I have had many thoughts about creating a hair conditioning bar over the past twelve months, but for one thing or another I had trouble getting my ideas as far as the actual workshop.
I want to keep my products natural (as COSMOS and ECOCert define this) so my research has taken some time, examining suggested ingredients only to find hidden in the small print that they often have detergents blended in, or they originate from the petroleum industry.
However, this week I have found the time to throw myself into my product develeopment journey once more.
I firstly settled on the creation of a formulation for a hair conditioner designed to be an emollient hair conditioner bar, light enough not to weigh the hair down, for it to be able to sit on the hair for a few minutes, and for it to be rinsed out successfully. Also, after applying the hair conditioner, it is easy to rinse off the hands. I really don’t like sticky hands!
Now this all sounds fairly straight forward so far. I added my emulsifers, butters and oils to my double boiler. Some of these ingredients need to reach 75ºC melting point, as you can imagine, my little workshop quickly became hot.
Cool down phase is where I add my essential oil blends and the broad spectrum preservative system. I really wanted to bring in a blend of Eucalyptus and Lavender. Together they smell divine. Unfortunately, Eucalyptus essential oil has a flash point of 45.5ºC, so I knew this would be a struggle to add this before the blend of ingredients began to solidify. Perseverance required.
So, as the blend cooled enough to add the Eucalyptus, and then the preservative, sure enough the solidifying had indeed started. I thought just keep going . . . . no matter what happens now, it’ll not be perfect! Mixing and pouring into a small cupcake mould, this was my first attempt. Big learn: I think I’m going to have to rethink the essential oil blends!
As you can see from the picture, its a bit bobbly, but today I decided, I’m going to see if it actually works. So after a swealteringly hot trail run, I gave it a go. I washed my hair, wet the bar in my hands. A small amount of loveliness transferred from the bar to my wet hands (I don’t know how else to describe it). This was then applied to the hair, a few inches away from the scalp. Nothing felt excessive so I thought ummph!. I rinsed the hair again and got on with drying my hair. It was smoother than normal. This might be hard to notice, especially as I have straight fine hair, all one length, but there was definitely more smoothness going on.
This bar formulation has potential!
Development of any product takes time, and I think this one is a good challenge to get right. So watch this space to see how I get on.
PS… When I get it to the stage where I would like others to give it a go and give me feedback, I’ll be knocking on some very familiar, very supportive folks’ doors to test it further.