Organic Hair Care: Make it at Home

The best way to have organic control over your hair care routine is by making your own shampoos and conditioners at home. You get to choose what essential and fragrance oils are used with the added bonus of being able to experiment with different formula combinations. By creating your own product, you can be secure in the knowledge that you are aware of every single ingredient and not have to worry about adding chemicals that you cannot even pronounce into contact with your body.

In creating an at home shampoo, many people use a base of castille soap. Now, castille soap is basically a vegetable based oil soap as opposed to most commercial soap bases which use a base of animal fat.

There are many varieties of castile soap that come from the natural oil base that they are made from. The most popular castile soap bases are: Olive oil, Hemp oil, Coconut Oil, Almond oil and Jojoba oil.

You have two options when it comes to building your shampoo from a castille soap base and that is to either to make it from scratch or buy a pre-made base from an organic soap maker.

If you plan on buying the castille base, some excellent organic soap makers are From Home Nature With Love's Organic Liquid Castile Base and Bath and Body Supplies Organic Castile Soap lines.

Once you have chosen your castile soap base, you can add your essential and/or fragrance oils to the mixture. Different oils will affect the hair in different ways depending on what you are looking for in a home made shampoo. For instance if you are looking to control dandruff and to sooth an itchy scalp, then you would add Tea Tree oil and Chamomile to your shampoo base. If you wanted to add extra shine to your hair with a great scent, then you would add Lemongrass and Rosemary.

Here are some oil and herb combinations that you can used based on creating a shampoo that begins with 4oz of castile soap for placement in an 8oz bottle.

• Dandruff Control: 1/2oz Tea Tree oil and 2 1/2oz strained Chamomile Tea.
• Extra Shine: 2 1/2 oz strained Lemongrass Tea and 1/2oz Rosemary oil.
• Control Oily Hair: 1/2oz Lavender oil and 2 1/2oz strained Sage tea.
• Thicken Hair: 1oz Rosemary oil and 1/2oz strained Nettles.

Once you have created your at home organic shampoo, you'll want to store the bottle in a cool and dark area. Because you are creating something using natural and organic ingredients, the product must be used and cannot have an indefinite shelf life as the chemical additive shampoos that are on the market today.

To create your own organic conditioner at home there is no need to use a base of castile soap. Along with mixing different ingredients for your personal preferences in making an organic shampoo at home, when making an organic at home conditioner there is room to play with different essential and fragrance oil combinations. For most organic conditioners, the popular choice is to use a base of plain organic yogurt.

If you do decide to use a yogurt base, keep in mind that the following information is for one to two applications of conditioning only. Yogurt based conditioners can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days but they are not typically a homemade product that you can let sit for long periods of time. Here are some organic homemade yogurt based conditioner recipes.

• Strengthening: Combine 1/4oz organic plain yogurt, 1 egg yolk and the zest of two lemons.
• Create Texture: Combine 1/4oz organic plain yogurt, 1 egg yolk and one smashed Avocado.
• Dandruff Control: Combine 1/4oz organic plain yogurt, 1/4 cup Coconut oil and 3 tablespoons Lime juice.
• Extra Moisturizing: Combine 4oz organic plain yogurt, 1 smashed banana and 1/2 cup honey. Leave mixture on for up to 40 minuets for a weekly organic conditioning treatment.

Making your own organic hair care at home can be an easy, fun and cheaper way to take care of your hair at home. The most important thing to remember is to have fun with experimenting with different combinations until you find the best overall product for your hair type and your lifestyle. If you would like to learn more about creating your own organic hair care products at home you can read through Natural Beauty at Home: More Than 250 Easy to Use Recipes for Body, Bath and Hair by Janice Cox.

Now that you know how to make your own organic shampoo and conditioner, you might be interested in several recipes to make your own organic hair dye to lighten, darken, and even turn you into a redhead.