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Cleanse your hair gently with this DIY clarifying shampoo that uses natural surfactants to remove dirt and leave your hair clean and soft.
Because many of you have found me through my soap recipes (like my liquid Castile soap or my easy beginner soap), I often get requests for a soap-based shampoo. While I love making soap, I never use soap for my hair because it leaves my hair dry and unmanageable. Some people are able to cleanse their hair with Castile soap and are quite happy with it, but I’m not one of those people.
Why not use liquid Castile soap?
I’m not alone, though. Castile soap isn’t an ideal shampoo for hair because the pH of soap is high yet our hair and scalp have a more acidic pH. Not only can an alkaline shampoo increase the negative charge in the hair making the hair more prone to friction and damage, but it can also be irritating to your scalp.
In an attempt to remedy this issue, most people who wash their hair with soap or soap-based “shampoos” will follow it up with a vinegar rinse to lower the pH again. Not everybody reacts well to vinegar rinses either. I, again, am one of those people and I don’t like the feel of my hair after a vinegar rinse.
Choose natural surfactants
You want a “natural” alternative, but soap may not be the best option. So what’s left?
Natural surfactants, of course!
Surfactants have a bit of a bad rap. It’s partly because harsher surfactants like SLS Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate can be found in just about every conventional product at the supermarket. It can be found in everything from household cleaners to shampoos, shower gels, and even toothpaste! (You can make your own toothpaste sans SLS, too!)
I’m actually not even an SLS hater, to be honest. (Shocked?) I use it in my homemade version of Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds just like they do (I’ll share my recipe soon!), but I reserve it for general cleaning around the house. For my skin and hair, I choose milder, more natural surfactants instead!
With time, more natural surfactants are being developed to meet consumer demands! I wrote more about them and shared a list of some of my favorites in my post about working with natural surfactants! (If you aren’t familiar with natural surfactants, I recommend reading that post as a great starting point for making your own homemade products!)
Who is this shampoo best for?
Because this is a fairly gentle shampoo, it should work well with most, if not all, hair types.
Those who follow the curly girl method for developing waves or curls and keeping their hair hydrated can use this shampoo as a “low poo” alternative. (No, I didn’t come up with that term.) It makes a good starting point for beginning the process and for occasional washings when normally using co-wash.
You can use it as often as works best for your hair. I have been developing my natural waviness over the last few years by rarely using shampoos and sticking to very gentle ones when I do. I usually use this shampoo around once a week and for my other “washing,” I either co-wash with my homemade conditioner or I use a DIY conditioning shampoo. (Yet another recipe that I’ll be sharing with you shortly!)
Why make your own clarifying shampoo?
It’s very difficult these days to find shampoos free of harsher surfactants like SLS. When you make your own shampoo, you can control which surfactants you use.
Many shampoos also have other ingredients that may not be right for your hair. They may contain non-water soluble silicones, harsh preservatives, and artificial fragrances.
Customizing your DIY clarifying shampoo
What it comes down to, though, is that when you make a product, you can control the ingredients and customize the recipe to suit your needs. While most of us aren’t that in tune to our hair and will use just about any shampoo that doesn’t have harmful ingredients, those that are doing processes like the curly girl method to maintain perfectly hydrated curls and waves are often very in tune to what their hair needs in terms of vitamins and proteins. Your hair may show more need for protein, for example, so you can adjust the amount you add to your hair care products. Looking for a shampoo without protein, you can make it without too! Making your own shampoo allows you to fine tune it to perfectly suit your hair from batch to batch.
Vitamins and Proteins
In this shampoo, I chose to use d-panthenol (provitamin B5) to help nourish the hair, but you could also add some hydrolyzed wheat protein or silk protein to give your hair extra nutrients. (Just use the suggested range for each particular ingredients, as suggested by the supplier, and exchange any water-soluble additions for part of the water in the recipe.)
Distilled water or floral waters
In the shampoo in the photos, I actually used an infusion of peppermint leaves in distilled water as the water component of the recipe. I like mint for shampoos because it leaves your scalp feeling nice and refreshed, and just feels clean to me. That refreshing feeling is said to help stimulate the circulation in the scalp and may help stimulate hair growth.
Prefer to use a floral water or some other infusion? Go for it. It’s your shampoo. Nettle tea would also make a good base as nettle is also said to be great to help fight hair loss. You could have the best of both worlds by using a nettle infusion and some peppermint essential oils.
The surfactants
You can experiment by changing up some of the surfactants in this shampoo. I used a mix of non-ionic surfactants (coco glucoside and decyl glucoside) as well as an amphoteric surfactant (coco betaine) to help boost the foaming. Because my husband likes a lot of lather to his shampoo, and I’m not using any of the harsher anionic surfactants like SLS, I’m using a relatively high percentage of surfactants in this recipe. You can reduce the percentage of surfactants added to make for an even gentler shampoo, but you will probably find that it will also lather a bit less.
Natural DIY Clarifying Shampoo
Materials
- 88 g distilled water (or infusion, or floral water)
- 40 g coco betaine
- 25 g coco glucoside
- 25 g decyl glucoside
- 10 g glycerin
- 4 g xanthan gum
- 4 g d-panthenol
- 2 g peppermint essential oil or other essential oils of choice
- 2 g sharomix or other natural preservative in percentage necessary for your chosen preservative
Instructions
- Mix together the glycerin and xanthan gum until the xanthan gum is fully incorporated into the glycerin. Pre-mixing the xanthan gum into the glycerin will help ensure that you don't get lumps in your shampoo as xanthan gum can be tricky to mix into water.
- Once you've incorporated the xanthan gum into the glycerin, you can begin to add the other ingredients. Slowly stir in each ingredient keeping in mind that vigorous stirring can cause foam production, making it more difficult to work with the shampoo.
- Once you've finished mixing together all of the ingredients, check the pH of the shampoo with a pH test strip. You want your shampoo to fall in a slightly acidic range. (A pH of 4-5.5 is an ideal range to aim for.) You also want to make sure that the pH is suitable for the preservative that you are using.
- If you need to adjust the pH, you can bring it down with the addition of a few drops of lactic acid or can raise the pH with either baking soda or sodium hydroxide (aka. lye). Otherwise, you are ready to bottle and use your natural homemade clarifying shampoo.
A Beginner’s Guide to Working with Natural Surfactants
Hi Tracy! I’ve been gathering the ingredientes to make this shampoo at home, but I can’t seem to find decyl or lauryl glucoside here in my country, only coco, is it ok if I use only the coco glucoside? Ir do you recommend finding something else?
Thank you!
Hi Lucia,
Yes, that should be fine. They’re pretty similar. It may have slightly less foam, but it’s probably not something you’d notice. You could also slightly increase the amount of one or both of the surfactants if you feel it’s not cleaning deeply enough. I’d try it with the substitution first, though, and go from there.
Hi, absolutely love your article. I tried them, and had to add latic acid to lower the PH. However, the shampoo becomes cloudy, foamy and really thick. Do you have any idea why? Is it because of the lactic acid, or simply because I stir more (while adding lactic acid)
Thank you, your comment is much appreciated!
Hi Adi,
I’m guessing it’s probably more due to the stirring. By stirring it, the xanthan was better spread out throughout the shampoo which would make it thicker. The cloudiness also is probably due to fine bubbles that formed while mixing. Normally, that cloudiness will settle down once the shampoo is left to settle for a day or two.
If you find it’s too thick, try reducing the amount of xanthan gum the next time you make the shampoo.
I’ve found that different xanthan gums (from different suppliers or even different types like normal vs. transparent xanthan) thicken different amounts.
I want to add that warning when I update this post because you may need to slightly adjust the amount to get the desired texture with the gum you’re using.
Thank you Tracy for your response! Much appreciated
Hello Tracy,
I’ve found some of your other recipes to be delightful, and I would like to make both your shampoo and conditioner recipes. Generally I prefer to work in volume instead of weight for measuring out ingredients. Is there a simple conversion I can use for your recipes? Also, I only have coco betaine and coco glucoside, so is it ok to substitute the decyl glocoside with either of these to produce similar foaming and gentleness results?
Cheers,
Crystal
Hi Crystal,
I’ve always been taught to formulate cosmetics by weight because they should be really precise. It’s not a big deal if you sort of eyeball, by volume, some of the ingredients. The problem with that, though, is that the preservative amount needs to be precise and it is calculated by a weight percentage. For example, most preservatives are used at around 1% of the recipe by weight.
I don’t really know any other way to do that.
It’s really easy to use a [eafl id="19291" name="jeweler's scale" text="jeweller's scale"] for small batches though. You get used to adding a small amount, taring, and then adding the next ingredient. If you make soaps or large batches of other cosmetics, I’d suggest a [eafl id="19290" name="kitchen scale" text="kitchen scale"] instead of a jeweller’s scale.
As for the substitution, decal glucoside is very similar to coco glucoside. You can just use that. 😉
Hi Tracy mem
I am very thank ful to you for great shampoo making recipe.
Can I use reetha extract in place of distilled water?
Because of enhance cleanse by reetha.
Hi Avinash,
I haven’t tried it personally, but I think it should be fine to do that. I can’t imagine that it would cause any sort of strange reaction with the other ingredients. That said, you may want to test it out with a very small batch first to make sure it works out well.
You could also try using a combination of reetha and water at first, to see how it goes.
Depending on how the extract is made, it may make it slightly harder to preserve the shampoo. (Any sort of organic material left in the liquid, like plant powders or pieces of plants, can cause microbial growth.)
That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, just make sure to strain out any plant material and keep an eye on your product. It may be best to make smaller batches that will get used more quickly, just in case.
Hello Tracy. I’m so greatfull that you share all your knowledge with us!!! I’ ve already made your shampoo bar and hair lotion and I’ m speechless with the difference in my hair! I wanted to ask you if I can use coco glucoside, instead of decyl and guar gum, instead of xanthan. Thank you very much ☺️
Hello Persefoni,
I’m so happy to hear it’s going well for you!
Yes, those changes should be fine. I haven’t tried with guar gum yet, so I’m not sure about the exact texture, but theoretically, it’s fine. Coco and decyl glucoside are very similar, so that change won’t be very noticeable.
Can I replace coco betaine with foaming Apple?
Hi Misha,
I have never used foaming apple (and hadn’t even heard about it until now). From what I have read about it, though, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Experiment with it and change up the amounts, as needed, to get the right amount of lather/cleansing for your purpose!
Hi Tracy,
Ive commented on other recipes and am a huge fan of your blog. After taking a look at your shampoo soap bar recipe and looking further into SCI, I was wondering if this ingredient could be used in your clarifying shampoo or baby wash, maybe as a substitute to one of the other surfactants?..which leads to my next question..is SCI gentler than the other surfactants used in your clarifying shampoo? I’d like to make the gentlest, yet effective, shampoo if possible. I’d greatly appreciate any insight!
Thanks 😊
Thank you Natasha,
I really appreciate it!
Yes, you could definitely choose to use SCI if you like for making the shampoo. It’s an anionic surfactant that is mild. It may provide more cleansing than some of the others.
That said, the other surfactants I used here are mild too. The glucosides are non-ionic and the coco betaine is amphoteric.
I guess when I formulated this, I was working on making a simple recipe. Because this doesn’t use any solid surfactants, it doesn’t need to be heated, etc.
At the time, I hadn’t worked much with SCI yet.
It’s really up to you. They are all mild. SCI may actually be a more effective cleanser theoretically. It could be combined with either of the others used here. I’m not sure it would be considered milder than the others. They are all pretty mild. The mildness (and effectiveness as a cleanser) will also depend on the concentration used in your shampoo, of course.
Just keep in mind that to use SCI in a liquid shampoo that you’ll have to heat it with the water phase to dissolve it.
Awesome, ill definitely play around with it when I get my next batch of ingredients and let you know how it goes, thanks so much! 🙂
This is probably a dumb question, but is it possible to make a cleanser that only uses an amphoteric surfactant as the main cleansing ingredient, like just Coco betain, or would that be ineffective to remove enough dirt?