Creating a Co-wash

[Jenn Lee]

Hello! I had a question on creating a co-wash for my hair. I currently use New Wash which is absolutely amazing and even more expensive. It's the first co-wash I have used on my very long hair and I don't think I could go back to using regular shampoo anymore. But, I also don't really want to continue spending the $$ for New Wash.

I love the conditioning and cleaning properties, but most importantly, as a person with a very oily scalp, I can go up to 3 whole days without washing and still look like a decently hygenic person. For me, that was never even remotely a possibility using any kind of regular shampoo - expensive or otherwise.

Does anyone have experience making these sorts of liquid washes? I thought about making some shampoo bars (I've been doing cp soaps for about 6 months), but the whole point of a co-wash is to make it more gentle on your hair and forgo the need to do a rinse as well. New Wash has their ingredients on the bottle, and while some of it is just natural oils, some of it I'm not even sure what it is or where to get it to experiment.

All help is appreciated!!

 

[BattleGnome]

Ask Susan

SwiftCraftMonkey is a great blog for that question. She doesn’t make soap (CP/HP) but she does make everything else. If you have a surfactant question (which is the active ingredient in co washes) she’s the go to. There is a short series on hair care from a few years ago where she addresses co washing.

At its base what you’re looking for is a conditioner with some emulsifiers and surfactants. I never looked far into it because I have issues with the science side but I almost understood the way Susan explained it

 

[Jenn Lee]

Thank you for the response, BattleGnome. I'll check it out.