Solid Shampoos Crammed Full of Herbs!

It feels great to make these shampoos. I use as much herbal material as I think the recipe can manage, to get as much benefit from their properties as I can.
For the Chamomile, Rose hip and Lemon, I half fill a big jug full of chamomile flowers and pour on nearly boiling water and leave them to infuse for a good hour or so before straining off the liquid, adding some of the flowers back into the infusion. Ground rosehip powder is added to warm oil and left to macerate a while. Then I whizz up lemon peel to make a puree. All this goes in to the cocoa butter rich soap mix and the resulting shampoo comes out a lovely reddish colour, smelling sweetly of the chamomile and lemon.

In the summer months, we can go out in our rubber gloves and pick fresh nettles from the nettle beds up at the farm and with a fresh bunch of parsley, make a dark fragrant puree for the Nettle Parsley and Rosemary shampoo. I am a fan of nettles. The puree is strained and some of the ground up leaves added back to the infusion, along with some dried nettle powder for extra oomph. In the winter months, we have to use dried nettles of course, but they smell almost as good.

Our latest shampoo is Green Tea, Eucalyptus and Peppermint, likewise steeped, pureed and soaped. I'm so pleased with the rich dark colour of this new one.

Handmade shampoos can leave a deposit on your hair - a reaction from the minerals in the water. Best thing to do if this is the case, is to make a simple rinse of a few tablespoons of your favourite vinegar in a jug of warm water. Pour slowly over your hair. You will probably find you don't need conditioners. They were invented to counteract the effects of the detergents in commercial shampoos!

Chamomile Rosehip and Lemon;
 Nettle Parsley and Rosemary;
 Green Tea, Eucalyptus and Peppermint Shampoos