That is me and my brother when I was in 7th grade...scary crazy right? Really scary part is that this crazy hair was shampooed, conditioned, and had about a gallon of styling products in it to tame it down that much (yes, I said tame it down so you can only imagine without any).
Over the years, I have tried many shampoos, conditioners, styling products, and leave in conditioners for both straight hair, curly hair, and even for ethnic hair at times. I have not found anything that works for long without weighing down or making my hair feel greasy at times so I was excited to try out this new shampoo bar and see how it worked.
Here are the finished product after curing. I must say that I think I am in love.
First off, I should explain that switching from commercial shampoo to a homemade shampoo does take an adjustment period for your hair. Commercial shampoos tend to strip all the natural oils from your hair, while natural shampoos do not. This means that for the first month of use, it may seem like the natural or homemade shampoo is not fully working for your hair, but once your hair and scalp adjust, it is a beautiful thing. We have only used the new shampoo bars twice so far, but I am already happy with the change.
I didn't think to take pictures the first day we used it while my hair was still wet to show the difference, but here it is once I let it air dry.
Now, I should also tell you that I did not use any conditioner, any finishing rinse(like vinegar), or put any styling products in my hair after using the shampoo bar. That is straight shampoo bar, then brushing, and air drying.
The first thing I noticed was that my hair felt dry in the shower. I don't mean that my hair dried instantly after washing, but it did not have that same feel that my hair has after using conditioner. It also was a bit knotty and took a little work to brush it out after washing it, but my hair seems to knot easily especially since I have been wearing it long again. I also noticed that when I use commercial shampoo the ends of my hair are already drying and frizzing by the time I go to brush my hair, but with the shampoo bar my ends were still wet and dripping water in spots even after having the towel wrapped around my hair while I got dressed. My daughter's hair while a little knotty, was not nearly as bad to brush as when I use commercial shampoo and conditioner on her hair, and even the next morning (we shower at night) she was able to easily brush through her hair.
The second day we used it, I took pictures of our hair both wet and dry. Here are the pictures of it wet...
Once again, there is no conditioner, no acidic rinse, or any styling products added to either of our hair. Here are the pictures of my hair after air drying again...
I am pretty pleased with the results. Since this was the first time I made the shampoo bars, I will not be adding these to the website just yet. While I am satisfied with the product, I am still working on the scent for these bars so please feel free to comment below with scent suggestions.
For those not sure how to use a shampoo bar instead of commercial shampoo, it is fairly simple. Once your hair is wet, wet the shampoo bar and rub it on your hair. I started at my scalp until I could feel the soap then moved to a different spot until my head was covered in soap, then I pulled my long hair over my shoulder and rubbed the soap bar into the long strands (kind of like when you hand wash something and rub the fabric together but in this case the "fabric" is my hair and the shampoo bar). My daughter's hair is fairly short so I just rubbed the bar against her head until I could see the bubbles in her hair, then put the bar down and rubbed her head to lather the soap just like with commercial shampoo (I did this with my hair too once all my hair was covered in soap).
Overall, I am pretty happy with using the shampoo bar and it will be added to the website once I have gotten the scent worked out. I doubt I will buy shampoo in a bottle again....though maybe a homemade liquid shampoo isn't out of the question in the future, but one thing at a time.
Happy shampooing...
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