Why does liquid soap shampoo leave hair greasy?

[kcbitsupply]

I make a shampoo with 40% almond oil, 30% coconut oil, and 30% olive oil. I make the soap with glycerin instead of water. Then, I add 1% glycerin to the finished product. I love this shampoo but my daughters complain that it makes their hair greasy. I don't understand. Does anyone have any insight?

 

[cmzaha]

Because it is not shampoo, it is soap. A true shampoo is surfacant based not soap. Aside from the ph of soap which damages hair, soap will leave a scum on hair that collects are the gunk from the air, even with a vinegar rinse you do not remove all the soap scum. Plus this is an oil based product and even with 0 superfat there is going to be un-saponified oils. You really are not doing a service to your daughters by making them liquid soap shampoo, it will over time damage the hair and it cannot be corrected after true damage is done. Sorry, beside eczema this is my second biggest rant subject. I remember people coming into my Beauty Shop with gunked up hair from using soap and expected me to fix the damage and get it clean. I could get it clean with a strong detergent based shampoo but could not correct the damage other than cutting the hair. Hair is very resilient until we damage it then it simply cannot be fixed, other than cutting off the damaged hair.

 

[shunt2011]

^^^

Exactly this. It's not shampoo you are making. You are making liquid soap.

 

[kcbitsupply]

Hmmm. I have heard this before but my hair has never felt better since using this soap on my hair. Store shampoo was a nightmare for me. At this point, I guess I'm confused.

 

[shunt2011]

There are many who have tried and failed using soap as shampoo. You will also find those who claim soap as a shampoo works fine for them. I would say that if your daughters are already having trouble then that's likely a sign. Your recipe also contains too much CO which would make it way too cleansing.

 

[kcbitsupply]

Well, that must be why it works for some but not all. I guess everybody's hair is different but the previous poster scared me about ruining my hair! I guess if my hair feels and looks good, I shouldn't worry? That really got me upset.

 

[penelopejane]

It takes time to show the damage the soap is doing to your hair. Eventually you will understand what others know to be true.

 

[Seawolfe]

I mix it up. Some days I use my salt bars (you heard that, my hair likes salt bars), some days I use regular shampoo, some days I just rinse with conditioner.
I think its important to go with what the hair likes - its not hard to tell. But I do believe what Carolyn says. Back when people used soap soap for hair, they washed it very rarely.
My beautician BFF doesn't even shampoo her hair much any more, she usually rubs in conditioner and rinses. Some days she adds a tiny bit of shampoo.

 

[shunt2011]

My mom owned a hair salon for 25 years and said not to do it. I tried but it was terrible. Color faded, it was gummy. I'll stick with commercial shampoo for my hair.

 

[kumudini]

While I believe the folks who say soap damages their hair, my hair is still loving it after almost a year. When I went to India, I forgot to take my shampoo bar and ended up using actual shampoo with conditioner, the L'oreal ones for dry and frizzy hair( my natural hair type without maintenance) and still my hair ended up very dry and straw like, very difficult to manage. Only when I came back home and got back to my shampoo bar and ACV rinse regimen did my hair start looking healthy again. It's been one month and my hair is back to normal. Guess my hair is just different. Oh, my shampoo bar recipe is also quite different from anything I saw here.

 

[kcbitsupply]

Gee, I'm depressed, lol, as I don't know what to use on my hair!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Use what works for you. That might be a lye-based product. It might not. No need for getting upset or anything by all this - it's not worth overreacting over

If it's working for you but not for your girls, you could carry on with it and they stop. If it stops working for you, you can stop using it. Simples.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree with TEG. And as I stated before some people have no issues but others do. My husband has used it on his hair for almost 6 years. Then again he doesn't have a lot of hair.

Nothing to get depressed about though.

 

[Yooper]

My husband always uses soap on his hair. He often uses my salt bars (80% CO, 10% Castor oil, 10% sweet almond oil, coconut milk for the liquid, 20% superfat) on his hair. He uses my liquid soap also, and mixes it up.

My hair hates all soap on my hair- except for those same salt bars! If I even use my "shampoo bars", it makes my hair sticky. I blamed it on the superfat- but I can easily use my salt bars on my hair with good results.

I think we are all different- some dry, some oily, some frizzy, etc- so do what works for you. Most people use shampoo, and are accustomed to that, but since we quit using shampoo years ago,we don't seem to have any issues using certain homemade soap.

 

[SugarLump]

My two cents

I make a shampoo with 40% almond oil, 30% coconut oil, and 30% olive oil. I make the soap with glycerin instead of water. Then, I add 1% glycerin to the finished product. I love this shampoo but my daughters complain that it makes their hair greasy. I don't understand. Does anyone have any insight?

I highly recommend you purchase the book, Liquid Soap Making by Catherine Failor. In her book she explicitly explains that the reason why most homemade liquid shampoo or shampoo bars leave hair greasy is because there is not a high enough proportion of Coconut oil in comparison to soft oils like Olive oil etc. I am sure you are aware that Coconut oil is known for its cleansing abilities in soap making. So in order to enjoy your homeade liquid shampoo without the greasiness, I would suggest increasing the percentage of coconut oil in your shampoo recipe.

 

[Susie]

While Catherine Failor was the first person to enable home soapers to make good liquid soap, her methods are outdated. We have good lye calculators now. There is just no need to use a negative superfat and then neutralize.

 

[ngian]

I also think that the greasy hair feeling is due to the high ph of alkaline soaps (NaOH or KOH) that (mostly medium to long) hair don't like at all.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

While Catherine Failor was the first person to enable home soapers to make good liquid soap, her methods are outdated. We have good lye calculators now. There is just no need to use a negative superfat and then neutralize.

She did her own lye calculations, as do I, and the results are exactly the same as what publicly available software gives you.

The are popular differences in technique. Some are sensible simplifications and others are slightly insane and would be unethical to recommend in a book.

 

[Arimara]

Gee, I'm depressed, lol, as I don't know what to use on my hair!

What do you mean? :-?

 

[SugarLump]

While Catherine Failor was the first person to enable home soapers to make good liquid soap, her methods are outdated. We have good lye calculators now. There is just no need to use a negative superfat and then neutralize.

That isn't the point I was trying to make. The OP was asking why her shampoo left her hair greasy. I was merely trying to help her understand that her issue may have come from the percentage of soft or hard oils in her formulation. And while I can tell you are a very experienced soap maker, the OP may not be. I think that whether you consider Ms. Failor's methods outdated or not, the instruction she gives in her books can be a boon to the less knowledgeable, inexperienced soap maker.