DIY Shampoo Bar Recipe
This consciously formulated homemade shampoo bar is packed with hair-loving ingredients to gently cleanse and nourish your scalp—without the harsh chemicals or single-use plastics. Ditch the bottle and switch to this eco-friendly, natural alternative for healthy, beautiful hair!
Yield: 2 100g bars
Cost: $30
Equipment
- double boiler or heat proof bowl
Materials
Heated Phase
- 84 g sodium cocoyl isethionate powder
- 18 g cocamidopropyl betaine
- 12 g BTMS-50
- 5 g cocoa butter
- 4 g cetyl alcohol
- 62 g sodium lauryl sulfoacetate powder
- 7 g sodium lactate
Cool Down Phase:
- 4 g fragrance oil
- 3 g hydrolyzed protein rice, baobab, oat or silk
- 1 g optiphen plus
Instructions
Heated Phase:
- Prepare a double boiler by adding water to a heavy bottomed sauce pan.Add 84g sodium cocoyl isethionate powder, 18g cocamidopropyl betaine, 12g BTMS -50, 4g cetyl alcohol, and 5g of cocoa butter to a heat safe container. I use a glass Pyrex measuring cup.
- Bring the double boiler to a bare simmer, and heat the ingredients until they melt into a thick paste, stirring regularly. This can take a little while, as BTMS-50 can be really difficult to melt. It usually takes 25-30 minutes for my blend to melt.
- Remove from heat and add 62g sodium lauryl sulfoacetate and 7g sodium lactate to the mixture and stir until completely combined. The mixture is quite thick at this point and needs to be mashed together to combine.
Cool Down Phase:
- Use an infrared thermometer to take the temperature of the surfactant blend. Once the temperature drops below 104f (40C) we can begin the cool down phase.
- Add 4g fragrance oil, 3g baobab or rice protein, and 1g of Optiphen Plus. Mix the shampoo bar base thoroughly.
Mold The Bars:
- Press the warm dough firmly into molds, ensuring to remove all air pockets. If you don't have a cylinder mold, you can use a solid muffin tin, a slider burger press, a firm soap mold, or do like I did and use a moon pie press.
- Allow the shampoo bars to firm up for 12 hours before removing from the molds.
- Cure the bars for 48 hours before using.
Mold The Bars With A Moon Pie Press:
- Dust your moon pie press with a little cornstarch or rice starch to prevent sticking. Shape the shampoo dough into a rough ball, dust the outside of the ball with rice starch then place it on a sheet of parchment paper.
- Place the moon pie press on top of the dough ball, and press down on the plunger firmly - holding the base down to avoid the dough from spilling out the sides. Once the plunger has fully compressed the shampoo bar, stop.
- To remove the shampoo bar from the moon pie press, press the plunger while lifting up the moon pie press, the bar should pop right out.
- Allow the bar to cure at least 48 hours before using.
How To Use A DIY Shampoo Bar:
- Wet your hair in the shower as normal, then wet the shampoo bar, rubbing gently in your hands.
- Rub the bar along your hair line, down your part, along the nape of your neck, then part your hair in a few places and give the roots a little scrub with the shampoo bar.
- Using your fingertips, scrub your scalp as you normally would with liquid shampoo until a thick lather appears.
- Rinse, then condition as normal.