“Do you make a natural shampoo?”

This seems to be one of the inquiries that we’re getting a lot these days and the answer isn’t always an easy one. Of course you can use our natural soap as a gentle and cleansing shampoo (our 2 year old loves it!) but the fact that it doesn’t contain the oil stripping detergents found in commercial shampoos means that you might find your hair moisturized but a little flat.  This doesn’t really matter if you’re a guy with a shorter hair style (I love the rosemary & mint liquid soap for my hair wash) but if you have long flowing locks you may have some issues with tangles. This isn’t only true of our soaps but for most natural soaps in general and I think it is one of the only main drawbacks to using naturally made soap.

Now not being as content as I was with having a great soap that did wonders only for the skin, my wonderful wife wanted to find a way to use our soap as her shampoo as well. Like many others she was pretty disgusted by the ingredients and artificial stabilizers, preservatives, and fragrances in all the shampoos she looked at (even those so called “botanical” ones).  So after having little to no luck she decided to do a little research of her own and was pleasantly surprised with what she found.

A simple apple cider vinegar rinse has been used for generations as a finishing rinse for hair. The health benefits of apple cider vinegar are enormous, (literally enough to devout an entire blog too, so I won’t get into it here) but diluted with water and used after a shampooing with natural soap, the vinegar rinse leaves the hair soft, shiny and manageable. Now if you’re like me you’re probably thinking that a vinegar rinse is going to leave your hair smelling of salad dressing but have no fear; I was pleasantly surprised to find only a faint scent of apple as I took a deep breath of my clever wife’s beautiful hair hours after she had used it.

Here’s a quick sample of her hair rinse recipe:

1 part apple cider vinegar (Bragg seems to be her favorite)

6 parts water

Mix together in an old shampoo or water bottle and you’re ready to go. Simply apply the rinse after you’ve rinsed the suds out of your hair, let sit for 1 minute and then rinse out. This great rinse is also perfect for hair damaged by coloring and styling so even if you aren’t ready to use a soap as your shampoo you will probably find some benefit from its use.

So where does this leave us? Well with a little persistence and research on my wife’s part, we can now give a pretty straight forward answer when people ask us if we offer a natural shampoo. Also, in full disclosure I must confess that we are so impressed with how well the rinse works, we are now committed to creating a ready to use version of the rinse with added moisturizers and essential oils for even softer and more beautiful hair. We’re hoping to have this ready for our wonderful customers sometime this summer, offering it as a companion to our natural liquid soap and natural hair pomade.

We love our customers and we always take your questions and comments to heart. Sometimes it just takes a persistent spouse to help us get the job done!