Pages

Featured Post

Review: Origins Haul

The Origins counter at Boots really excited me when I asked the lady at the counter if its natural and she replied yes. So I bought a few...

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Healthier hair with Home made shampoo recipe

Many of you may of heard of the 'no poo' method of washing your hair, which consists of a mixture of baking soda and water to wash your hair followed by a apple cider vinegar rinse. This works for many people, however it did not work for me even though i tweaked the recipe for hard water areas. No matter how much I used the baking soda mixture, i would still have a patch of greasy hair that simply wouldn't shift. I still  use this method about once a week for deep cleanse and as a clarifying treatment. Although I do not use hairspray, gel, mouse ,serum or anything like that I still do a clarifying wash with baking soda  as I take the tube everyday and living in London isn't really like living in the countryside where fresh air is plentiful.

But I have found a miracle shampoo not only is it great value for money, but it lathers like a synthetic shampoo without all the nasties (parabens,silicone's etc). The home made shampoo consists of Dr Bronners Castile Soap i use the unscented version as the soap can be used for many things, so i can add my own different scents. 

In the beginning the castille soap made my hair literally like a birds nest, it felt and looked like fine hay because of the soap residue. I was going to give it up and switch to my baby shampoo, but then i thought, apart form the soap scum it was pretty good, I only needed about 30ml of the shampoo and it would lather so nicely, gave a nice shine apart from the hay feeling and powdery texture. 

I googled and did some research and I added herbal tea to my mixture along with glycerin, i also reduced the soap content, and now its pretty much perfect. This is the recipe below;

Home made Castile soap recipe

Dr Bronners Castille Soap 1/2 cup
Distilled Water  1 cup ( Boil water for 5 minutes, and leave behind a little water with the white minerally powder that makes the water hard)
1/4 CUP glycerin (makes the shampoo have a smooth soft feeling, keeps hair hydrated as it is a natural humectant)
2 tsp  baking soda ( for very greasy hair, 1tsp for dry hair or 1/2 . You can omit this, but i think its good as it makes water soft too as well as cleaning)
1 cup herbal tea ( chamomile,green tea,white tea. ( mostly anything goes!) Some are better for hair e.g chamomile, rosemary,sage etc. Remember the colour of your hair may be affected by some teas, e.g if your blonde i wouldn't use a red fruit tea, or blackcurrant tea, it may tint your hair , especially if its dyed already)
A few drops essential oil of your choice
1tbsp Oil (olive,jojoba,argon, etc)

Mix it up  and store in a bottle. You only need a little and it lathers up pretty good, I have alot of water in my recipe you can reduce this either by omitting some water from the tea or just less water.

I found that this has helped with my transition phase of trying to stretch my washes from once a day to every other day. I think next week i will try to wash my hair every 3rd day, and slowly increase.

I'm going to dye my hair soon with henna so i shall be putting a post up about that too.

1 comment: