Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Homemade Herbal Shampoo - Tutorial

The girls are getting ready for showing projects and doing a demonstration at the County Fair this year.  Sophia's demonstration is about different ways that herbs can be used.  She will show that one of the ways herbs are used is with personal care products. 

In preparation for her demonstration, we made homemade herbal shampoo using herbs from our garden as well as dried herbs and flowers from the co-op.  All the herbs and flowers are organically grown. 

STEP ONE - GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES

You'll need:

• Basic plain shampoo or castile soap (we used Dr. Bronner's Unscented Baby Soap - liquid form)
• Glycerin
• Your favorite herbs (fresh or dried)
• An empty bottle (about 20 ounces - we used 16 ounces and had some extra shampoo leftover)

For the herbs, you will need either:
1/4-1/2 cup of dried herbs
1/2-2/3 cup fresh herbs

You can also add a few tablespoons of dried citrus zest to the mixture as well.

The amount you use depends on how strong you like your herbal shampoo to smell. Some herbs have a stronger smell than others do, so you might need just a small amount of one herb while needing a larger amount of another.

Sophia measuring fresh rosemary.

Note:  For one batch of shampoo, we used 1/4 cup dried lavender and 1/4 cup dried rose buds.  For the other shampoo, we used 1/3 cup fresh rosemary and 1/3 cup fresh mint. 

STEP TWO - STEEP HERBS

Mix the herbs with 2 cups of water in a pot on the stove and heat without boiling for about 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Let the herbs steep for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stirring lavender and rose buds.

STEP THREE - STRAIN THE HERBS

You can either strain the herbs from the water, and move on to the next step, or you can put the water and herb mixture in a blender to reduce the size of the chunks of herbs and leave them in your shampoo. It is all a matter of preference. (I strained the herbs and flowers from the water.  A few pieces snuck into the water, but not many.)

Straining the water from the rosemary and mint
after steeping the herbs for 30 minutes.


STEP FOUR - ADD CASTILE SOAP TO SCENTED WATER

Add 1 cup of basic unscented shampoo or castile soap to the scented water and stir or whisk gently.

Stirring castile soap into the scented water.

STEP FIVE - ADD GLYCERIN

Add 1 cup of glycerin to the mixture and stir or whisk well.


Pouring glycerine into shampoo.

STEP SIX - PUT INTO A BOTTLE

Pour your homemade herbal shampoo into a bottle and enjoy!

Sophia pouring shampoo into a bottle
while I hold the funnel.

The lavender-rose shampoo turned out much darker than the rosemary-mint shampoo.  Both smell equally strong, so there doesn't seem to be a difference whether we used dry or fresh herbs. 

However, there is something to be said for being able to go to your garden and pick what you want your shampoo to smell like...without all the chemicals that store-bought shampoos have in them.

The girls worked together to
fill Olivia's bottle of shampoo.

The girls are so excited to use the shampoo, and each likes the scent of shampoo that they made.






12 comments:

Fairy Tale Mama said...

Very cool project. I always enjoy your do it yourself posts. :-)

Anonymous said...

great tutorial!!

eidolons said...

I'm going to have to try this! I noticed in your banner that you have a beeswax heart.. did you make those for a Waldorf yahoo swap? I got one and we *love* it! My youngest son loves to point to it in our playroom window. (:

Melissa Plank said...

Very nice, I love natural hand/home made products, thank you for the instructions!

Lady Farmer said...

Thanks for the fun and informative tutorial on Homemade Herbal Shampoo! I do want to give this a try. I may have to change up the herbs, though, for different color hair ~ blonde.
Visiting from Homestead Revival Preparedness Challenge.

JoyFilled said...

I may have to try your recipe! I am using a homemade herbal shampoo that I posted about recently on my own blog, but I'm always up for trying other things to see what suits me best!!

Unknown said...

Great tutorial! I'm planning on trying it. I'm a homeschooling and adoptive mom also. When my children were younger I followed Waldorf principles, though now with teens we are a bit more eclectic.

Abbi said...

Natural smells are so much nicer than the chemical ones! That looks like a fun project. I have been making my own shampoo as well but want to still do some more experimenting and research.

Looking at your profile it looks like we share a lot of interests. You made a mention of MN in another post. I was curious if you live there- we live in Northern MN. I would love to have you visit my blog: Proverbs31living.blogspot.com .

Unknown said...

Good for Sophia! Well done! I'm sure you'll do just as well and better at the Fair.

Jill said...

How fantastic to be able to make your own shampoo scents! Great tutorial!

Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
Hope you have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

Jami @ An Oregon Cottage said...

You've made this seem very easy- thanks for the inspiration to try and for sharing at the Tuesday Garden Party!

-Jami
An Oregon Cottage

Lynn said...

Thank you! Sounds like a fun project to do.