Can someone look??

[IrishLass]

Thank you Susie, HappyHomeSoapCo, and Flybydancer! I finally made it back to this thread today and saw your answers only just now. I don't have any shampoo bars on hand, but I do have a 5-year old Castile-type in my vintage stash made with 80% OO, 10% babassu, 7% coconut, and 3% castor, superfatted @ 5% that might do the trick (it's the mildest soap I have on hand right now). I'm going to try that out and do the citrus acid rinse using 1/4 tsp. citric acid to every 8oz H2O. I'll try it without finishing off with conditioner just for experiment sake, but I have a feeling that I'll need the conditioner since I live in such a super-dry climate that makes my hair feel like dry straw without it. I'll let you know how it goes!

IrishLass

 

[Susie]

I have to use conditioner...lots and lots of conditioner. I go through conditioner like there is no tomorrow. Curly, dry hair drinks the stuff in.

 

[HappyHomeSoapCo]

Can't wait to hear back! I haven't formulated a shampoo bar yet either. I use whatever I have, but love my beer soap the most for shampoo. Out of what I have at least. It's formulated at 25% coconut, 25% olive, 20% Shea, and the rest between tallow and castor. Not sure off the top of my head. So, it's definitely not meant to be a shampoo bar. But I switched to my soap before I knew how fancy a shampoo bar could be!

 

[IrishLass]

Well, I did it! I must say that I didn't like the feel of my soap in my hair at all when I was washing it. It made my hair feel very gross and icky. After washing, I rinsed the soap out with the regular shower water and then dumped the citric acid rinse on my head. I made a quart of the rinse using Susie's ratios, put it in a plastic half-gallon jug and just poured it on. I decided to not rinse it out but to just leave it in when done. Then I wrapped my hair in a towel as I usually do when I'm drying myself off and putting my make-up on and stuff.

I gotta tell you, I was kinda scared when it came time to take the towel off and run a comb through my hair because I was convinced it would be nothing but a tangled, snarly mess, but I was completely surprised to find my hair completely tangle-free, as if I had used conditioner.

Next, I let my hair mostly air dry (as I normally do) and then chased the last bit of dampness off with my blow-dryer (also as I normally do).

Verdict: I'm kinda conflicted right now. It's weird.... although my hair combed out great when wet and feels soft to the touch when dry, it got a bit snarly/tangled on me when drying out (which is unusual for me) and in spite of feeling soft, it looks more dry/frizzy/straw-like now that it's completely dry, but without any static, thankfully. Hmmm. I'm not sure what to make of things just yet.


IrishLass

 

[HappyHomeSoapCo]

Hmmm the actual shampooing part is definitely a learning curve. I was not convinced right away either. It takes just the right amount of soap rubbing plus a little water added as you go. My hardest thing is to wash the long hair. Scalp is easy, hair not so much. But I've gotten better at it.

 

[HappyHomeSoapCo]

Can anyone explain why my hair rinse that I made went moldy on me? It was simple enough so I was surprised to find weird floaties in the jug.

I used two gallons distilled water, and put it in a big pot and add several handfuls of fresh rosemary from my back yard. I let that simmer for a while then added 1tsp of citric acid and a very tiny bit of rosemary eo and peppermint eo.

 

[Susie]

Because anything with water in it will go moldy unless you use a preservative. Period.

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, if you make tea for a hair rinse, make just enough for a couple days at a time.

Irishlass, my hair is the same when I use shampoo bars, it feels nice but it looks frizzier and a bit dull. If you don't mind using silicons, you can use a hair serum containing them to add shine control the frizzy. I have also used a touch of shea body butter or even a few drops of a light oil like almond or avocado.

I've recently had to switch to a sulfate free shampoo after I fried my hair with chemicals, the shampoo bars are just too harsh now. I hope once I grow out the damage, I can use the bars again.

 

[IrishLass]

Well. I used my 80% Castile-type to wash my hair again (one week later than my first time), but this time I used Susie's method of washing with the soap, rinsing with the citric acid rinse (which I left on my hair for about a minute, btw), rinsing it out, and then using my normal conditioner which I left on my hair for about 2 minutes or so before rinsing out.

It definitely went better this time around, which I attribute to using the conditioner at the end.

At this point, my thoughts are that I'm not sure it's worth the time it takes me to do do the extra steeping on my hair of the acid and conditioner and the extra rinsing steps, but it's good to know that there's a way to use my bar soap on my hair if need be.

I'm going to try it once again next week to use up the rest of my citric acid rinse, and I'm also thinking of doing it again in the future, but with a different formula for the heck of it just to compare.

IrishLass

 

[girlishcharm2004]

although my hair combed out great when wet and feels soft to the touch when dry, it got a bit snarly/tangled on me when drying out (which is unusual for me) and in spite of feeling soft, it looks more dry/frizzy/straw-like now that it's completely dry, but without any static, thankfully.

Maybe I can help you out with this. I think I know exactly what you're going through.

First, it took me a long time to figure out the ratios of vinegar to water. My hair was either too oily, or it had that soap scum residue. Then after I figured it out, while my hair combed out tangle-free while wet, it looked more frizzy while dry. This was completely frustrating to me.

The thing about conditioners is that not only to they have a lower pH to lay the hair shaft down, but also they contain silicones which coats the hair shaft making the strands of hair smooth, slip past each other, and give it weight. So it doesn't look frizzy and it's not tangled.

It wasn't until I switched to a hair blower that was ceramic, ionic, and had tourmaline that I noticed a HUGE improvement in my hair (I made the switch because my previous hair blower died, and I just picked up some $25 hair blower at Target that said my hair would be amazing). So I researched the principles behind the ionic hair blower to figure out why it made my hair amazing over a regular hair blower that just shot out hot air. The theory behind it is that it shoots negative ions at your head which bonds with the positive ions in your hair which makes the water evaporate faster and reduces frizz. I may not have explained that properly at all, but I noticed a difference -- it looks as if I use conditioner. This might explain it better. http://blog.prettyinmypocket.com/ceramic_ionic_tourmaline_hairdryer/

I hope that helps!