I can use the honey I wash my face with to tide my hair over.

Thank you for the wonderful suggestion!

 

[nframe]

Well I tried this recipe yesterday. 40% Olive, 30% Avocado, 20% Castor, 10% Shea Butter. Did 1:1:1 Peppermint, Lavender, Eucalyptus EO. Added 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp ascorbic acid, and 1 tsp clay per pound oil. No color. Actually solidified pretty quickly, cut after 18 hours. We'll see how it turns out.

Hello,

I wondered how your soap turned out. I have not found your update on this. This thread is so long that maybe I missed it.

I have tried Genny's recipe and unfortunately it made my hair far too greasy so I was interested in trying something similar to your recipe. I thought of doing:
40% olive oil
30% avocado oil
15% castor oil
15% coconut oil

What do you (and other people hopefully) think?

Thanks in anticipation.
Nicole

 

[Obsidian]

How long did you use your shampoo bars for? That nasty oily feeling is common when you first switch. It can take a number of weeks for your hair to get used to shampoo bars. Its also important to take time and lather your hair really well and rinse, rinse, rinse some more.

Your recipe looks ok but it might be a bit too cleansing for hair. Just like skin, you don't want to strip hairs natural oils or it will dry out. Unlike CP for skin, you can't use a high superfat on hair to counter balance high cleansing. Thats why most shampoo bars are low cleansing.

 

[nframe]

How long did you use your shampoo bars for? That nasty oily feeling is common when you first switch. It can take a number of weeks for your hair to get used to shampoo bars. Its also important to take time and lather your hair really well and rinse, rinse, rinse some more.

Your recipe looks ok but it might be a bit too cleansing for hair. Just like skin, you don't want to strip hairs natural oils or it will dry out. Unlike CP for skin, you can't use a high superfat on hair to counter balance high cleansing. Thats why most shampoo bars are low cleansing.

Thank you for this. I have only used Genny's shampoo bar once so maybe I should persevere a bit. Based on your comments, I changed the recipe a bit and now it is:
40% olive
35% avocado
15% castor
10% coconut

The cleansing number (in Soapcalc) has gone down from 10 to 7 and conditioning went up from 70 to 73. Also, I thought of superfatting at 3%. What do you think of the recipe now?

 

[Tizzy]

Made this soap today. Can't wait to try it out!

 

[Obsidian]

That should be better. Don't give up too soon once you starting using your bars, most everyone really likes their hair once the adjustment period is over. Using diluted apple cider vinegar for a rinse will help too.

 

[nframe]

Thanks a lot. I will make it today and keep you posted.

 

[flavapor]

For all of you that are having problem with the oily hair, like people stated, there is an adjustment period. I had success with using only water and an ACV rinse in between shampoos, but if you work outside the house, I guess either hair up or wait till vacation.

It was best explained to me like this.

The surfactants in shampoos strip the hair and scalp of all of the oils, so it overproduces oils to replace them. If you continue to use shampoo, you think of this as normal, however, if you start using shampoo bars that are not syndent, there are no surfactants to strip the hair, yet the body continues to produce the oils until it realizes that it doesn't need to which is what takes about a month.

 

[paillo]

I found that mine seem to do better with 10-15% coconut oil. Without it, it took 3 or 4 latherings before it really sudsed up, and I'm just too lazy to do that. I have oily hair, and the coconut oil is really nice. But just personal preference. And I don't have hard water, so that's probably a factor too.

 

[Saswede]

My shampoo bar recipe is a lot higher in CO, mainly because we have really hard water here and anything less just doesn't work ...


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[Moot]

well I couldn't wait. I made the recipe exact except for I didn't had the sugar, I used the soap 3 days in a row. I did use a very small, less than a dime size of conditioner.

I LOVE how my hair felt, could comb it out so easily. No fly aways or friz. Normally I have a big huge dry clump of hair to comb thru. My scalp for the first time didn't feel itchy or break out and hardly any hair loss like I normally do! Is this for real??? This might be the best bar shampoo recipe I've ever used. (the duh skip the coconut oil?) I've tried other shampoo bars on the market from other soap makers, never liked anything.

Now, my only problem is by the 3rd day, my hair felt/looked a tiny bit greasy. My husband said I was crazy and thought it looked totally normal. So I'm going to wait 2 more weeks, let the soap cure a bit longer and skip the conditioner. If that seems still to much conditioning, I might try to adjust the recipe. Just not sure how. I've read thru this thread twice, took notes. Maybe I should skip the shea butter and trade it up for more olive and castor? Still deciding.

Thanks again for sharing this recipe!

 

[newbie]

Has anyone else had issues with DOS? My first bar had none but this second bar is ridiculous. I subbed out corn oil for soybean because the properties seemed so similar. It's not the stored ones that are the problem. Its the one in the shower. I put it on a plastic soap saver with spikey things so it's not sitting in water, not is is near any of the other bars. I get big soft gooey spots, big enough to scoop out with my thumb. Cured for about three months and as I said , the first and therefore younger bar had no issues. humidity alone? It makes me sad!!!

 

[squyars]

Has anyone else had issues with DOS? My first bar had none but this second bar is ridiculous. I subbed out corn oil for soybean because the properties seemed so similar. It's not the stored ones that are the problem. Its the one in the shower. I put it on a plastic soap saver with spikey things so it's not sitting in water, not is is near any of the other bars. I get big soft gooey spots, big enough to scoop out with my thumb. Cured for about three months and as I said , the first and therefore younger bar had no issues. humidity alone? It makes me sad!!!

Sounds like it may be unsaponified oil. Does it smell bad? Sorry for your soap disaster. If it's not DOS, perhaps you can salvage it in a rebatch?

 

[nframe]

Update

Thank you for this. I have only used Genny's shampoo bar once so maybe I should persevere a bit. Based on your comments, I changed the recipe a bit and now it is:
40% olive
35% avocado
15% castor
10% coconut

The cleansing number (in Soapcalc) has gone down from 10 to 7 and conditioning went up from 70 to 73. Also, I thought of superfatting at 3%. What do you think of the recipe now?

I made the shampoo bar and wanted to give an update although I feel that this thread is becoming unmanageable due to its length! My final recipe was:
40% olive oil
30% avocado oil
15% castor oil
10% coconut oil
5% cocoa butter
SF3%

After a week, I couldn't wait any longer and decided to try it. It is much better for my hair than Genny's recipe (sorry Genny!). Whereas, with Genny's recipe my hair looked very greasy, with the above shampoo bar it looks quite normal. I did not do a vinegar rinse, nor used conditioner. I used, as I usually do, a leave-in conditioner (something else I will have to try and make myself now...).

So, a bit thank you to Genny first and to all the others who have helped me with their comments.

 

[GriffinRidgeFarm]

My shampoo bar recipe doesn't have any butters in it, do they make a big difference? Do you like bars with shea butter better than to those without?

 

[nframe]

My shampoo bar recipe doesn't have any butters in it, do they make a big difference? Do you like bars with shea butter better than to those without?

I couldn't say as I am not experienced enough. The recipe I came up with was originally Genny's recipe and it did not agree with my hair. After taking into consideration all the comments (and there are so many!) this is what I came up with and, as I said, I am much happier with this formula. I am open to suggestions if it can be improved further.

 

[Paintguru]

Hello,

I wondered how your soap turned out. I have not found your update on this. This thread is so long that maybe I missed it.

I have tried Genny's recipe and unfortunately it made my hair far too greasy so I was interested in trying something similar to your recipe. I thought of doing:
40% olive oil
30% avocado oil
15% castor oil
15% coconut oil

What do you (and other people hopefully) think?

Thanks in anticipation.
Nicole

Nicole,

Sorry, I wasn't monitoring this thread, so I missed your question. I've been using my bars now for a while, and so far I really like them. Granted I am a male with short hair, so I can't comment beyond that (wife won't use the bar, worried about her highlights/lowlights coming out). It lathers up really well and easily (I rub it right on my head). Again, I can't really tell if my hair is more oily than normal since it is so short. I may do the coconut oil add (and remove the butter if possible) in the future though to simplify the recipe.

Also have a coworker I gave a bar to (another male) and he really likes it as well. In fact, he uses it to shave in the shower as well! Multi-purpose I guess.