Here is the recipe:
Homemade Shampoo
Makes 32 ounces
Ingredients needed:
Castile bar soap or palm oil bar soap
Aloe vera juice
Purified Water
I got my soap at Trader Joe’s. It is the package with two 4 ounce bars of tea tree oil soap. It is made with palm kernel oil. The cost is $1.99 and these two bars can be used to make 8 quarts of shampoo. You can also use castile bar soap. It is available at WalMart in the bar soap section in the Health and Beauty isles. This soap comes in packs of three, and I think the cost is $3.21. It is similar to the soap from Trader Joe’s but is made with coconut oil.
For the aloe vera, I used organic aloe vera juice from Vitacost and used Vitacost brand. The aloe vera juice from WalMart should work fine though. The organic aloe vera juice from Vitacost has no stabilizers in it, so shampoo made from it has to be kept in the refrigerator. The aloe vera juice from WalMart is stabilized with citric acid, so shampoo made from it should be OK out of the refrigerator. You will just have to keep an eye on it to make sure no mold forms in it.
Method:
First put 4 cups of water on to boil while you grate your soap. Grate about ¼ of one bar of soap (or one ounce of soap) into a stainless steel bowl. Use the smallest grater holes you have. After the soap has been grated, get as much of it off the grater as possible but don’t cut yourself. The grated soap should look like fine white powder. Do not leave any chunks in the bowl.
Now put a hot pad under your stainless steel bowl and get out a heat resistant spoon to stir with. Pour the boiling water over the soap powder. First, just pour in about 1/3 of the boiling water. Stir slowly and carefully to encourage the soap to melt faster. Make sure to press the back of the spoon against the bowl to soften and melt any soap that sticks to it. When it seems no more soap is melting, pour another third of the water in and repeat the stirring/pressing process. You should be able to melt all the soap this time. After all the soap is melted, pour in the rest of the boiling water and stir well. Your soap and water mixture should be clear at this point.
Let the soap/water mixture cool a little more – not too much or it will thicken. When it first starts to gel up it is time to add the aloe vera juice. Add three ounces of aloe vera juice. If you have really oil hair, you might want to add 4 ounces. When you add the aloe vera juice, the mixture will turn white. After the aloe is added, the mixture remains liquid; it will not thicken.
Note: I do not know if the shampoo will turn white if stabilized aloe is added.
Now your shampoo is ready to use. The total cost of each quart of shampoo should be about 30 to 35 cents, depending on which soap you use and what you pay for your soap.
Stay tuned for the follow up post. Coming soon, Lord willing!