Shampoo epic fail..

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Bandaid

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Hi everyone!

I made my first shampoo recently that became a complete fail. It is extremely thin and runny in consistency, makes my hair feel like straw when I wash it (it's really nice afterwards when it dries but I need loads of conditioner to get the straw feeling away) and it has separated in the bottle.

This is what I used:

Water 53,3%
Coco glucoside 17,5%
Lauryl Glucoside 17,5%
Guar gum 5 %
D-panthenol 2%
Hydrolized oat protein 2%
Optiphen 1.2%
Polyquat-7 1%
Salt 0,3 %
Citric acid 0,2%

It seems as if the guar gum is all settled in the bottom of the bottle and I have to shake it alot before I use it. I don't want to use silicones or any quaterniums over 7, nothing really that would leave a film on my hair - but I'm desperate to make the shampoo feel soft and glidy when I use it. Do you guys know any other alternatives? And should I use an emulsifyer? I see alot of people using salt as thickening agents in their shampoos too, but it didn't have any effect what so ever on the density, even after I upped the salt and guar gum percentage to 2% and 10%..

What did I do wrong?

Thanks for your help!
 
I would try crothix instead of guar gum. The Herbarie carries it, and perhaps lotion crafter. Optiphen can be tricky to use as a preservative and can have separation problems. You might try a different preservative. I use germall plus for water based products.
 
Thanks! I've been looking at chrotix before but it contains both PEG 150 and PEG-6 which I'm not too keen on using in my products. I've seen that Lush apparently only thicken their shampoos with salt so maybe I should just add more (which is strange because I've already added so much salt). Do you know any other more "natural" thickeners and preservatives?

Sorry, it's just that I'm trying to cut on as many artificial chemicals as possible, which is why I started creating my own products :) And does anyone have any suggestion for getting the shampoo more emollient without silicones?
 
My vote goes to the Natural one..I do like Kadi natural hair products for my hairs..They don't have any side or any other adverse effects on the hair's growth...
 
I like poly 7 in my lotions, but for hair products I use honeyquat instead.
 
Thanks for the advice, I invested in some Cocamidopropyl betaine, I was thinking of using it as a primary surfactant with lower doses of the glucosides, since glucosides tend to have a very high pH (this might be the reason to why my hair feels so dry when using this shampoo). I also purchased some shea butter esters that hopefully will give an emollient factor to the shampoo.

Now lets just hope that the salt trick works with coco betaine. :)
 
what lsg said, coco betaine is an excellent choice. i use it for my shampoo as well.
 
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