New Homemade Shampoo Recipe

After reading 5 best essential oils for beautiful hair and the oil cleansing method I decided to re-work my homemade shampoo recipe (conditioner recipe too). The original works great but this one works even better. Not only does my hair look better, but my scalp feels better.

1.5 tsp baking soda
6-10 drops or 1/8 tsp tea tree oil
6-10 drops or 1/8 tsp jojoba oil
6-10 drops or 1/8 tsp sage oil
6-10 drops or 1/8 tsp rosemary oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup liquid castile soap (I used Dr. Bronner's unscented/baby)

Mix ingredients together in an old shampoo bottle, do not shake, just swirl it around a little bit every time before you use.

For ladies with long hair, I start from the base of my neck at the roots and work my way up to get all my roots washed, then squeeze extra shampoo into the rest of you hair. I let it sit in my hair for a little bit (10-30 second) and rinse out. It felt really weird using it the first time because your hair kinda feels greasy after but trust me it all turns out fine in the end. Also I only wash my hair every other day.

The tea tree oil is great for treating dandruff and psoriasis and has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. The jojoba oil is a great cleansing oil and is helpful in treating ache. The sage oil helps balance scalp oils and helps to normalize hormone levels. The rosemary oil encourages hair growth and is helpful for treating both dandruff and psoriasis.

So you might ask...why go no poo? read all about it on The Crunchy Wife!

Rosemary, Sage, Tea Tree and Jojoba oils

Homemade Shampoo and Conditioner: Updated

Check out the new Homemade Shampoo Recipe here!

I found a couple recipes that I liked so I mixed them together to create what I needed. I used Stimulate from instructables and Quench from instructables to create a shampoo. Then I used a couple different recipes mixed together from Hazel Tree Farm for the conditioner.
Here's my shampoo recipe:

1 tsp baking soda (skip if using the baking soda cleanse, see below)
1/4 tbsp aloe gel (optional, I now skip this step to avoid extra build up)
1/4 tsp avocado oil (optional)
1/8 tsp tea tree oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup liquid castile soap (we used Dr. Bronner's Peppermint, but understand that it is strongly scented. We are used to it because we also use Dr. Bronner's peppermint bar soap)

Mix ingredients together in an old shampoo bottle, do not shake, just swirl it around a little bit every time before you use.

For ladies with long hair, I start from the base of my neck at the roots and work my way up to get all my roots washed, then squeeze extra shampoo into the rest of you hair. I let it sit in my hair for a little bit (10-30 second) and rinse out. It felt really weird using it the first time because your hair kinda feels greasy after but trust me it all turns out fine in the end. Also I only wash my hair every other day.

Here's my conditioner recipe:

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp-1/4 cup fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cup water

Bring water to a boil, throw in rosemary and steep for at least 2 minutes. Remove rosemary and cool water. Add rosemary water and apple cider vinegar to a spray bottle.

After shampooing hair spray water/apple cider vinegar solution all over hair and rinse well. I usually do this twice and it seems to work really well.

After about a week of using them and reading this blog post (on just a couple acres) I decided that I wanted to try a baking soda cleanse to get rid of any old build up from the old store bought shampoo and conditioners. I never got around to trying it so I finally mixed 1 tsp of baking soda into the double batch of shampoo I had already made.

It took a few weeks for me to really get the recipe worked out perfectly. I think it also just takes a few weeks for your hair to adjust to the change. Here is another great blog post about going no 'poo' written by The Crunchy Wife. It explains more about the advantages of going "no poo" and the disadvantages of store bought products. Now I understand why I have the whole dry/oily scalp problem.

I love the way it is all working, my hair actually feels much cleaner and its much much easier to brush. I also feel like I am wasting a lot less water. We have a water softener so it takes a long time to really get store bought conditioner rinsed out of my long hair. The homemade rinse comes right out! I have also noticed that my hair is much less oily. It used to get pretty oily by the end of the second day but now its barely oily at all. Plus I can tell that my scalp is in better shape, not dry or itchy anymore. Sorry I have no before and after pictures. I forgot to take a before, so now an after is pretty worthless.

I learned a little more about how helpful the tea tree oil and rosemary can be for your hair through this article about the 5 best essential oils for hair, check it out!