Solid shampoo and conditioner bars are more popular than ever. They’re an excellent way to lose plastic bottles from your bathroom, they’re super handy take to the gym or pop in your suitcase to take on holiday (without the worry of it bursting open and ruining everything!) and they leave your hair feeling soft, silky and manageable.
Not to mention with the climate crisis at the forefront of everyone’s mind, we all want to do our bit. These bars are vegan and cruelty free. What’s more is they’re extremely economical and easy to make yourself, plus you can colour and scent them however you like!
Solid shampoo bar ingredients:
Makes 6 bars, approximately 60-70g each
Step 1:
- 240g SCI (sodium cocoyl isethionate) surfactant
- 40g cetearyl alcohol
- 30g conditioner pellets
- 8g cocoa butter, deodorised, certified organic, fair trade
- 60g decyl glucoside
Step 2
- 6g hydrolysed wheat protein
- 6g cococaprylate
- 4g lactic acid
- 8g essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice (we used geranium essential oil)
- 2g Geogard 221
What you’ll need from your own kitchen is a stick blender, a spatula, a knife and a face mask.
In a pot, melt the ingredients from Step 1.
Wear a face mask for this, keep any windows you can open, put on an extractor fan if you have one and don’t have children around. While they’re safe ingredients that are very soft on skin and hair, while you’re melting them the fumes from the SCI can be a bit harsh.
The SCI can take a while to melt but don’t leave it as you run the risk of it burning. Towards the end, blending it with the stick blender can help speed up the process and it gives you a much smoother final bar.
Blend/stir until the mixture comes together to form a paste-like consistency.
Once you’re satisfied that it’s all mixed together, take the jug off the heat and blend in Step 2 ingredients.
Be careful to put it down on a chopping board or something so as to not damage your nice bench!
This is the time to add colour if you wish to – 1-2 tsp should do it. Add a little bit at a time and blend until you’re happy with the depth of colour.
With your spatula and knife press the mixture into the cavities of the mould. It’s not the easiest consistency to work with so, if it’s getting a bit messy, you’re not doing a bad job! Take care to press it into the corners of the mould and pack it tight, then scrape over the top, taking off the excess and creating a clean finish. Repeat until you’ve used all the mixture. It sets quickly so you can always pop it back on the heat to re-melt in between filling cavities.
Place in the fridge to harden.
Now you have your plastic-free shampoo bars!
To use, wet your hair and stroke the shampoo bar along the strands to lather. Alternatively, rub the bar between your hands to create a lather. Massage it into your hair and scalp as you would with a liquid shampoo. Rinse out and then follow with a conditioner bar.
Leave the bar out to air dry, ready for its next use.
