Anyone make or use shampoo bars?

[Marianne]

If you make shampoo bars and like 'em, what recipe do you use?

I made my first batch a couple weeks ago. They're still curing, but I can't wait to try one. I had been using borax water or baking soda, but went back to purchased shampoo. I'd rather keep the plastic out of the waste/recycle stream, but hey - I miss the lather.

 

[BarredBuff]

Hmmm that is interesting. I haven't heard of such....

 

[Marianne]

This is the recipe I used:

Basic Shampoo Bar Recipe
4 ounces castor oil
2 ounces jojoba oil
4 ounces sunflower oil

3 ounces palm oil
1 ounce cocoa butter
8 ounces coconut oil

8 ounces distilled water
3 ounces lye

Except I didn't use sunflower oil. I think it smells like dirt and sure made my hand lotion smell like dirt.

Anyway, I read that it's the jojoba oil that makes it a shampoo bar rather than just regular ol' soap.

 

[mrscoyote]

I use JR Liggett's Old-Fashioned Shampoo Bar. Since making the switch I no longer need conditioner.

 

[Dawn419]

Not a shampoo bar but I've switched to diluted castille soap for shampoo and diluted vinegar for conditioner in the last 2 months.

Has it been easy? Heck no...where's the lather and squeeky "clean" noise I'm used to hearing?

BUT...my long hair appears to be handling it much better, even though it feels "weird" to me after using the store bought stuff for 47 years.

No later with the diluted castille was the major freak-out, rinsing with the ACV diluted (citrus peel soaked) didn't seem to help but I'm noticing a major difference now that I'm getting used to it.

First time using the castille, my hair (to me) felt oilier than when I washed it but once it dried...oh my!


I'm going to try your recipe in the new year and gift it to my sister. She did homemade laundry and dishwasher soap before I got ti it, I owe her one after her giving me odd looks for no longer using "normal" shampoo and conditioner!

 

[Marianne]

I'm glad you told me about your experience w/ castile soap. I have a bar of that in the shower and tried it on my hair one time. I didn't even make it out of the shower before I was using the regular shampoo again. It just felt really weird!!

But!! I read that it takes about two weeks for your hair to make an adjustment to some of the 'natural' stuff we try. I also heard that it's a love/hate relationship with shampoo bars, you either love 'em or you hate 'em.

After reading how to make liquid castile soap, I decided that it was more than what I wanted to mess with. So I plopped a castile bar into a kitchen sink with hot water and washed some dishes that way. Everything was squeaky clean! And as usual, no lather. I could get used to it, but if DH saw what the dishwater looked like (no suds), he'd start buying paper plates.

Funny, the things that bug you, huh.

 

[me&thegals]

I've made shampoo bars for about 3 years now--olive, castor, coconut and palm kernel oil. I love them. They dissolve too quickly, though, so I want to test adding beeswax to them.

 

[Bettacreek]

Sunflower oil, you have to get refined. I've used refined and unrefined and there's a huge difference. Lotions, it definitely reeks like sunflower seeds and you have to use a very strong scent to cover that stench up. Otherwise, squirrels (and others) might mistake you for a nut. As for lather, depending on what you want in the final product, you can use SLSa or another GENTLE surfactant. Stay clear of SLS, which is in every darned shampoo out there. The SLSa and there is another one that has SLSa and another one combined (but cannot remember what it's called) are both gentle surfactants that can be used for shampoos or bubble baths. I haven't attempted it yet though, because my hair is so picky that it honestly isn't worth dealing with.

 

[Marianne]

I've made shampoo bars for about 3 years now--olive, castor, coconut and palm kernel oil. I love them. They dissolve too quickly, though, so I want to test adding beeswax to them.

Even with drying them well, they still dissolve quickly? I always unwrap soap that I buy to let the bars dry out further. They last longer that way. I have 7 or 8 big bars curing, guess I was hoping they'd last a year...? It's just me using them, DH has a hard time with 'different'.

Oh, I think I did use olive oil instead of the sunflower oil. Thanks for the info on refining.

 

[DollDoctor]

I use Liggett's, but glad to have the recipe, as I would like to try making my own. In the shower, I keep my bar on a shelf up overhead so no water splashes on it. Seems to last longer that way.