The Ultimate Therapeutic Shampoo Bar must be the best homemade shampoo recipe I’ve ever used. It has a delightful aroma that lasts all day long, and it really does revive flat, dull and thinning hair.
- This shampoo bar is a fantastic homemade soap that’s suitable for all the family including anyone who may be suffering from an itchy or flaky scalp.
- It’s full of essential oils aimed to stimulate the memory and lift tension, along with nourishing the scalp and adding a lovely shine to your hair.
- It’s also a great homemade shampoo bar to take with you when travelling, especially if you intend to fly.
- You can cut the amount you may need from one of the bars and pop it in with your hand luggage without the worry of carrying liquids.
Ingredients:
- 25 1/2 oz (722g) Olive Oil
- 3 1/2 oz (71g) Sweet Almond Oil
- 2 oz (60g) Beeswax
- 2 oz (55g) Creamed coconut
- 4 oz (110g) Lye (Sodium Hydroxide/Caustic Soda)
- 9 1/2 oz (265g) Mineral water
- 2 Chamomile teabags
- 4 teaspoons (20ml) Bergamot essential oil
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) Lavender essential oil
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) Geranium essential oil
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) Rosemary essential oil
Specifics To This Recipe
Use the method outlined in How To Make Soap Using Cold Process plus the following recipe specific steps:
- In Step 1 – Put the chamomile teabags into a bowl Boil the mineral water and pour it over them. Once cooled, strain, and reserve the infusion. Substitute the water for the infusion in the cold process method step 3.
- In Step 3 – Melt the creamed coconut with the oils and wax this will need to be stirred continuously to avoid the coconut from sticking to the bottom of the pan whilst heating.
- In Step 4 – Combine oils and lye when both temperatures equally reach 130 F (55 C)
Photos From The Therapeutic Homemade Shampoo Recipe:
Annemarie’s Shampoo Bar
Annemarie made this soap and sent me a photo:
Hi! Thanks for sharing your homemade shampoo recipe!
My daughter and I just plopped our first batch into our molds. When I added our crazy blend of essential oils, the batter came to a very thick trace quickly. It’s now getting all gooey and gelly! It was a surprise to see it reach gel phase so quickly.
Very excited to watch it develop into fabulous shampoo!
We forgot to check our essential oil supplies before we started. The original blend was a spicy citrus of lime, orange, cinnamon, and patchouli. When we ran out of lime, we added lemongrass and basil. Then when we ran out of wild orange, we added grapefruit. We barely had enough cinnamon and earth and wood (from Eden’s Garden) to finish the blend. We ended up with a crazy citrus explosion that we will never be able to recreate.
We ran out of sweet almond oil, so I had to supplement with 2 ounces of avocado oil. I definitely blended it too long. The trace was already pretty thick when I added the essential oils. Then it really thickened! We plopped the batter in the molds, and they began to gel immediately.
Do you have your own homemade shampoo recipe? What ingredients did you use?
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I hope you enjoyed reading!
I would love to hear from you so please feel free to leave a comment or ask any questions below.
Pamela
Where do you find creamed coconut? Looks amazing, I cant wait to make this! 🙂
Angela
Hi Pamala
I love it too! I found my creamed coconut on Amazon, but there are probably a few other places.
Someone else emailed to ask if creamed coconut was the same as coconut cream. The answer is no as it’s stronger, adding water to creamed coconut in the ratio 5:2 gives coconut cream, 5:1 gives coconut milk.
Hope this helps 🙂
Krysta
I can usually find it in small boxes at superstore (in USA that would be loblaws, or presidents choice) in the ethnic food aisle.
Donna Brown
Cash & Carry sells coconut cream in a can. They’ve recently changed their name but it’s the same place. It goes for about 1.99 a can.
Nikki
We can’t use almond oil due to nut allergies. Can you recommend an oil to use in place of it? We can use coconut so would that be OK? Thank you!
Angela - Savvy Homemade
You can replace Sweet Almond Oil with any other liquid carrier oil… Johoba or Avocado would be nice.
Janet
Have you tried this recipe with the hot method? I have limited space for curing my soaps, so don’t use the cold method. Just wondering how it works up. Thanks!
Krysta
I would be worried about the natural sugars in the creamed coconut burning in the hot process method… That being said, I haven’t tried it yet! 😛
Nancy
Can this be used on color treated hair? Do you need to use a vinegar rinse after shampooing? Thanks
Angela
Hi Nancy
My hair is colored and I’ve not had any problems, all of the ingredients here are natural products.
Angela
Saskia
Hello,
Thank you for posting this recipe and the instructions. Could you recommend a vegan alternative to the bees wax? I don’t use any animal products but I would love to try your shampoo bar.
Greetings, Saskia
Angela - SavvyHomemade
Hi Saskia,
Yes, I have a lot of vegan friends who are always looking for a good alternative to beeswax, so you’re definitely not alone in this. As for waxes, the best vegan alternative would definitely be candelilla wax. It’s actually really good wax and is very nourishing for the skin. I even use it fairly often and I’m not even vegan!
Hope this helps!
Michelle
I have really dark hair, won’t the little coconut pieces, that still are in creamed coconut, stay in my hair?? And look like dandruff?? ??
Angela
Hi Michelle
I haven’t seen any problems like this, creamed coconut is pureed and once you’ve put it through this process you won’t much if any pieces.
Angela
Michelle
Thank you for your reply! I guess I’ll have to try it out!
Margaga
I,
Unfortunately I am allergic to coconut, with what can I replace it ?
Margue
Sarah
Do I have to include the creamed coconut, coconut oils tend to make me break out ( a lot of people don’t know coconut oil is actually comedogenic), and does it have to include lye?
Isabelle
Hi! Can I make this but with the melt-and-pour base instead of lye? Thank you!
Jess
Question? So I was told by many stylists that beeswax or any wax is not good for your hair. Over time it can build up in your hair & make it unhealthy. Now I know stylists make their money by selling the products the salon promotes, but I’m friends with them & they know I’m not buying the products. I’d cut my own hair If I could.lol. I’m wondering since the process of cold process that it won’t have the beeswax left over to actually build up in your hair. Is it just used to make a harder bar? Ty ?
Angela
Hi Jess, Your stylist could be referring to hair products that contain a high percentage of wax, in this recipe the wax is minimal, diluted to less than 10%. To be honest the average hair stylist might not know how cold process works and is taught to sell you the commercial products. Ask yourself this question, what is healthier, a commercial concoction that contains who knows what seeping into your skin, or a natural product containing nourishing ingredients and oils that we are aware of? If it helps I can say that I’ve used this soap many times and there’s no residue after using it.
Elle
I Angela,
Thank you so much for this receipe.
I have 2 questions :
. Chamomille tea bags are for blond hair only ? Or maybe we can change with sage for brunettes ?
. How many time we can keep this shampoo safe ?
Angela
Hi Elle
The Chamomile is not really there for color, more for its therapeutic properties, but you could use sage if you want to experiment.
Cold process soap keeps for a long time, as a general rule I say 2 years.
Elle
Thank you so much. I will test you recipe asap.
Annmarie
Hi! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
My daughter and I just plopped our first batch into our molds. When I added our crazy blend of essential oils, the batter came to a very thick trace quickly. It’s now getting all gooey and gelly! It was a surprise to see it reach gel phase so quickly.
Very excited to watch it develop into fabulous shampoo!
Angela
Hi Annmarie,
Great stuff, I’m sure you will love it! What essential oils did you add?
If you get time send me a photo and I’ll post it on the blog 😉
Angela
That’s what its all about Annmarie, you now have a totally unique soap… Nobody else will have that blend 😉
Annmarie
A year later, and I’m cooking up another batch!
My family and friends love this recipe. I made a couple tweaks – distilled water instead of mineral, 3 oz avocado oil and 1 oz sweet almond.
I’m splitting the batch in half and adding rosemary and mint EO to one, and a citrus blend of EOs to the other.
Thanks again for sharing your recipe!
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Hi Annmarie, Thanks for stopping by with your update! Its so lovely to hear back from you and great to see others experimenting… Post another photo if you have time and i’ll add it to this post 😉
Joy
I have used this recipe before and I really enjoy it! Nice solid bar. I have a question and I can’t remember if I am reading the recipe incorrectly. The water is used to brew the tea, but what liquid does the lye go into?
Thank you!
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Hi Joy,
Following the basic cold process method here you just need to substitute the water element for the infusion.
Ronda
We can’t use almond oil due to nut allergies. Can you recommend an oil to use in place of it? We can use coconut so would that be OK? Thank you!
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Hi Ronda, You can replace Sweet Almond Oil with any other liquid carrier oil… Johoba or Avocado would be nice.
J.L.
Before substituting ANY oils in a soap recipe you must run the revised recipe thru a soap calculator to determine the correct quantity of lye needed to convert the oils into soap. Every oil has a different SAP number and without doing this you run the risk if producing a lye heavy soap that could burn or irritate your skin.
Barbara Winge
Is it possible to use something else besides Lye? I have Hashimoto’s so I’m careful what I use on my hair and body.
thank you,
Barb
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Sorry Barb, unfortunately you cant make cold process soap without using lye ;-(
Jennifer
Barbara Winge I too have Hasimotos and I use homemade lye soap on my hair and it has worked wonders. Lye is in ALL natural soaps. regular store baught shampoos are bad for our hair.
Lynn
I’m not sure exactly what creamed coconut is???? I use coconut oil in my cold process soap so could I sub that for the creamed coconut?
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Hi Lynn
You can get creamed coconut on Amazon, but there are probably a few other places.
Coconut oil won’t really give the same texture so it would take some experimenting. Hope this helps 🙂
Maria de la Luz Alarcon
What an interesting recipe! Thank you so much! I have read that bees was can kill the foam in soaps. What about the bubbles?
Angela - Savvy Homemade
I wouldn’t worry about that, I never have and I get enough bubbles, some soaps have more than others and beeswax makes a slightly harder soap… but one nice benefit is that beeswax makes your soap last longer.
Becky Enoch
I have never made soap or shampoo before. Does it have to cure and if so, how long? In step #3- you heat the oils and the infusion in separate pans at the same time so you will need 2 thermometers to check the temperature and then add together? Thanks for your help!
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Hi Becky
Yes you will need two thermometers, for more info check out my full tutorial on cold process soap making
Ruth
Hi, roughly how many bars will this recipe make?
Angela - Savvy Homemade
Hi Ruth
For me its about ten good size chunky bars, but it would depend on your mold size and how thick you cut them 😉
Debbie
Can this soap be made with hot process method? It looks wonderful, and I don’t know if I can wait 6 weeks to use it! I waited till I had all the ingredients, guess I can go the rest of the way. But hope Hot process is an option.
Bob Ryan
Every other shampoo bar recipe I’ve read and the one I’ve made say to follow up with the shampoo bar with an apple cider vinegar/water rinse to keep the cuticle closed and intact. The PH of the soap/shampoo bar is too high for your hair and the rinse leaves it close to neutral. This extra step of rinsing with ACV/water is what I am hoping to get rid of. Do you know if this shampoo bar can help rid me of the rinse.
Vanessa
Thanks for sharing! Do you have any other oil recommendations?