Using Indian herbs in home made shampoo

[HotRag]

I will try to infuse Indian herbs, and use the infusion as the water part in home made shampoo.

The questions is:
- How much should I take? I guess the risk is getting to little. I think that if nobody has an idea, I will take a little bit less than I do when IHW, and multiply with the amount of washes the shampoo should last for.
- Will the herbs do their job on my scalp, if they just sit there for 5 minutes?

I am thinking about using neem, brahmi, tulsi and shikakai.
Maybe the shampoo could be thickened with methi instead of guar gum..?

If using shikakai, maybe the amount of decyl glucose can be lowered, but it is already low (about 1/3 of what is used of SL(S)S in regular shampoos).

What are your thoughts? Could this be good? Have anyone tried?

[HotRag]

I have now infused/made tea from neem, brahmi, tulsi, catnip. It is in a coffee filter and dripping through slowly.
Maybe I could have used less herbs.

I used
3 TB neem
2 TB brahmi
1 TB tulsi
½ teaspoon catnip
150 ml water (took a bit over 200 to give some to the filter...).

This will be schampo that should be enough for 10 washes.
Do the amounts of herb seem ok? More herbs will make a paste and that can't be filtered.

It must filter through this, I use no mucilage thing as methi, so it isn't jelly at all. If curd/yogurt can get through over night, this should too.

[HotRag]

Now I have made the shampo, and washed - still in towel.

It was very hard to filter the herbs. I took a thin cotton cloth and pressed.
I got out 130 ml of the total of 250. I added destilled water to get 150 ml.
Dark green liquid.

Then I used 6 ml avocado oil and 3 ml sesame oil, blended with 4 ml guar gum.
Blended this with the herb liquid.

Then put 20 ml of decyl glucose in it and dropped 5 drops of rosemary (the herb) EO.

Added some methi to make it thicker, but I will not take methi next time, just more guar gum.

I'll update when hair is dry.

[Marbles]

I did this a while ago, and I am thinking of trying it again soon. What I did last time was boil up the herbs (Shikakai mainly with amla and brahmi I think) in a pot for a little while and strain it through some tights/pantyhose/stockings. It was very liquidy but had just enough 'thickness' to stay in my hair for a bit while I massaged it in. It worked really well, I like the way my hair feels when Ive washed with herbs but my landlord isnt too keen on me clogging up the drain!

[HotRag]

I did this a while ago, and I am thinking of trying it again soon. What I did last time was boil up the herbs (Shikakai mainly with amla and brahmi I think) in a pot for a little while and strain it through some tights/pantyhose/stockings. It was very liquidy but had just enough 'thickness' to stay in my hair for a bit while I massaged it in. It worked really well, I like the way my hair feels when Ive washed with herbs but my landlord isnt too keen on me clogging up the drain!

I have used Indian herbs by themselves for sometime now, but I wanted to try making a "regular" shampoo with these herbs in it.
Mostly to have the decyl glucose to clean, and the felling of shampoo, but the benefit from some Indian herbs.

[HotRag]

Hair dried, and felt like something between washed with Indian herbs and washed with decyl glucose.
But, much "drier" because I made a mistake. I infused some thyme into the whole thing. Very astringent... Just what my hair don't need. Don't think it got hurt, but it got the doll hair feeling and felt dry.

I put oil on ends.

Though - this shampoo feels really good to use on feet and under arms.
I read about thyme, and read that it was good against sweat and good on feet, so I was correct with think it felt good there ^_^

It was too hard to filter the herbs in the water, so I have bought whole neem leaves to use. Maybe just brahmi and tulsi (and in less amount) can get filtered.
Maybe I will buy whole shikakai fruit also.

[bunnikins]

Interesting idea! I wonder if I can try something like this... I am new to Indian herbs but quick to learn

[pinchbeck]

I find Indian herbs dry my hair out. Infusions with shikakai, neem leaf powder, and amla even in a diluted form left my scalp feeling weird. Now these powders just sit in my kitchen drawers! I am so jealous of people who have great results because I would prefer to make and create my own shampoo.

[indigonight]

did you oil well before @pinchbeck?? Herbs used to dry my hair before I realized that preoiling and then washing with shikakai etc made my hair lustrous and dense.....