Making Hair Conditioner
This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a LONG time. In fact, I bought the BTMS emulsifier specifically for this project over a year ago – which may prove to be a problem. My intentions are to try this out on our family and see how it works. (By the way, we have decided that we are NOT fans of felted soap, so I put my felting kit up for sale if anyone else wants to try it out!)
I combined two different recipes that I have seen, and came up with this:
9.9 oz. aloe vera juice
0.72 oz. BTMS emulsifier
0.36 oz. virgin coconut oil – the kind that smells like real coconuts!
0.12 oz. panthenol
0.6 oz. dimethicone
0.12 oz. silk extract
0.048 oz. Liquid Germall Plus (preservative)
0.1 oz. strawberry fragrance oil
0.05 oz. lemon essential oil
1 drop red 40
1 drop red 33
One recipe said that you need to heat the water and oil phases separately, then combine and add the dimethicone, silk extract, preservative and fragrance after it has cooled to 100 degrees. Others said to throw it all (except the preservative and fragrance) in a pyrex cup and melt it in the microwave, whisk, and be done with it. I chose that method!
All ingredients - EXCEPT preservative & fragrance
Everything is melted. Two minutes at half power, stir. Two more minutes at half power, stir.
Starting to whisk everything together.
Speeding up the cool down process with an ice bath
After adding preservative, fragrance and color
I wanted the conditioner to match the scent of another heavenly handmade product…my Salty Dawg Creme Shampoo from Gudonya Too. Success! (I use this shampoo once a week as a clarifier. It really makes your hair squeaky clean!)
However, the conditioner never did set up. It’s completely runny. Possibly because my emulsifier is over a year old! I’m going to be putting it in a spray bottle and using it that way for now. I’m also going to try this again, heating the water and oil phases separately and see if that makes a difference. If not, I’ll be shopping for more BTMS.
Anyone with experience making hair conditioner have any ideas why mine is runny?
January 16th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Too bad it didn’t set up! I just love strawberry and I love the nice pink shade you got. I’ll be very interested to hear how you like it, even though runny.
January 16th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
I make my own conditioner using BTMS also. I can’t see any reason why BTMS would go bad. I would wadger that you just need to melt more BTMS and add it to your conditioner until you are happy with the thickness. BTMS can also be used to make thick creams (lotions)so I think you just need to adjust the amount of BTMS you add. Kelly from Southern soapers has a great pdf on her website on how to use BTMS. http://southernsoapers.com/tools/har101/Conditioner-BTMS.pdf
Hope this helps!
Sarah
January 17th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I tried my “spray-on” conditioner in the shower this morning and it felt really great! Still can’t figure out why it’s so runny. There’s a froth on top of the liquid, and no matter how much I stir it up, the two won’t stay combined.
January 17th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
May I post this recipe on my blog? I would like to share with my readers.
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January 17th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Oh no! Maybe it will still work though…
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