Natural Shampoo Alternatives

[ktani]

Aside from refridgeration, I take certain precautions with preparing catnip tea. I do not steralize anything with chemicals but I do follow this precedure; wash out the shampoo bottle I use with liquid soap evey time between use, same with the mug, creamer (to pour with), tea strainer, saucer (used to cover the mug, pour boiled water into/over and rinse the mug, tea strainer, saucer and pyrex measureing cup before making a new batch. I do not use boiled water for the creamer (I do give it a fresh rinse with water though.

[Nizhoni]

The basic recipe is: 1 whole egg mixed with one teaspoon honey - mix well until the honey is dissolved and then add a squirt lemon juice (or citric acid or ascorbic acid or any other ingredient which is acidic). Mix well again.
Sometimes I add some henna or cassia to make it less runny and some skin-safe EOs if there are scalp imbalances of some sort or just for scent.
I apply it to wet and already rinsed hair under the shower and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes, depending on how greasy my hair is. Rinse out with warm water. And following it with an acidic rinse, chamomile tea with a pinch of ascorbic-acid, in my case.

Okey, now I have lots of questions here.
How much ascorbic acid to you use for the shampoo? And where do you buy it, is it those blue little bags att the grocery store? Do you dissolve the grains before use? And can I do the rinse with only ascorbic acid and water, if so, what ratios?

[Finoriel]

I hope I can help you here, but being a fellow European may still not help with stores and package colour . I bought my ascorbic acid at a chemist´s shop and it´s a powder in a white plastic container. Usually you should get it at the supplements aisle of most food stores or at a pharmacy. As long as it says 100% ascorbic acid / vitamin C it´s the same stuff.
For the shampoo I use just a tiny pinch of it. Acid in combination with egg lowers the temperature where the protein denatures > the infamous cooked egg effekt. Not sure how brave you are, but I hate washing my hair with cold water so mixing too much ascorbic acid into the egg would be a bad idea. I prefer warm water and as long as the shapoo is not too acidic I never had problems with the egg becoming scrambledegg textured. A small pinch is safe, makes the cuticle ly smooth while washing and you can still use warm water. No need to torture oneself with cold water in winter
For the rinse I use a more generous amount of ascorbic acid on half a liter water/tea. I just go by what my hair seems to ´prefer´ (as much as necessary to be effective) which is about 1/4 tea spoon of ascorbic acid. The mixture tastes noticeably sour, but not as sour as vinegar would for example, sorry no pH level tested. Your hair may show good results with less acid, or you may need a bit more, that´s something which varys from head to head. Just try and start with a smaller amount working your way up until you reach a good concentration for your hair.

[Nizhoni]

Thanks, then I can look for the ascorbic acid the next time I'm grocery shopping.

Can I use conditioner after the egg wash? Is there no need for it? My hair of generally dry and always need conditioning. What is the difference between vinegar rinses and ascorbic/citric acid rinses, can they be used the same way? (I am not considering vinegar washes instead of ascorbic acid, I really hate the smell.) Sorry for all the questions.

But I guess I have to give up my routine of washing my hair when in the sauna if I'm going to use egg washes.

[Finoriel]

Don´t worry about asking many questions that´s what a forum is made for.

For me there is no need to use conditioner after an egg-wash. Eggs are cleaning very gentle and also have conditioning properties (think of mayonnaise deep treatment). I would say, first time try it without conditioning, to see if it works for you. If not you can still condition afterwards the next time.
For me an acidic rinse completely replaces conditioner, because I´m cleaning my hair as gentle as possible, which does not strip my hair from all oils, so there is simply no need to add oils or other film-building things afterwards. I rarely need deep-treatments any more. If it happens that I leave on the egg-shampoo for too long and it cleaned too good, I can still add some oil as a leave in after my hair has dried. But most times there´s no need to do that... and I´m a low maintenance person, I refuse to do unnecessary things.
Depending on the vinegar (apple cider for example) some people swear it has good properties for the skin. I myself did not notice a difference, besides the fact that I find the smell unpleasant and prefer to use red or white vine vinegar for cooking so rarely have it at home anyways. Same with lemon or other citrus fruit juice.
The powdered stuff like ascorbic acid or citric acid has a shelf live for ages. I have ascorbic acid at home anyways and the citric acid I use for cleaning and to decalcify my coffee machine. They do not smell at all, are very cheap, long lasting and they do not stain my hair, shower or towel. I prefer to use the ascorbic acid though, it´s not as acidic as citric acid so I do not need to be that careful with the amount I use. Citric acid used slarvig can become too strong easily, causing unpleasant effects.
Generally all acidic rinses can be used the same way. Pour over head after you are finished with the cleansing part of hair-washing. Some prefer to have the acidic rinse as final part and do not rinse out the rinse with water, some do. Matter of taste I guess. Just be careful with the pH-level when experimenting with different acid sources, some vinegars are more concentrated than others.

depends on how hot your sauna is. I avoid any treatments in there because of the wooden benches and possibly staining them. Just shower and egg-wash your hair before entering the sauna and when you are finished with the sauna, shower / wet down your hair again and finish off with the acidic rinse.

[Nizhoni]

Thank you so much for all your answers!

I'll be back if I have more questions.

[HotRag]

About ascorbic acid in egg wash:

[...]A small pinch is safe, makes the cuticle ly smooth while washing and you can still use warm water.

I wonder if you know if the effect on the cuticle is due to the pH only in this case (I guess so, but ask anyway to hear opinion from others).
If so, do you know what pH is "safe" for not "open" the cuticle?

I tested the pH on my "whipped" egg, and it was about 8.
First time i added ACV until I got to pH 4.
Second time I just squirted a bit ACV in it, and tested. It had pH 6. I went for that, cause low pH seams to dry my hair and scalp.

[Finoriel]

You and more questions are always welcome Nizhoni .

Hmm, HotRag I´m not sure if I got the exact point of your question. Sorry if I´m explaining something you did not ask. It´s been a long brain freezing cold day and I´m on my way to sauna.
My "safe" comment was regarding the amount of acid lowering the cooking-point of the egg . And more than a small pinch of acid is not needed to make the cuticle lie smooth.
I checked that once under the microscope and as soon as the mixture tasted slightly sour the cuticle looked "very dense packed", if that makes sense.
I do not have a pH-level where the exact point is where the cuticle does that, sorry. Nor do I know if that would work for every hair... depending on how healthy/damaged/old/worn out the cuticle is, I guess that could be different.

[HotRag]

Hmm, HotRag I´m not sure if I got the exact point of your question. Sorry if I´m explaining something you did not ask. It´s been a long brain freezing cold day and I´m on my way to sauna.
My "safe" comment was regarding the amount of acid lowering the cooking-point of the egg . And more than a small pinch of acid is not needed to make the cuticle lie smooth.
I checked that once under the microscope and as soon as the mixture tasted slightly sour the cuticle looked "very dense packed", if that makes sense.
I do not have a pH-level where the exact point is where the cuticle does that, sorry. Nor do I know if that would work for every hair... depending on how healthy/damaged/old/worn out the cuticle is, I guess that could be different.

I think you got my question right.

I would like a microscope ^_^ Aah, my kids have a cheap toy microscope, I will try if I can see cuticle with it.

For now I just have pH tester, and of course I will taste the mixture and test what different pH-levels tastes like.

[HotRag]

Ok, I found the microscope. But nope, couldn't see the cuticle.
I then washed one hair with SLS and one with regular hard soap. They did not look any different in the microscope.
So I assume the micsoscope is not good enough.

It says X100 but is a cheap one. I guess it is the same as with cheap telescopes (I have one cheap and one not cheap telescope - both with same opening size in front, but big difference in quality of observed objects).