What makes a good shampoo bar?

[Cortney]

I'd like to try a shampoo bar next. I have a couple good batches under my belt, you guys weren't lying when you said it was addictive!!! I wanted to attempt to avoid the more exotic hard to find oils. I looked at a few recipes, ran them through soapcalc and tried to come up with a recipe that was similar with the oils I can readily find. My husband thinks what I came up with would be too drying for hair. Here is what I made-

castor- 8%
crisco-25%
coconut-50%
palm-17%

superfat6%
lye concentration 33%

I don't know yet how I feel about crisco in a shampoo bar....

I want to use Tea Tree and Peppermint EO and replace the water with chamomile tea.

Yes-No? I've done a few searches but have come up empty. What do you think makes a good shampoo bar?

 

[Saltysteele]

I also am interested in soap bars, and would like one that refreshes the scalp, kind of gives a cooling sensation.

 

[holly99]

I've tried a shampoo bar and had no luck with it but know a good one can be made. We buy a tea tree and lemon shampoo bar from Blue House Soaps and its been the only thing that works for my husbands dandruff. He's been using them for over a year now. I can't use it on my longer hair though. I hope you find something that works!

 

[holly99]

Here's a link to Blue House Soaps. Maybe will give you an idea of the ingredients in a good bar? It works for us anyway.

http://www.bluehousesoaps.com/catalog.p ... emonsb.jpg"

 

[Cortney]

Thanks everyone

Great link!! I'll play around with those ingredients and see what I come up with! What about that soap makes it unusable on your hair? Mine is middle of my back so it would be helpful to know

 

[JenniferSews]

I use chamomile tea too, plus peppermint and tea tree oil. I don't have crisco in mine, but do have a lot of castor as well as jojoba. I also infused some hyssop from my garden just for the heck of it. I like it, it works well on my hair type but I have seen people say that too much castor doesn't work for them. For my wavy/curly unruly hair I think it helps. I haven't tested it during winter yet, when my scalp is insanely itchy, but I'm hoping!

 

[Guest]

Hemp oil is good in a shampoo bar , don't make to big a batch though , it tends to get DOS after awhile.

Kitn

 

[Milla]

I think the coconut is too high. I've seen recipes with 30%, 20%, 18% and I keep mine under 10%. Do you have access to olive oil? That would help a lot too. I can't offer much advice because I just use olive, coconut, and palm. It has a conditioning number over 70. I add coconut cream at trace and it makes a nice creamy lather. My straight hair does not like castor. Seems like people with curly hair or short hair seem to like it though.

 

[holly99]

The coconut cream sounds yummy!

I've tried shampoo bars on my hair and it takes a lot to work up a good lather and then I can't move my fingers through my hair. I can't say I remember what my hair looked like after. My husband has military short hair so it doesn't ever bother him!

My hair was in super awful shape until I started using Salty Dawg by Gudonyoutoo on Etsy. It's fantastic! It's a cream shampoo that they add salt to.

So I'm wondering how the salt might help?

 

[alwaysme07]

Is it ok to use on colored hair? Without stripping the color from the hair?

 

[MikeInPdx]

I forego the coconut oil entirely and make a high % castor shampoo bar. My mother loves it for her shoulder length, color treated hair. She hasn't noticed the color fading any more than with synthetic detergent shampoo.

 

[Cortney]

Salty Dawg looks wonderful!!! In addition to the salt, I wonder what the B5 does. I may have to scrap the shampoo bar and just buy that lol

Milla, my husband thought the coconut was too high too, I made a new recipe that is oilve, coconut and castor...I'm sure this will be a trial and error process for me If none of them come out at least I can use them for regular soap.

 

[Milla]

Milla, my husband thought the coconut was too high too, I made a new recipe that is oilve, coconut and castor...I'm sure this will be a trial and error process for me If none of them come out at least I can use them for regular soap.

That should be a great start! It is definitely a trial and error process! Picking the ratios is the hardest part now. I was thinking of making a 67% Olive, 20% coconut, and 13% castor for my hubby, but he has 4 bars of some rebatched shampoo bars that he needs to use up first. I was trying to do a no palm bar. I was going to do a 5% SF. I can always use it as regular soap like you said. I'm still debating how much CO and castor to use!

The chamomile tea sounds perfect and you could also put some sugar in the tea water as you brew it to help with lather.

I have highlights and haven't noticed any problems with my shampoo bar. My conditioner is for color treated hair too.

 

[holly99]

Salty Dawg looks wonderful!!! In addition to the salt, I wonder what the B5 does. I may have to scrap the shampoo bar and just buy that lol

I use the Salty Dawg only for 2 days in a row at most and use Back to Basics Coconut Mango for conditioner. Then I use Back to Basics shampoo and conditioner for a day or two and then back to Salty Dawg.

The Salty Dawg does work more like a natural shampoo in that it does feel sqeaky clean but in a good way. The lather is AMAZING! It just really cleans instead of leaving lots of nasty stuff behind. Anyway....

Oh, and I've used it at a salt scrub on occasion too... Ok, enough about that!

 

[Paula58]

I would not use Crisco in a shampoo bar. My husband and I use my Carrot, Buttermilk & Oat bar to wash our hair. It is made with 80% Olive and High Oleic Sunflower oils. With the rest Rice Bran, Pumpkin Seed, Castor oils and Kokum Butter.

It may be the carrots, oats and buttermilk that make it work so well. Remember castille soap is what many people used to wash their hair with before the advent of shampoos.

 

[Lindy]

I recommend that you drop the CO completely from your recipe as it is too cleansing for the hair and will strip the natural oils away leaving the hair a little on the dry side. I totally agree with the Castor (very moiturizing when saponified) plus it increases lather. I would also add sugar to again increase lather. Olive oil is good so is tallow, sweet almond oil and jojoba oils. I've made some castille shampoo bars but not enough lather whereas if you have a high percentage of castor oil you'll get lather and moisture.

 

[Cortney]

Thank you everyone for your help.

In place of sugar would honey work? I was thinking about adding it to the water before the lye, making sure it's dissolved first.

 

[Lindy]

Honey works too but keep in mind for both sugar and honey that overheating is a very real possibility. If you use Castor in large quantities you don't really need much sugar (2%). You can also used flattened beer for part or all of your liquid.....

 

[Milla]

Wow! Great ideas everybody. I never thought of dropping coconut oil completely. More recipes to try now! I have some beer in the freezer waiting to be used. I bought some blue moon since it was a lighter citrus type beer for my shampoo bars. I think I'll try some almond oil in mine. I heard it helps for shine.

 

[Cortney]

Mmm beer shampoo! I tried a HP beer bar the other day and I think it may be my favorite. I let you know what I come up with and how it turns out! So many ideas everyone!