Coconut & Castile Soap Shampoo

[JadeTigress]

While browsing Pinterest yesterday, I found this:

http://www.crunchybetty.com/not-ready-for-no-poo-try-sorta-poo-with-coconut-milk-and-castille

Has anyone heard of this or tried it before? I think it looks awesome, and I'm super excited to make it (hopefully) this weekend.

[DinaAG]

i tried it and it was so good just do not forget vinegar rinse after it

[spidermom]

Tried castile soap once during a camping trip - ick and double ick! My hair actually looked better when I let the murky lake water dry in it.

[renia22]

I tried this, making the recipe exactly as stated (including the homemade coconut milk & vinegar rinse afterwards). It did lather while shampooing, so I had high hopes. But when rinsing, even with the vinegar rinse, my hair felt very matted together & tangled. I had a very hard time getting a comb through it. It was so bad, I lost a ton of hair when trying to comb it out. The weirdest part was, when dry, my normally shiny reddish/brown henna'd hair had grayish/ green streaks in it and it looked very dull. I think it was the castille soap residue. The vinegar rinse was supposed to take care of any residue, but my hair was completely coated. It took several washes with a clarifying shampoo to get it out. Maybe it's just the type of hair & water that I have, but I also heard that the ph of castille soap is not good for hair. Lots of people tried it and liked the recipe based on the reviews, so maybe I am in the minority. But I **hated** it

[JadeTigress]

Hmm, maybe I should let this one pass, then. My hair is super sensitive to stuff, and is prone to horrible tangliness to begin with. I don't need anything helping it along. I do like the idea of the coconut milk, though, so maybe I can come up with something else to mix in it.

[ladonna]

I just bought some Dr. Bronner in hope on it working good on sensitive winter skin. On the product website the advice is to just use enough to wash your scalp, this would be a tiny amount because you will end up with tangly coated hair. Dr. Bronners soap in very concentrated so using as much as this recipe calls for is really enough to wash a medium load of laundry.

[renia22]

Hmm, maybe I should let this one pass, then. My hair is super sensitive to stuff, and is prone to horrible tangliness to begin with. I don't need anything helping it along. I do like the idea of the coconut milk, though, so maybe I can come up with something else to mix in it.

Well if you do try it, maybe keep some deep conditioner & a clarifying shampoo on hand just in case it doesn't work out. I read through all of the reviews before trying it, and it seemed like the people who didn't like it used canned coconut milk instead of fresh, didn't follow the recipe exactly, or didn't use a vinegar rinse afterwards. I was very careful to follow the recipe exactly, and it was still very, very bad. My hair is fine, oilier at the roots and lacks volume and dryness is usually not my biggest hair issue, but my hair became so dry from this I had to do several overnight coconut oil treatments to get some life & shine back into it. Yet there were so many positive reviews for it, and only a couple of negative ones, so clearly it is working for lots of people...

[AutumnLocks]

That's actually Dr.Bronner's Magic Soap. It works great. I bet it would be fabulous if you added the coconut milk to it. Sounds like something I'd like to try actually!!

[spirals]

You just have to get enough of an acid rinse on it to get rid of the buildup. I use bar coconut soap and my hair loves it. I do use a conventional conditioner, though.

[JadeTigress]

I do an ACV rinse every time I was my hair, with 7 parts water to one part ACV. Do you think that's enough for this? That dilution has always worked beautifully with my shampoo bars.

[jojo]

Ive actually used Dr. Bronner's lavender castile soap tonight before seeing this thread and i mixed some coconut oil in it. You do have to dilute it very well else you get a horrible, almost plastic coating which will matt your hair. Diluted ( say 2 teaspoons to a pint of warm water plus 1/2 tea spoon of coconut oil) it makes my hair feel lovely after and no tangles just high shine, i really like it but cant say enough times dilute it well!

[jojo]

Oh and i finished with a citric rinse

[spirals]

I have so much hair that I have to do two 22-ounce cupfuls. I have a bottle of 5% citric acid solution--one of those spouted vinegar bottles--in the shower. I eyeball about 2 tablespoons of it into the cup and fill with water each time. So I'm getting roughly 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of it on my lengths each wash. My scalp often gets undiluted ca solution drizzled on it.

[jojo]

Regardless of the length I only use on the scalp, which is all even the longest lengths should use really. This really suds well so when rinsing the suds alone are enough to cleanse the ends, im not super long just nearly hip but less is more with this i find.

[JadeTigress]

Awesome, thanks for the input, jojo. :)

[Jean Stuart]

Ive actually used Dr. Bronner's lavender castile soap tonight before seeing this thread and i mixed some coconut oil in it. You do have to dilute it very well else you get a horrible, almost plastic coating which will matt your hair. Diluted ( say 2 teaspoons to a pint of warm water plus 1/2 tea spoon of coconut oil) it makes my hair feel lovely after and no tangles just high shine, i really like it but cant say enough times dilute it well!


This is how I use it and I love it. I also use it for body and shaving too.

[kmcg]

Crunchy Betty's coconut milk/castile recipe is my go to for a shampoo but I use less castile soap, add honey (or molasses) and sometimes ground oats.
Agreed Jean S., it is great for shaving.

[renia22]

So how was it jadetigress, did you try it, and if so, did you like it?

[vpatt]

My hair is only shoulder length and I have been using this with canned coconut milk and I love it. When I do an oil massage before my shampoo then I don't add the coconut milk to the soap and it comes out great. I use the vinegar rinse, too. And the recipe from the Wellness Mama website for the shampoo.

[Deborah]

My very fine textured hair does very poorly with castile soap and even worse with coconut milk, so putting them together would be a double no-no for me.