Homemade Herbal Shampoo - Tutorial

The girls are getting ready for showing projects and doing a demonstration at the County Fair this year.  Sophia's demonstration is about different ways that herbs can be used.  She will show that one of the ways herbs are used is with personal care products. 

In preparation for her demonstration, we made homemade herbal shampoo using herbs from our garden as well as dried herbs and flowers from the co-op.  All the herbs and flowers are organically grown. 

STEP ONE - GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES

You'll need:

• Basic plain shampoo or castile soap (we used Dr. Bronner's Unscented Baby Soap - liquid form)
• Glycerin
• Your favorite herbs (fresh or dried)
• An empty bottle (about 20 ounces - we used 16 ounces and had some extra shampoo leftover)

For the herbs, you will need either:
1/4-1/2 cup of dried herbs
1/2-2/3 cup fresh herbs

You can also add a few tablespoons of dried citrus zest to the mixture as well.

The amount you use depends on how strong you like your herbal shampoo to smell. Some herbs have a stronger smell than others do, so you might need just a small amount of one herb while needing a larger amount of another.

Sophia measuring fresh rosemary.

Note:  For one batch of shampoo, we used 1/4 cup dried lavender and 1/4 cup dried rose buds.  For the other shampoo, we used 1/3 cup fresh rosemary and 1/3 cup fresh mint. 

STEP TWO - STEEP HERBS

Mix the herbs with 2 cups of water in a pot on the stove and heat without boiling for about 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Let the herbs steep for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stirring lavender and rose buds.

STEP THREE - STRAIN THE HERBS

You can either strain the herbs from the water, and move on to the next step, or you can put the water and herb mixture in a blender to reduce the size of the chunks of herbs and leave them in your shampoo. It is all a matter of preference. (I strained the herbs and flowers from the water.  A few pieces snuck into the water, but not many.)

Straining the water from the rosemary and mint

after steeping the herbs for 30 minutes.

STEP FOUR - ADD CASTILE SOAP TO SCENTED WATER

Add 1 cup of basic unscented shampoo or castile soap to the scented water and stir or whisk gently.

Stirring castile soap into the scented water.

STEP FIVE - ADD GLYCERIN

Add 1 cup of glycerin to the mixture and stir or whisk well.

Pouring glycerine into shampoo.

STEP SIX - PUT INTO A BOTTLE

Pour your homemade herbal shampoo into a bottle and enjoy!

Sophia pouring shampoo into a bottle

while I hold the funnel.

The lavender-rose shampoo turned out much darker than the rosemary-mint shampoo.  Both smell equally strong, so there doesn't seem to be a difference whether we used dry or fresh herbs. 

However, there is something to be said for being able to go to your garden and pick what you want your shampoo to smell like...without all the chemicals that store-bought shampoos have in them.

The girls worked together to

fill Olivia's bottle of shampoo.

The girls are so excited to use the shampoo, and each likes the scent of shampoo that they made.