Homemade Shampoo & Conditioner

You’ve probably become more aware of the ‘no-poo’ movement – my inner child laughs at this name – which means training your hair to not rely on regular shampooing. People have realized that the array of nice-smelling beauty products that claim to do wonders for your hair are actually full of harmful chemicals, and train your hair to need that shampoo product. Our hair stops maintaining it’s own oils, which then makes it need a complimentary conditioner to repair it. Tricky, tricky.

I have very long hair, and I’ve had long hair for almost a decade. My mom’s hairdresser claims that somehow I “get away with murder,” having blonde hair (which is known to be more prone to damage) that has continued to stay long with minimal damage. I proudly adhere this to the fact that I take care of my hair. Years ago, I first got in the habit of washing my hair every other day, to every two days. This way, my hair was able to better maintain a balance of self-producing oils. I also only shampoo my scalp, and condition my hair starting from the ends, and making my way up. I pay extra attention to those dead ends.

I then realized that store-bought shampoos and conditioners are bad news, and decided to make my own hair product where I knew exactly what I was putting in my body.

While studying as a yoga teacher in India, I discovered Ayurvedic products, which are all-natural products that use specific plant-based ingredients to do what chemical products would. It was time to get new shampoo and conditioner, so I took the opportunity to try out an Ayurvedic one. I ended up finding an aloe vera 2 in 1 shampoo that made my hair feel amazing. So when I returned to California, I attempted to remake it.

Of course, I had to first go through some trial and error. I scanned through Pinterest for some recipes, and tried them out. I made a good call by using travel-sized toilet-tree bottles so I didn’t have to waste too much product if I made a mistake. The first couple of shampoo and conditioner recipes made my hair extremely oily. It looked like my hair was always wet. I quickly realized that the organic shampoo I used to use, before my magical Ayurvedic one, probably had similar ingredients to my trial products. Because it made my hair always look dirty too. After about two weeks of trying out different measurements and ingredients, I was getting ready put chemical products back in my hair out of frustration (don’t do it!!). But, instead, I decided to start over again and try something simpler.

Turns out, simple is better! All I had to do was fill my shampoo bottle with half Pure Castille Soap (I use Dr. Bronner’s) and half Aloe Vera gel (I looked for one that was as pure as possible). As for conditioner, I just used Aloe Vera gel. THAT’S IT. For fragrance, I played around with different essential oils. My castile soap already had lavender essential oil in it (there are different choices with Dr. Bronner’s), so I ended up changing up my conditioner whenever I ran out, such as lemongrass (earthy), ylang ylang (immune boosting), and peppermint (energizing). It’s so much more fun having control over my products!

I still would recommend shampooing and conditioning every other day, or skipping a few days. Also still focus on applying a small amount of shampoo to the scalp, and conditioning from the ends up. To make sure my hair didn’t get too oily, I took the time to massage the shampoo out of my scalp. It won’t be as easy as it is with chemical products. I also left my conditioner in a little longer (and avoided conditioning my scalp, instead focusing on the ends and body of my hair). Usually I leave in my conditioner while washing my face, then rinse it out. I don’t spend as much time rinsing out my aloe vera conditioner because technically it can be used as a leave-in conditioner when distilled with water.

Now keep in mind that my hair is different than yours, so you may need to adjust how much and where you need to apply your product. Also, if you’re new to transitioning your hair to chemical-free products, it will take some time for your hair to balance out how much oil to produce. It’s used being stripped by chemical products, so it’ll have to adjust to maintaining a healthy amount of oil.

I’d love to hear feedback about how it works out for you! Feel free to share any adjustments you made 🙂

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