Homemade shampoo

[Jessica Jones]

Hi everyone, I recently found this site and it contains recipe about shampoo and dry shampoo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/dry-shampoo-recipes-607712
https://www.thoughtco.com/homemade-shampoo-recipe-606148
I would like to try the ideas about dry shampoo, especially the cocoa powder :). The other recipe about washing shampoo seems harder and I will rest it for now.

[Joules]

Oh my God, baking soda and lye :run: when I worked at a food manufacturing factory, they used lye to clean all the machinery, and it was mandatory to wear a heavy-duty protective suit and boots when you're doing it! Chemicals and commercial shampoos have such a bad reputation that people are willing to put something even worse on their heads.

From my personal experience, baby powder works great as a dry shampoo, you just need to make sure you fluff it out enough that it's not visible on darker hair. I've never tried cocoa powder and other options.

[lapushka]

I see nothing wrong with commercial shampoos, after all if you want to go sulfate-free, you can, and you can even buy a decent ingredient safe CO-wash, which is THE most gentle you can get.

Like Joules said, these home-made "mixtures" are often worse to put on the head, but if you are going to try it make *sure* you test the pH! I would not be surprised that that is waaay off.

[sumidha]

Mixing lye and fats together is how people have been making soap for thousands of years, long before commercial surfactants where developed. All those women with crazy ankle length hair from the 1900's where washing their hair with soap similar to this, so in theory there's nothing wrong with using a recipe similar to this.

That being said, I am not a soap maker, so I personally would not attempt a weird soap-like recipe (I've never seen alcohol added to soap before??) off the internet without a lot more research and advice from more professional soap makers.

[MusicalSpoons]

Mixing lye and fats together is how people have been making soap for thousands of years, long before commercial surfactants where developed. All those women with crazy ankle length hair from the 1900's where washing their hair with soap similar to this, so in theory there's nothing wrong with using a recipe similar to this.

True. The lye should all be reacted during the soapmaking process, so it's not as terrible as it sounds, and yes soap is what they used to use. But they only used it infrequently because they knew it wasn't good for their hair.


That being said, I am not a soap maker, so I personally would not attempt a weird soap-like recipe (I've never seen alcohol added to soap before??) off the internet without a lot more research and advice from more professional soap makers.

The website seems to be full of cool experiments and processes for those who know what they're doing - make your own biodiesel, tattoo ink, powdered olive oil, cloud chamber (https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-make-a-cloud-chamber-4153805) (with dry ice - yes, really) ... clearly not exactly Harmless Experiments 101 :lol:

The dry shampoos are benign though! Even the baking powder, because it doesn't have a pH unless it's in solution (I imagine it could be a little abrasive though).

Edit: at least it's not advertising the soap shampoo as 'healthy green natural alternative that will make your hair grow an inch overnight because it's *so* good for your scalp' ;)