Is this normal for Funky Hair Syndrome?

It took a while for the FHS to go away, but it finally did! Eventually what got rid of it was a double-whammy of washing with first my 20%SF 100% CO soap, and then my shampoo bar. Now I'm just using my shampoo bar and doing a citric acid rinse. My hair feels wonderful on the day of washing, but then is on the dry side the next day. Doing a CO treatment before washing seems to help with that, though I don't necessarily want to do that every time I wash my hair! When I remember I'll comb a conditioner I made through my hair on the non-wash days to battle the dryness.

I have found that leaving the lather from the shampoo bar on my hair a few minutes before rinsing it off leaves my hair feeling better than just lathering up and rinsing immediately.

Skatergirl46 said:

My hair is like yours. I have tried several shampoo bar recipes but they all leaving my hair feeling stripped, yet strangely oily and straw like. Yuck. I wish I could figure this out. I have never tried adding citric acid but I suspect my problem might be with the pH.

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have you tried a low SF soap? I made my poo' bar with 3% simply because I have fine-ish very straight hair. I was told by a hairdresser recently not to over-condition my hair b/c it would be too heavy. so when I formulated my poo' bar, I kept that in mind and it seems to be working....

so my poo' bar one month in is doing well. better now that it's cured for longer. I have slight tackiness in my hair (I haven't ever had that one dredlock syndrome), hoping that will go away soon. sometimes I "condition" with half a lemon/lime. I get oily scalp, so I just lather by the scalp.

neeners said:

have you tried a low SF soap? I made my poo' bar with 3% simply because I have fine-ish very straight hair. I was told by a hairdresser recently not to over-condition my hair b/c it would be too heavy. so when I formulated my poo' bar, I kept that in mind and it seems to be working....

so my poo' bar one month in is doing well. better now that it's cured for longer. I have slight tackiness in my hair (I haven't ever had that one dredlock syndrome), hoping that will go away soon. sometimes I "condition" with half a lemon/lime. I get oily scalp, so I just lather by the scalp.

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Yes, my last shampoo bar was 3%SF. I have to use a cream rinse conditioner or a light leave-in conditioner or I can't comb my hair out.

mine get tangly when wet, then smooths out when dry. hmmm. rub a lemon in your hair? I find that helps....

Skatergirl46 said:

Yes, my last shampoo bar was 3%SF. I have to use a cream rinse conditioner or a light leave-in conditioner or I can't comb my hair out.

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My hair is pretty tangled when wet but feels fine once its dry. I find using a acidic rinse really helps with the tangles.
If its not quite enough, I use a tiny amount of leave in condition mixed in water to rinse with. I do a additional plain water rinse so I don't have too much conditioner in my hair.

From the first time using my shampoo bars, immediately after each washing my hair has been tangle-free and combs through easily when wet without a conditioner or acid rinse. But we do have very soft water here and my hair is not bleached or coloured so that may well influence this.
In the early days it was only when my hair had dried that the FHS would set in, and the hairs started clumping together in a really-difficult-to-describe way, like some kind of hybrid combination of staticy cling and a heavy, dragging tackiness, but without any visible oiliness or greasyness.

Now, having more or less come out of the other side of FHS, my hair feels silky and smooth, and I'm soo happy to be able to wear it loose again

When I used to use bottle shampoo, unless I used a conditioner my hair would be tangly when wet. Only when it was almost completely dry would it smooth out and be combable. I didn't condition every wash as conditioner aggravated my scalp dermatitis flare-ups.

All being well, I'm hoping to stick with my original batch of shampoo bars for another couple of months or so. I'll play things by ear, and if my hair starts tangling then I'll acid rinse.
Then I'll take a raincheck on the overall condition of my hair (- individual hair strands as well as scalp), and take things from there. Hopefully I'll ditch the lard for shea butter and adjust the cleansing or SF if need be, and maybe add Rosemary EO...
I really hope to continue being able to use shampoo bars, as the difference in my scalp has been utterly remarkable

Has anyone here used the Genny shampoo bars for a good while? It would be interesting to know how someone's hair has actually fared long-term, in terms of any strand damage etc. I was at first wary of using soap on my hair, due to the high pH, but at the moment I am so very glad I made the change, as my hair and scalp seem to be absolutely loving it

I made Genny's bar back in Feb/March I think and while it took a while for my hair to adjust, I had a few weeks of crazy sticky dread like slicks, it did eventually work itself out. Now I only wash a few times a week, no rinse, no conditioner, and love my hair. The trick for me is lather, if I rush it sometimes it still feels greasy sticky, but nothing like when it was adjusting. Just slightly heavier than normal.

I would rate my hair pretty normal, I eventually get oily scalp after a few days but the longer I wait to wash the longer it takes to get oily the next time.

I do get the strange film on my hair brush sometimes but it has lessened. I blame it on my rushing and not fully lathering and rinsing.

A few weeks for your hair to adjust? I have never stuck with it that long. My hair just feels so nasty I can't stand it. Is there anyone with very fine hair who has been successful with finding the right recipe? Either I seem to have a dry but greasy mess or it just feels stripped and nasty. This was my most recent attempt at shampoo bars:

Avocado Oil 30%
Castor Oil 10%
Olive Oil 40%
Shea Butter 10%
Cocoa Butter 10%
3%SF

I would love to say goodbye to commercial shampoo if I can just ge the right recipe for my hair. BTW my husband uses my soap for his hair also. He has a completely different type of hair though.

I have super fine hair, and for some reason my salt bars (80 % salt, 20% SF one is 80% CO, 15% shea and 5% Castor, the other is 15% OO instead of shea) work really well on my hair. Though I do do use ACV rinse. Now that my Genny's bars have cured a while they are working better for me as well, but the salt bars get my hair clean without feeling dry.

I think you just have to experiment to find what works for you.

Seawolfe said:

I have super fine hair, and for some reason my salt bars (80 % salt, 20% SF one is 80% CO, 15% shea and 5% Castor, the other is 15% OO instead of shea) work really well on my hair. Though I do do use ACV rinse. Now that my Genny's bars have cured a while they are working better for me as well, but the salt bars get my hair clean without feeling dry.

I think you just have to experiment to find what works for you.

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You're using the 20% SF salt bar on your hair? It's not an oily mess at 20% SF?

Skatergirl46 said:

A few weeks for your hair to adjust? I have never stuck with it that long. My hair just feels so nasty I can't stand it. Is there anyone with very fine hair who has been successful with finding the right recipe? Either I seem to have a dry but greasy mess or it just feels stripped and nasty. This was my most recent attempt at shampoo bars:

Avocado Oil 30%
Castor Oil 10%
Olive Oil 40%
Shea Butter 10%
Cocoa Butter 10%
3%SF

I would love to say goodbye to commercial shampoo if I can just ge the right recipe for my hair. BTW my husband uses my soap for his hair also. He has a completely different type of hair though.

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The problem may be that you keep swapping between commercial stuff and your shampoo bars. Every time I have to use commercial stuff for whatever reason, I just go ahead and wash my hair 4-5 times to de-gunk it and get FHS over with.

Skatergirl46 said:

You're using the 20% SF salt bar on your hair? It's not an oily mess at 20% SF?

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Nope In fact it feels like I got one of those expensive texturing treatments (wotsit called, the Brazillian blowout?). And its lovely and soft, not stringy and oogy.

I have really fine hair and I rinsed all the waxes and silicones out by using silicone free shop bought shampoo first. My hair has never been better. I made shampoo bars with a load if spare oils I had knocking around. I used 8 different oils and superfatted at 5% the main constituents were palm and olive.

I really did persevere with washing the commercial stuff out completely first though so there is no residue.

I was so relieved when I read about funky hair. I tried to wash my hair once with a Bastille soap/ACV rinse and ended up with a semi solid mess. Not knowing about FHS I didn't persevere. My DH didn't have the same problem but found his scalp was still a little itchy with normal cp soaps. So I decided to make the Opus beer shampoo bar from great soapworks. It's cured for 4 weeks now. DH used it yesterday. The lather is amazing and he said it's the first time he's not had an itchy scalp.

My scalp is also quite itchy, so I'm tempted to try again. In preparation I started using a silicone free shampoo, based on the information posted on this thread (which has been an amazing source of information). However I'm really nervous of using shampoo soap again. I have very thick dark hair that has been coloured. I'm pretty sure it really lightened the colour last time, which wasn't great! Does anyone else have coloured hair and experience the same problem? We're also in a hard water area. If not l will give it a go again, albeit with a bit of trepidation. I love the idea of not having an itchy scalp!

Oops, I meant great cakes soap works.

Susie said:

The problem may be that you keep swapping between commercial stuff and your shampoo bars. Every time I have to use commercial stuff for whatever reason, I just go ahead and wash my hair 4-5 times to de-gunk it and get FHS over with.

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Ah, ok. I guess I'm going to have to just get the FHS over with and wear a pony tail and hat for a while. Would you recommend that I lather up and then rinse it more than once each time I wash it? ….and please help me out with the ratio of vinegar to water for the rinse?

I forgot to say that we have very hard water here where I live.

Skatergirl46 said:

Ah, ok. I guess I'm going to have to just get the FHS over with and wear a pony tail and hat for a while. Would you recommend that I lather up and then rinse it more than once each time I wash it? ….and please help me out with the ratio of vinegar to water for the rinse?

I forgot to say that we have very hard water here where I live.

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I use 1 part ACV to 3 parts water in a ketchup squeezy bottle. I do rinse it out with water too

I don't know about hard water but I'm guessing a salt bar might help because they put salt in water softeners?

I would recommend lathering twice and make sure your shampoo bars are 5% SF or under. I don't use a very strong vinegar rinse, about 1 Tsp to 1 cup water. If it doesn't seem like enough, you can make it stronger.

Has anyone who has very hard water gotten over the FHS? I tried shampoo bars, no-poo, co-poo, basically anything I could to get away from silicones and sulphates. But I have hard water. The only things that worked were 1)using bottled water with a shampoo bar....that did not last long 2) co-poo or conditioner washing, did this for about a year and 3) Now I just buy organic shampoo.
I spent way too long trying to go no-poo or using a shampoo bar and the FHS never got better. In fact I used one of my soaps yesterday in a fit of curiosity, to wash out some chlorine from my hair. I even tried the citric acid rinse and nope- dry, tangled straw as if it was day 1 of FHS, but my hair has no silicones, no product, nothing on it. I am convinced that the hard water just puts soap-scum on the hair and an acid wash really can't get it off. I'd love to know if and how those of you with very hard water succeed with shampoo bars (I would love to make and use them!)

I managed to get through FHS with liquid rock for water. Took about five-six weeks. I use bottled water when I make my rinse though, 1/4 tsp citric acid for 2 cups water. I'm thinking of upping the amount of acid slightly, though.