Herbal Homemade Shampoo!
- Latha K
- Jul 12, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 15, 2021
I wanted to move back to my traditional hair shampoo powder which I used during my childhood in India as I knew that the shampoos that I was using had all sorts of chemicals.
I didn't know how to make a powder of all the herbs I used then as we don't have flour mills in the US.
Finally, after some searches, I made a simple shampoo at home.
The herbs are : Shikakai, Soap Nut, Dried Amla, Fenugreek seeds, and Neem powder. It is available in Amazon.
You may add hibiscus leaves if you want built in conditioner in your shampoo.
I used this home made shampoo after 20 years...and was so happy to have my beautiful wavy hair back!!!!!!!!
And, the best part of the shampoo was, it was liquid!!!! and not powder :) which gets stuck in your hair.
The foam was so thick because of the soap nuts, but when you apply the shampoo, it will not lather. Still, your hair will be cleaned.
My daughter and I tried the shampoo and here are some of our observations:
My hair felt very soft
Washing my hair took a very short time
My hair dried very fast
The amount of tangles in our hair reduced by a lot
The shampoo left a minimal, natural fragrance in our hair
My daughter had curly hair as a baby and was happy to see some of those curls come back!
There was very less frizz in her hair
Procedure to make the shampoo:
Ingredients: 1 handful of Shikakai, 1 handful of Dried Amla, 1 handful of Soap Nuts, 1.5 tbsp Fenugreek seeds, 2 tbsp Neem powder, and 2 litres of water, Hibiscus leaves and petals: 2 -3 (optional)
CLOSE YOUR EYES AND TAKE BATH AS IT MAY IRRITATE THE EYES
Soak the Shikakai, Dried Amla, Soap Nuts, and Fenugreek seeds in 1 litre of water overnight.
The next day, add another litre of water and the Neem powder.
Heat the mixture on medium flame for about 5 minutes.
Take it off the stove and let it soak for another 8 hours.
Now, boil the mixture for half an hour. If you are adding hibiscus, this would be the time to do so.
Let it cool (Next comes the hard part :) )
Remove the seeds from the Soap Nuts. If you don't want to do this, then use de-seeded soap nuts.
Squeeze the mixture to release the juices from the herbs (Kind of like kneading dough)
Using a sieve, filter the mixture. Make sure you squeeze out all the juices possible.
Refrigerate the squeezed herbs to be used to make shampoo again. (You can use the same herbs as long as the mixture foams)
Your shampoo is ready! Refrigerate the filtered liquid and take a little bit every time you wash your hair. This will last for 2 weeks and we could use it for 5 times!!
Try and let me know your thoughts in the comments section!
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