Great Cakes Soapworks

I LOVE the hair conditioner that I made last week! Even though it’s runny and I have to spray it on my hair… The main thing I’ve noticed is that I am losing less hair every time I wash it. Less hair comes out when I comb it after washing, and there are fewer hairs coming out when I apply mousse. Not a dramatic difference – I probably used to lose 20-30 hairs every time I washed it (not sure how you would really count them), and now I’m estimating 10-15. I don’t know why it works that way, but it’s enough to be noticeable from using it for less than a week.

If you missed my post a couple days ago about how I made the first batch of hair conditioner, you will want to refer to it here – because I made another batch of hair conditioner yesterday which turned out much better, and I will be referring back to the original methods and recipe to let you know what I think went wrong.

Last time, I threw all the ingredients (except the preservative, fragrance and color) into a pyrex cup and heated them all together. This time I warmed the water and oil phases separately, then combined. By the way, when the supplier website warns you that the BTMS heats up quickly, they aren’t kidding! My digital thermometer maxed out and just said “HI” – as in too high to read this temperature, not “Hi, how are you doing today?” Because it would just be creepy for a thermometer to talk to you. Anyway, the odd thing about the BTMS is that it also sets up solid again real quick, so even as I poured the oil phase – which was too high of a temperature to register on my thermometer – into the water phase, it left quite a bit in the cup. However, the conditioner DID set up and behave the way I would have expected it to the first time.

So what went wrong the first time? Obviously, my BTMS hasn’t gone bad. I was really starting to wonder, since I had never smelled BTMS before and it was a bit rank, to be quite honest. So I asked my soapmaking friend April if it’s supposed to have an odor, and she responded, “Yes and it is not a good one!” That made me feel a bit better.

Here’s my conclusion as to why the first batch did not set up: the high percentage of dimethicone (a silicone oil that adds extra lubrication and de-tangling properties) mixed in at the beginning. This time I added the dimethicone and silk extract after the emulsion had cooled a bit, which seemed to work just fine.

Second batch is thicker, but still pretty thin for conditioner. No color added.

I am already planning my next batch. I want to try putting the aloe juice, panthenol, BTMS and extra virgin coconut oil in a cup together to melt, and I’m feeling pretty confident that it will work. As long as I add the dimethicone and silk extract after it has cooled to 120 degrees, then add preservative and fragrance (and perhaps color) after it has cooled under 100 degrees.

Is anyone else inspired to make their own hair conditioner now?

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