Coconut Shampoo

Let's start with a little confession here, I stopped shampooing my hair over two years ago. Now before you refuse to sit next to me ever again I do clean my hair. And before you accuse my lack of shampooing for my crazy hair, my hair is just naturally crazy.

So, natural shampoo. Some of you may wonder why even bother when Suave is like, $1 a bottle. Well when you have super fine, fragile and dry hair like mine, that stuff just reeks havoc and I really wanted to try using a cleaning method that didn't rely on sulfates. So I started out with the baking soda/apple cider vinegar method. You can read all about it here, she does a wonderful job explaining how to do what she does. I tried it, and I even gave it a good long run. It just doesn't work for my hair type. The baking soda was actually too harsh for my hair. It almost cleaned it too well. So I started only doing it once every few washes and that totally worked, but I kind of missed the suds and so did the husband. He tried the baking soda but he said it was like washing his hair with water. And then there was the apple cider vinegar. Um, can you even imagine the mess I made out of my hair trying to avoid using conditioner? Ohmyword.... can we say birdsnest?  Now, my sister tried out the baking soda/apple cider vinegar and it worked GREAT on her thick, corse, slightly oily hair. Like regular shampoo you have to do what works for your hair type. So, then I moved on to just washing my hair with conditioner. Literally using it like shampoo just scrup that on into the scalp reeealllly good and rinse well. (I know this won't work for all hair types, but for mine it worked great. I still just missed the suds) So then walked in this amazing little recipe from Wellness Mama. With a few modifications I have the most amazing "shampoo" for my hair. Even my husband loves it. (Don't tell him you all now know that he washes his hair with coconut milk. He'd die)

 

Coconut Shampoo

Gather up your ingredients before you get started. Here's what I use, you might need to try a few combos to get it right for your hair type. Again, I have fine, thin, dry hair. (I know, I know, the curls are totally decieving)

 

*1/4 cup filtered, boiled and cooled water (you always want to use boiled and cooled water for any health or beauty recipes you make. Water has germies in it and it's just going to grow like a petree dish in your shower. You won't see it, but they're there)

*1/4 cup canned coconut milk

*1/4 cup Dr Bronner's

*1 tsp coconut oil

*a few capsules vitamin e oil

*several drops of whatever essential oil you like. Tea tree oil is great for dry scalps and dandruff, lavender and peppermint are easy, great smelling oils to use. Personally I love a little grapefruit or jasmine essential oil. Yum!

 

Mix it up and pour it in whatever container you like. I poured mine in a clean peri bottle (Stop judging. It's CLEAN people!) For all my hair I use probably about a teaspoon and just squirt it directly on my scalp since it is slightly watery, but my husband rubs it in his hands. It has a wonderfully thick and rich lather and depending on what oils you use or scented Dr Bronner's it will smell wonderful! If you wash your hair every few days you'll run out before it goes bad.

 

That's it! Easy right? Now obviously if you have oily hair you probably want to use a little more Dr. Bronner's and may not want to add the coconut oil or vitamin e oil. Like any new product you want to give it a try and make a few adjustments based on your hair type. Here's my freshly washed hair for you! A little dab of homemade hair gel and we're good to go! Don't worry, that post is coming up soon ;)