I’m sure we have all seen television programmes showing all the plastic in our seas, washed up on the beaches and the sad, terrible photos of animals and fish dying because of it. We can’t get away from plastic packaging these days but we can all do our bit and try to change our ways and lessen the amount we throw away.
One way of doing this is in our own bathrooms – have a quick look in yours and see how many plastic bottles you have. Shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, hand wash, we probably have more than one bottle of each of these in each bathroom. A simple change over to using a bar of soap could drastically cut back on the plastic each of us throws away every year. One bar of soap in the kitchen, one in the toilet, one in the bathroom, one in the shower room and one for the bath . I personally love a gorgeous smelling bar of soap with a rich, creamy soft lather that leaves your skin feeling and looking good.
If you make your own soap you can tailor it to suit your needs i.e adding lemon and thyme or tea tree to a kitchen soap turning it into an anti-bacterial bar, adding lavender and geranium to a bath soap to give you a long, relaxing soak or adding sweet orange and bergamot to your shower soap to refresh and wake you up in the morning. Imagine a life this easy – perfect.
However, have you thought of making a bar of soap that is a natural shampoo using wonderful ingredients like olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, argan oil, beeswax, oatmeal, marigold, rosemary, lemon and even eggs?
With the help of Aroma Natural’s Shampoo making workshop you could be tailoring your own recipe to suit your hair.
Simplified chemistry of a bar of soap
Although a bar of cold-pressed soap will have a ph level of between 9.5 and 10.5 – your natural level is around 7 – the wealth of natural ingredients you can use to protect and clean your hair will soon leave you thinking it’s not worth worrying about the ph level quite so much.
I know many people have played around with cold-pressed soap recipes to lower ph level by adding ingredients like Citric Acid but this is never going to work as it’s not chemically possible for soap to then exist. Not wanting to get too deep into the chemistry side of things, lye based soaps are naturally alkaline with a ph level of 9.5 to 10.5 but once you add citric acid to lower this ph level you start to destroy the soap itself. Natural soap is a re-action between the fatty acids (fats/oil) and the base (lye) to make salt (soap). Add citric acid to this and you start to reverse the process and turn it back into fatty acids. Fatty acids are pieces of oil that will not clean at all. In my opinion, we get to ‘hooked up’ with whole ph level thing as your body will revert back to its normal ph level anyway. Commercial products can contain many harsh ingredients that are far more damaging to your hair than the ph level will be. If you are still worried about the ph level I suggest a wonderful natural hair rinse after washing to bring lustre and shine.
Natural Hair Rinse – simply add 15g of fresh lemon juice or cider vinegar diluted with 1-2ltr of water.
You can also add some of the ingredients below :
Chamomile : Softens and lightens hair
Henna : Colours and conditions hair
Lime flowers : Softens and cleanses hair
Marigold : Lightens hair colour
Nasturtium : Helps hair growth
Parsely : Enriches colour and gives shine and lustre
Rosemary : Freshens and lightens hair
Sage : Its a tonic and conditioner and also darkens hair
Stinging Nettle : Helps prevent dandruff and helps growth
Witch Hazel : Its an astringent and is cleansing
Join us for a fun day and make your own shampoo bars