You can't make pH balanced soap, at least not if it's all soap. One of the major purposes of synthetic detergents is to make a less alkaline product, whether it be a cleansing bar or a shampoo.
What type of soybean oil to use?
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You can't make pH balanced soap, at least not if it's all soap. One of the major purposes of synthetic detergents is to make a less alkaline product, whether it be a cleansing bar or a shampoo.
While hair is a part of our body, toe nails and eyes are also parts of our body and yet both are very different and I can rub soap vigorously on one but not the other! Things react differently, including the scalp and the skin.
That said, my hair doesn't mind a soap and a CA rinse, but it is short hair
That said, my hair doesn't mind a soap and a CA rinse, but it is short hair
That is very interesting! Maybe I need to do some experiments on some cut hair samples. We have a mini-microscope, so I an wash one strand with shampoo and other with my soap and see what happens to the cuticle....not that I don't believe you....it would just be interesting to see. and I would like to see it, because my hair feels like the cuticles have been smoothened, rather than ruffled, since using the GM soap. As I had wondered earlier, if the GM made the diff... I should add to my experiment, washing the hair with a non-GM lye-based soap and one with GM and then an acid ph shampoo. That should be very interesting!!
What is a CA rinse?
A male friend who had been using my GM soap...I noticed how shiny his hair was. AND, my DH, his hair has become super shiny since using the GM soap, too. Maybe the nutrients in the GM overcome the harshness of the alkaline soap??? Or do the nutrients in GM even survive saponification? Is using GM all just hype and label appeal....?
CA - Citric acid. Instead of vinegar I use a 5% CA solution. No smell [emoji4]
Ahhh! That sounds great!! I have some on hand! I have avoided using ACV because the smell of vinegar makes me feel ill.
Could CA be added to the soap after trace in CP or after the cook in HP to lower the ph?? That could be the answer, if it were possible!!
Lye soap will always be alkaline. If you try to lower the pH, you will just make a state where the salts break down - your soap starts to break back in to fatty acids
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
Our skin is alive and constantly turning over, it can correct any PH imbalance from using soap, usually within just a few minutes.
Hair is dead and the high PH causes damage that can't be corrected/healed. Using a acidic rinse will help a little but that damage is still there.
I used CP shampoo for almost two years. I loved it (genny's recipe) Tried to get my family to all switch and told anyone who asked, they they should ditch traditional shampoo and switch to CP bars.
Sometime early 2015 my hair started acting weird, the ends seemed crunchy and it tangled so bad I could hardly brush it. It kept getting worse until I had 1" long chunks breaking off every time I touched it. I switched to sulfate free shampoo and cond but it was too late, my hair had finally reached its breaking point (literally) and I had to cut it all off, down to 1".
Since then, I've used my CP a couple times on my hair but its just not worth it. I liked the idea of using my own CP shampoo but I had to give in and admit that its just not good for hair. I do still use a sulfate free shampoo, I don't want harsh cleansers on my scalp due to a skin condition.
If I had short hair, I would have kept using my bars but I want my long hair back. Moral of the story, hair can take a long time before showing extreme damage. If you hair starts getting dry or excessively tangling, stop with the shampoo bars and moisturise the heck out of it.
I see...
What do you think of this article?
http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/idascorner/soap/are-your-soaps-and-shampoo-bars-ph-balanced
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Dahila
Well-Known Member
none of them , but GMO free soybean oil is awesome in body butter or hand cream, I am not sure i would put it into face cream. Avocado oil is good for everything ; soaps, body products, fresh salads, my most loved oil. I use it a lot
Hair can't repair itself. Skin can. That's one difference.
I can't speak for others, but my hair didn't Suddenly Go Wonkers. Instead, it was a gradual accumulation of slight damage that added up over months.
Whether a person has straight, coarse hair or fine curly hair will also make a difference.
I can't speak for others, but my hair didn't Suddenly Go Wonkers. Instead, it was a gradual accumulation of slight damage that added up over months.
Whether a person has straight, coarse hair or fine curly hair will also make a difference.
I have straight, Asian hair. I used harsh lye soap on my hair for 13 years with knee-length hair, so maybe it works with hair that has tight cuticles.
I also use a conditioner after every shampoo with the soap now, so that may make a difference, too.
But, no one has commented re whether the addition of GM makes a diff in a shampoo bar.
I also use a conditioner after every shampoo with the soap now, so that may make a difference, too.
But, no one has commented re whether the addition of GM makes a diff in a shampoo bar.
I skimmed it, but it seems interesting. I have never suggested that we should make soaps at a lower pH - I was responding to your question about using a CA solution after the cook to lower the pH.
As the article states, it's not the pH in general that causes the issues. I say 'in general' because we are talking specifically about hair. Again, while the natural pH of a soap can be said to cause little damage to the skin (based on that article) that same pH is what causes it to sting when you get it in your eyes. So there are some effects of a higher pH, depending on what specifically you are talking about.
Here the subject is hair, and the higher pH is not good for the hair of many people posting.
The author is using pH strips to measure the alkalinity of the bars. You can't use strips to measure the pH in bars. You need to dilute that soap to 1:100 and then use a meter to accurately test that. So, you can toss out that whole section of that article.
Furthermore, the subject on this thread is HAIR. Not SKIN. The subject of that article is SKIN, not HAIR. Hair and skin are very different in how you have to cleanse them due to how long each piece of dead tissue hangs around.
I wash my hair once a week with syndet shampoo (very dry, curly hair). I wash my skin daily (true soap). Both benefit from what I am using to cleanse them. I have tried using syndet for skin with very bad results, and I have tried using soap for hair with very bad results. Your results will vary from mine. Not everyone has the same reactions to those products. No one is judging you or your choices for your skin and hair.
Synthetic detergent.
I am still having trouble comprehending how a substance that is supposedly bad for the hair can show improvement in hair condition initially, for as long as 2 years.
I would think that if something is bad for the hair, it would never show any kind of improvement, but start showing a gradual damage from the very start.
I would think that if something is bad for the hair, it would never show any kind of improvement, but start showing a gradual damage from the very start.
Everyone's hair is different. What may be healthy hair can change over time. As stated. Everyone is different. I could not use it at all. Gave it a month and no go. Diet, meds, health, age etc. also damage can happen slowly for some.
Chefmom
Well-Known Member
Going back to the original question about soybean oil and shortening...
Shortening, or vegetable shortening is the term used for the solid fat that was marketed to replace animal lard and tallow long ago in cooking and baking. Basically liquid oils (usually soybean and cottonseed or rapeseed) are put through a hydrogenation process to make them solid at room temperature. Crisco is the biggest name brand, but many generic and store brands are out there.
I have personally used both liquid soybean oil and soybean based shortenings without any stand out issues, and even with 2 year old soaps I haven't blamed any DOS or rancidity on using soybean oils. I really like the classic Sandy Maine recipe that has been around for years that uses 44% vegetable shortening, and I also make other formulas of my own using 20-40% shortening.
However, with the new trans fats regulations all vegetable shortenings are going by way of Crisco and reformulating with the addition of Palm oil to keep the solid at room temperature standards. So...this year I will be testing soybean oil and waxes to keep my soaps up to their standards. I'll probably test the new palm based shortenings as well..I don't even know how they act in my baking recipes to be sure they have the same results!
Although a lot of soapers warn against DOS, I haven't seen it in soy based soaps. There is a great test out there of single oil soaps that were made and tested as well as stored for a year and tested again. It's a great read!
We all have our preferences, and you can only really know in your own testing in the end. I love a good experiment!!
http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2014/03/single-oil-soap-experiment-phase-3-one.htmlhttp://www.soapmakingforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
Shortening, or vegetable shortening is the term used for the solid fat that was marketed to replace animal lard and tallow long ago in cooking and baking. Basically liquid oils (usually soybean and cottonseed or rapeseed) are put through a hydrogenation process to make them solid at room temperature. Crisco is the biggest name brand, but many generic and store brands are out there.
I have personally used both liquid soybean oil and soybean based shortenings without any stand out issues, and even with 2 year old soaps I haven't blamed any DOS or rancidity on using soybean oils. I really like the classic Sandy Maine recipe that has been around for years that uses 44% vegetable shortening, and I also make other formulas of my own using 20-40% shortening.
However, with the new trans fats regulations all vegetable shortenings are going by way of Crisco and reformulating with the addition of Palm oil to keep the solid at room temperature standards. So...this year I will be testing soybean oil and waxes to keep my soaps up to their standards. I'll probably test the new palm based shortenings as well..I don't even know how they act in my baking recipes to be sure they have the same results!
Although a lot of soapers warn against DOS, I haven't seen it in soy based soaps. There is a great test out there of single oil soaps that were made and tested as well as stored for a year and tested again. It's a great read!
We all have our preferences, and you can only really know in your own testing in the end. I love a good experiment!!
http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2014/03/single-oil-soap-experiment-phase-3-one.htmlhttp://www.soapmakingforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
Although a lot of soapers warn against DOS, I haven't seen it in soy based soaps. There is a great test out there of single oil soaps that were made and tested as well as stored for a year and tested again. It's a great read!
We all have our preferences, and you can only really know in your own testing in the end. I love a good experiment!!
http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2014/03/single-oil-soap-experiment-phase-3-one.htmlhttp://www.soapmakingforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
Those single oil tests are very interesting, but there is potentially a big problem with them. High-linoleic oils often have an antioxidant added to them. That would dramatically affect the results. For instance, the sunflower oil clearly did not but the soybean oil may have had an additive. Those oils are just not THAT different. Actually one advantage to using a supermarket shortening in your recipe is that you end up adding antioxidants to every batch of soap.
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