HOMEMADE SHAMPOO BARS

So simple just three ingredients...

 Outstandingly fabulous super sudding natural scented hair cleansing shampoo bar recipe that delivers everything I asked for, gorgeous hair, organic, natural and sustainable ingredients, simple to make, I am never going back to store bought !!!  

 I confess I have been avoiding making my own soaps for a quite a while, with a few failed attempts under my belt and a few Christmas presents that may have been a lovingly wrapped bar of soap when I gave them only to end up a gooey pile of fat on a friends wash basin the following morning had not inspired me to hurry back and try again.  What I needed was not to be afraid of using lye and the saponification process, turns out it is incredibly simple and no more dangerous than boiling an egg!

Prep time 10 mins / Cooking time 45 minutes / Setting time 4 hrs / Rack drying time 3 weeks

Your shampoo bar is ready to use immediately but leaving the bars to condition for three weeks improves the quality of the shampoo.

Ingredients

(makes 12 bars)

Measure exactly

986g coconut oil

168g lye

340g filtered water in glass jug

28g grapefruit essential oil

Equipment

1 saucepan and lid

1 metal spoon

1 ltr glass jug

small glass bowl

stick blender

glass mould (loaf tin)

parchment lining paper

Method

Place the coconut oil in your saucepan and on a really low and heat melt, meanwhile preferable outside take the jug of water and add the lye to the water, stirring for a few minutes, it is important to do this in that order, more below why.  Leave to cool (not un-attended) for five minutes then slowly add to the coconut oil, using your stick blender blend until you have ribbons (trace).

Pop the lid on and leave to cook for 45 minutes, periodically have a peek, you will see that the sides are rolling up the side of the saucepan and folding back down a bit like a rolling wave, if your heat is to high you may find the rising wave push the lid off.

You will know when your soap has saponified and is ready either use a ph indicator strip and you are looking for a ph between 7 - 10, the other way is the consistency should look like vaseline and there will be no puddles of oil on the top of the soap.  It is important that the lye has been cooked out otherwise the soaps ph will be to high and will burn your skin, more information below on this.

Spoon your soap into your mould  and leave to cool, this soap is to hard to cut once set, so after a couple of hours turn the soap out and cut into your bars, place on a wire rack and leave to air for a few weeks to improve the condition of your shampoo.  Store for future use.

WHY MAKE YOUR OWN SHAMPOO SOAP?

Why Not I Say!  Firstly it is great fun making your own products, it gives me a sense of pride knowing that I am being self sufficient and importantly knowing what is in the products my family uses, secondly for £5 I have over a years supply of excellent shampoo for my family, but lastly and most importantly for me it is made with natural ingredients there are no harsh petrochemicals and toxins in the shampoo soap which means it is greener for my family and the environment.  

Having said that, I was concerned about lye and assumed as the store brought lye comes with a bright orange toxic warning label it was a toxic chemical, something I would never use but then reading that the saponification process removes all trace of lye in the finished shampoo soap still left me concerned as I know with processing vegetable oils, companies use toxic chemicals that would otherwise kill you to separate the oil and then process off the toxic chemical so that the vegetable oil is fit for human consumption, this does not sit comfortably with me and I would never feed this to my family, so would I make and use soap with  method I whole heartily disagree with?

I did some further research on my lack of knowledge about lye and I discovered that unlike modern chemicals lye is a naturally occurring substance that has been used for thousands of years, this is a standard I am happy with, naturally occurring products, Nature vs Man Made.

Further research lead me to learn that that my great grandmother would have made her own lye by burning hardwood ashes, homemade lye allowed for the error of each batch being a little different, this meant that when adding the lye to a recipe there was the chance that too much lye could be added and during the cooking not all the lye would saponificate leaving some behind in the finished soap, this would mean the soap would cause skin irritations and mild burns.  By using store bought natural lye you will ensure quality control and safe soap making.

SO HOW DANGEROUS IS LYE?

Well how dangerous is boiling an egg?  It really is a case of respect, when adding lye to water you create a reaction called saponification of heat and vapour, this stage is not rocket science but you do need to respect the lye, just as you would respect a pan of boiling water, you would not go splashing that around would you!  When mixing your lye always do so in a well ventilated areas, preferably outside and wear gloves and goggles, maybe even a ventilation mask, devote your full attention to the task in hand, don't leave the lye un-attended and certainly don't let any little people near this process, 

SCIENCE BIT - SAPONIFICATION

That is my my word of the week !  What exactly is saponification, apart from a fun word to say!  Saponification is  a process that produces soap.  Animal or vegetable fats are the main ingredients that are saponified, These fats, triesters called triglycerides, are a mixture derived from diverse fatty acids.  Triglycerides can be converted to soap.  In a traditional process like this one, the triglyceride is mixed with lye which under heat accelerates cleavage of the ester bond and releases the fatty acid salt and glycerol making soap.  Homemade soap keeps the glycerol and that gives the soap more moisturising and nourishing properties, commercial soaps have no glycerol, it is removed and sold as a separated product, lowering the quality of some store brought soaps.