DIY Shampoo Bar

Hey, guys!

There’s an increase on shampoo bar use lately. I just wanted to encourage you to try and do it at home as it’s actually quite easy!

I have created these two graphics with recipes that I have translated from French blogger Cheveux d’O (it is super handy to take a screenshot and keep it on your phone so you can access it easily). I live in France and this is like the basics, everybody loves these recipes, everybody uses them to learn how to formulate shampoo bars when they’re beginners. From there, you can then change and improve your own shampoo bar recipes.

I would like to inform you guys that there seem to be two tendancies or approches in what comes to shampoo bars: one would be the US approach and the other the French/European approach. US approach would tend to use mainly surfactant in large amounts and French approach uses a lot less surfactant and uses other powders that will increase the cleaning properties of the shampoo.

How do I make it?

Easy-peasy! You mix the water (or hydrolat) with the SCI (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate powder) on a bain-marie until it was melted and then you add on the rest of the ingredients. It will look like a thick batter. You can add a little more water if you wish, but you will have to let it dry a little longer. Once the batter is ready, you can put it in a mould and press it well with your hands. Drying time can be from 24 hours to one week depending on how much water you have used. I normally use fragrance oil or essential oils but, to be honest, the fragrance oils do not last. However, essential oils do seem to last in my case.

Bare in mind that you will need to adapt this to your own type of hair. Say you have oily hair, you might want to use jojoba oil (and maybe less percentage of oil) and a powder that will adapt to you issue. This is just a basic recipe to learn how to formulate.

I have already posted a couple other recipes, but they’re in Spanish. I will be translating them as soon as I can!

Let me know on my facebook page or on my Instagram if you try it!