Gorgeous shampoo bars are great to use and fun to make. These bars are natural, eco friendly using plant based ingredients that are ideal for vegans, are paraben and SLS free, leaving your hair soft, shiny and extremely manageable. The recipe below uses one of the best most natural surficants which is safe to use on a baby, in fact its known as Baby Foam due to its mild, high foaming properties - moisturises and conditions your hair.
RECIPE
250g SCI - Sodium Cocyl Isethionate - ground
110g Beta T - Cocamidopropyl Betaine
45g BTMS25
20g Cocoa Butter
10g Shea Butter
5g Coconut Oil
5g Olive Oil
5g Castor Oil
5g Tomato Seed Oil or Argan Oil
15g Cetearyl Alcohol
10g Clay, Mica, Seaweed or Activated Charcoal
5.5g Broad Spectrum Preservative like Dehydroacetic Acid and Benzyl Alcohol
14.5g Essential Oils suitable for hair i.e Lavender, Lemon, Bergamot, Tea Tree
TO MAKE
Gather all your ingredients.
Put on a face mask/shield or both.
Place SCI chips in a coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder - try not to breath in any of the very fine powder.
Grind the BTMS25 and Cetearyl Alcohol and add to the SCI powder.
FIRST PHASE
Place in a saucepan and add Beta T and oils and butters.
Melt together - this takes at least ten minutes so keep at it until it has melted well.
SECOND PHASE
Any special ingredient like milk powder, clay etc. can be stirred into the melted ingredients and stir until thoroughly mixed together. This can become quite solid very quickly, if this happens pop it back onto the heat.
THIRD PHASE
Once your mixture is around 40C add your preservative and essential oils. Its now ready to place into your moulds using the back of a spoon to really squidge the mixture down well. Alternatively the mixture can be placed into a special soap mould that has a lid on top that can be plunged hard down onto the mixture.
Place your mould in the fridge or cool place until set.
Release from mould and leave exposed to the air for several days until hardened.
Please note these bars will not be hard like a cold press soap, it's more like a hard playdough.
TO USE
Wet hair and rub the bar all over your hair. Lather well and wash as usual, rinse and repeat. Keep your shampoo bar away from the running water of a shower by placing in a tin or soap dish with lid. When hair washing has finished it's a great idea to keep your bar on a slatted soap dish to allow the air to circulate, keeping the bar dry until you use next time.
N.B
There are many oils/butters that are great for hair so please swop out the ones in the recipe for any other suitable ones - you can make bars for oily hair, dry hair or normal hair. The same goes for the essential oils, do your research and look for ones that suit your hair best.
If you are worried about how to make these shampoo bars please book onto my workshop come and have a day of fun with me and take home several bars you make.
x Diane