Natural shampoo and herbs....

[Starchild494]

Hi guys,
I make my own shampoo using shikakai soap nut and amla I was wondering when boiling if I can add herds like lavender and chamomile for added benefits to the shampoo... Has anyone else done this? If so whats you recipe?

[Starchild494]

Also would adding flaxseed thicken the shampoo will all the benefits of the gel?

[Jane99]

I would like hear the experiences of others too! I’m new (and slightly obsessed) to the world of herbs and hair and just ordered some herbs today. I would like to add gotu kola to my mix since I already have so much of it! Starchile, how do you store your liquid? I read today about people freezing it using ice cube trays to keep it fresh.

[01]

Ice cubes sound interesting...

I thought about using shampoo powder instead of liquid, but ice cubes sound cool. Literally.

[SleepyTangles]

Flaxseed will give it a gel-consistency but probably reduce the washing power.
Lavender and chamomile are very nice and smell great, no harm in trying.

[KokoroDragon]

Flaxseed gel does amazing things for my hair, but I use it like a leave in conditioner. It seems to reduce frizz and tangles. So maybe try using it after you shampoo, rather than mixing it in?

If you just want to thicken your mixture, I've heard guar gum or xanthan gum will do that. I don't know how those would affect the cleansing ability, though.

[Starchild494]

I put everything in a jug with about 2 L of water and let is sit over night or a few hours.... Then I boil. Place everything in some hard or whatever bottles i have on hand. Fill them up and put them in my fridge until later use

[Starchild494]

When I boiles my concoction... I added some lavender chamomile and a cinnamon stick. Wasnt strong in the soap washing department, i think that next time I will soak everything and maybe add a litt more soap nuts and shikakai pods

[Jane99]

That sounds fabulous! Last time I made shampoo, I used 4 or 5 whole soap nuts, a couple shikakai pods, a few dried amla, soaked in water, boiled, cooled, blenderized. It made like 2 tablespoons of shampoo and the blender made the soapnuts gooey so I followed the same process two more times and added fenugreek seeds, gotu kola, hibiscus, and cloves. I think ultimately I only blended it once but that blender really helped to open up the soap nuts. They were so slimy! Ended up yielding a little more than an ice cube tray total. I have found two cubes will wash my hair nicely. Cleansing but not stripping of oils! I’m a little weary of using the powder because henna powder is such a pain to wash out. This was my first experiment using soapnuts.
How long did the 2 litre last? And what form of soapnuts/shikakai do you use?