Natural CO recipe???

[lapushka]

tiny_teesha, thank you for explaining in a bit more detail.

I am on a strict budget but my supermarkets are big on doing the right thing, so there you are. I believe in them.

[tiny_teesha]

Musical spoons - i didn't find your comment to be "somewhat less gracious" - its a valid point and it helps to discuss these things for a greater understanding.

I also believe others make their own choices and you can't change their minds but for me this is what feels right. The thing with bees is commercial bees...well the main thing i hate is that they basically squeeze the male inside out to artificially inseminate the queens. Which, repulsed me. Amateur bee keepers are more kind, imo. Don't feed their bees antibiotic syrup, and don't steal all their honey/wax supplies. Which is cool!

I will clarify I'm correct on modern day laying chickens being bred for laying excessive eggs- all wild birds lay eggs to reproduce -being...laying hatching them in season, not daily. Through selective breeding and domestication humans have created some amazing frankenstein creations...it's kinda beautiful but at times we go too far (bull dog heads being so big and hips so narrow that natural childbirth is nearing impossible and most opt for C section right off the bat to prevent complications and deaths). Some are bred for feathers, some meat (which...the speed at which they grow literally makes their legs give way) and etc. Being more ethical and taking products of the animals that aren't meat (wool, honey, eggs etc) I think is much better - so long as they don't suffer. But perhaps I dream of a utopia, haha. I'm not perfect myself. Did also want to mention that at 2 years of age all layer hens are gassed alive as their lay count drops. That's kinda sad for their life to be cut short for that reason. It's simply because they are no longer economical to keep.

I do have a lot of herbs in the yard I've grown...and I just don't find them to be so cleansing. I'm sure in time i'll figure something out. I was just getting sick of the hair soap bar. I'm trying not to use packaging or anything and kinda going self-sufficient about it all.

[Nightshade]

I personally feel a lot of current welfare issues can be overcome by ethical sourcing (including honey - I believe Nightshade has a section on her website or Etsy page about how they only harvest their bees' excess honey for her products, which I thought was cool) but I openly admit I don't do a whole lot about it! I have much respect for those who do choose to live more ethically and lower cost is always a bonus

Just to clarify / expand, we do keep our bees very ethically, and right now with wild bee populations cratering as well because of CCD, there do need to be ethical beekeepers to keep bees running as we work to control the many factors that are leading to bee-death on large scales. Some of these things, like neoniconiod pesticides, will need legislative changes, but others, like encouraging bees to build up resistance to the deformed wing virus that varroa mites carry, can be done small scale. There's been some fascinating progress with using mushrooms to do this.

More specifically to our bees, they're kept in Golden Mean hives (the natural ratio the prefer), are allowed to swarm (sending healthy new colonies of bees out into the wild), don't use antibiotics on them, and we only harvest whatever honey is left over in spring. Bees store honey in their hives for both food and insulation, but come spring, they prefer fresh nectar to their overwintered honey (i.e. they stop eating the old honey). When the first nectar flow comes in, we'll then harvest the overwintered leftovers (and removing some comb also lowers the latent fungal and viral load in the hive as they then draw fresh comb in that place).

All that said, I 100% respect anyone who doesn't want to use honey! I just wanted to point out that not all beekeepers are the same, and some of us put the bees first and are keeping them with the intent of helping the world bee population. We need bees to pollinate the rest of our food and right now, they need all the help they can get.

[Ophidian]

You did say that herbs did not work for you in the past, but in case you were open to considering a variety of options I have a mix that I’ve used pretty much exclusively for over a year. I consider it an herbal cowash/2-in-1 and I don’t use any additional conditioner.

Recipe:
2 Tbsp shikaki, 2 tsp methi, 1 tsp brahmi, 1 tsp hibiscus, 1 cup water. For me the first two ingredients are necessary, but I have used amla and rice flour in place of the brahmi and hibiscus. If I want to clarify I add 1 tsp of aritha powder.

Method:
Pour boiling water over powders, stir well, and (this is the important part) let it sit for several hours, stirring occasionally. The methi will soak up water and release the mucilage that gives its conditioning properties. I know it’s done soaking when there is no longer liquid separated at the top. I strain it before using to make it easier to rinse out the methi but you can also soak your hair in the bath or a bucket and I find this gets the herb particles out well too. I just use it as I would a cowash—it has a thick and slippery consistency that is similar to commercial conditioner and great for detangling.

Full disclosure, this recipe is a variation on Neoma’s Purple Sludge so I should give credit where credit is due .

[tigerlily]

If you are interested in all natural and plant based, you could consider growing soapwort (not really CO though)
Or still not CO, but I have done a variation on the oil-shampoo thing (can't think of the proper name right now..) with about 1 Tbsp of soap flakes dissolved in a cup or so of boiling water and around 1/2 tsp of coconut oil. I would put the mixture in a squeezy bottle when cool enough to use. I would use the whole lot to wash my hair. Also did an ACV rinse because
of the soap.
If you decided to use the recipe you would probably have to play around with the right amounts of oil and soap for your hair, and you probably wouldn't need as much (though I think it should keep just fine for at least a week or two, but may need rewarmed as it sets to a thick gel when cool).

[ReptilianFeline]

I'm doing my own mixes of no-poo for over a year now, but not something to replace CO.

I like my mixes to have something that gives my scalp a nice scrub and then it needs to work with hard water.
My latest experiment is into using horse chestnuts instead of soapnuts. So far so good, exept I lost some of my chopped up horse chestnuts to mold because I didn't make sure it was dry enough.

[tigerlily]

I'm doing my own mixes of no-poo for over a year now, but not something to replace CO.

I like my mixes to have something that gives my scalp a nice scrub and then it needs to work with hard water.
My latest experiment is into using horse chestnuts instead of soapnuts. So far so good, exept I lost some of my chopped up horse chestnuts to mold because I didn't make sure it was dry enough.

I have wondered about horse chestnuts, how are you using them? I have read they give a slight bluing effect when used to wash laundry, have you noticed anything like that?

[ReptilianFeline]

I have wondered about horse chestnuts, how are you using them? I have read they give a slight bluing effect when used to wash laundry, have you noticed anything like that?

I chop them up and dry them, then use a little less than a handful of chopped nuts in hot water, about a cup/ 2 dl. I add some citric acid as well because of hard water. My hair is dye resistant so I don't notice anything when it comes to colour from the nuts.

[tigerlily]

Thanks, I might have to give it a try...