DIY Creamy Shampoo Bars for Healthier Hair
Looking to improve your hair care routine? Discover how to make your own creamy shampoo bars at home. These DIY shampoo bars are perfect for conditioning and moisturizing your hair, offering a natural alternative to store-bought options filled with harmful ingredients.
If you like to make your own DIY personal grooming products then you've come to the right place! This post will guide you on how to make simple homemade DIY shampoo solid shampoo bars that you gonna appreciate. With step by step procedures shampoo bars can be easy and fun to make.
Why DIY Shampoo Bars?
You might be asking yourself why should I bother to make solid shampoo bars while there is plenty of options of liquid shampoo bars out there? There are many benefits to using your own shampoo bars like
Long-lasting: Solid shampoo bars can stay for longer time even when used often in your haircare routine than liquid shampoos. This can be a real good deal especially if you want to save some cash on buying shampoos regularly.
Sustainability: Unlike liquid shampoos that are mainly made of water and sulfates like sodium lauryl sulfate that can can cause many environmental issues then using solid shampoo bars that use sustainable ingredients such as plant extracts and butters that can be bio-degradable too.
Conditions hair: Using solid shampoo bars can condition and replenish lost natural oils in scalp and hair strands. Using shampoo bars in your hair care routine can help to reduce hair breakage and improve overall scalp and hair health.
Travel-friendly solution: If you're planning to travel then liquid shampoo bottles can be very inconvenient. Even if you get small refillable bottles for your shampoo, you'll always be worried about it getting spilled and ruining your clothes and stuff. So, having solid shampoo bars can be a life-saver!
Now after getting to know what shampoo bars are and how your hair can benefit from them then prepare to make some of them.
Selecting ingredients
SM cocoyl taurate powder: It is a good surfactant that compose a largest percentage of your shampoo bars. It is a good alternative to sulfates such as SLS that are harsher detergents that can also be not so eco-friendly.
Cetearyl alcohol: This is a fatty alcohol and emulsifying ingredient. It is none of those drying bad alcohol that can damage your hair. Cetearyl alcohol is added in these shampoo bars can improve foam-forming, hair texture and restore hair moisture.
Lauryl glucoside: It is a non-ionic surfactant that also can act as cleaning ingredient without stripping natural oils in hair strands and scalp. It can also be a good foaming agent to form lather when you rub that shampoo bars on your wet hair.
Coco betaine: It is an ingredient that can be foam booster, prevent hair shafts from drying, antistatic and condition the hair and scalp. It is really good substitute for sulfate surfactants that are usually harsher and found in liquid shampoos.
Stearic acid: It is good conditioning agent for both scalp and hair. A good texturizing agent to add to your solid shampoo bars. It is can also act as preservatives.
Glycerin: If you want to have moisturizing shampoo bars then adding glycerin which has humectant properties can hydrate hair strands, even when using shampoo bars to cleanse your hair , you want your hair to still be hydrated and retain moisture.
Shea butter: This is a plant-based ingredient derived from nuts in African shea tree. This ingredient has softening and moisturizing properties that can be really helpful to your hair. On the other hand, shea butter can act as a thickener to making shampoo bars more solid and creamy in texture.
Glyceryl oleate: It can mitigate the drying effects of other surfactant ingredients turning your solid shampoo bars formulation into softening and moisturizing properties. It is natural conditioner and an excellent emollient.
Phenoxyethanol: It is a good, bio-degradable preservative that can lengthen your solid shampoo bars shelf life to be used for more than six months without disintegrating the shampoo bars.
Guar gum: Another good thickening agent for your solid shampoo bars, that can thicken your liquid ingredients to get semi-solid that can harden to form solid bars.
Caustic soda: This solution is very effective at balancing the pH of the shampoo bar formulation. At the end of making your formulation you should end up with around 6.0 pH that is not so acidic and still cleanse your hair.
Fragrance: For the touch up to make your creamy shampoo bars smell nice and have unique signature. You can use any favorite fragrance oils or essential oils that can help to make your shampoo bars more fragrant.
Ingredients
12¾ tablespoons of SM cocoyl taurate powder
4¼ teaspoons of cetearyl alcohol
3 teaspoons of lauryl glucoside
2½ teaspoons of coco betaine
2½ teaspoons of stearic acid
¾ teaspoon of glycerin
⅔ teaspoon of shea butter
¼ teaspoon of glyceryl oleate
⅛ teaspoon of phenoxyethanol
⅛ teaspoon of guar gum
⅛ teaspoon of caustic soda
10 to 15 drops of fragrance
You can get most of these ingredients online at a more affordable price than in local stores. After you get your ingredients prepare your utensils and tools like measuring spoons, measuring scale, kitchen thermometer, heat-resistant beakers, mixing bowls, pH testers and designated silicone bars.
Instructions
Measure out your ingredients: SM cocoyl taurate powder, cetearyl alcohol, lauryl glucoside, coco betaine, stearic acid, glycerin, shea butter, glyceryl oleate, phenoxyethanol, guar gum and caustic soda, and set them aside for prepping.
Add SM cocoyl taurate powder, lauryl glucoside, coco betaine, glycerin, guar gum and glyceryl oleate to a heat-resistant beaker. Heat it on low heat on a stove top till it reaches 165 to 175 Fahrenheit, check the temperature with kitchen thermometer and stir well for the ingredients to be completely uniform.
Take out another beaker and add in, shea butter, stearic acid, and cetearyl alcohol. Do the same thing of melting ingredients on the stove top at the same temperature range. Add your caustic soda solution and mix well.
Carefully handle your beakers and pour their contents into a mixing bowl and cool it to 160 Fahrenheit before you add your phenoxyethanol, mix well all ingredients until you get homogenous mixture.
Add drops of favorite fragrance oils in your mixture and mix well.
Test for the pH of the final product. It should be around 6.0.
Spray a little bit of rubbing alcohol in silicone mold and then pour your mixture in the silicone molds and wait for the mixture to cool for about 24 to 48 hours.
Remove your shampoo bars from the silicone mold. Let the solid shampoo bars cure for a week or two.
Your shampoo bars are ready to use!
About me
Hello, my dear gorgeous! Welcome to my blog and learn with me as you walk in your skincare journey. I'm skincare enthusiast and a student. I like sharing my passion of beauty and skincare with the world. I like blogging, reading and binge watching YouTube vlogs and Netflix during my leisure time.
