Homemade Shampoo

I decided to use this concoction for my hair, may sound weird, but it works. When I was a child I've had this dandruff problem. I used the special anti-dandruff shampoos, some work, some don't. Now I've used this easy and cheap concoction for the past month and it has reduced the dandruff and makes my hair full and soft.

Here is what I do a couple times a week, either at sink or in shower:

Wet hair, dissolve 1/2 cup baking soda in warm water, pour on hair, rub in. This will exfoliate the scalp and hair follicles. Next I pour 1/2 cup vinegar over my hair and let it fizz. Scrub and massage in, I let it sit for some time, say 2-5 minutes. Then rinse.

My hair is soft at root and sometimes a little dry at ends, for not using commercial shampoo and only using this concoction it cleans my hair very good and my dandruff is under control. Here is picture of my scalp. Our son, we just noticed, has some dandruff on top of his scalp. I'll start posting on him to show the progress of using the baking soda and vinegar concoction to reduce dandruff.

Homemade Dish Soap

Here is my next project, homemade dish soap. For obvious reasons, we do not have space for dish washer, therefore, we have to wash dishes by hand. I am super interested in making all these detergents, soaps, body care, tooth care, and anything else we use daily, from items I can easily obtain and without a bunch of harsh chemicals and without breaking our pocketbook. With this soap I used all ingredients I already have: grated soap, vinegar, water, and tea tree oil.

2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup grated soap

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp tea tree oil

I boiled water, added grated soap let it dissolve, added vinegar, let cool then add teat tree oil. After it cooled I then poured into a clean jar. My first batch is pictured below. I placed it in this old pickle jar and cut a hole in the lid, then stuck a pump in it. 

So far, the soap thickened in a couple hours after cooled. I had to strain some of the grated soap that did not dissolve, so it would not clog the pump. I've used this for dishes and noticed it does not bubble up like commercial products, but it cuts the grease very good, which for us without a water heater is a nice thing. Sometimes when we wash a greasy pot or pan in cold water it just swishes the grease around. I will keep testing and tweaking, and update.