Soap Nuts Shampoo

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Soap Nuts Shampoo Recipe- easy and natural
Wellness Mama » Blog » Beauty » Soap Nuts Shampoo

I’ve written before about how I use soap nuts for laundry, and I’ve gotten several questions since that post about how I also use them for shampoo.

Finding a natural shampoo that works for your hair type can be difficult. Coconut milk based shampoo works great for some people, and some people do great with the no-poo method (not me!). If neither of those has worked for you, this is another that you can try.

According to Mountain Rose Herbs:

Soap nuts are found in both the eastern and western hemispheres, but are native to India and Nepal. They have recently become a popular environmentally friendly alternative to chemical detergent, and are a gentle option for those with allergies to chemicals in regular detergents. They have traditionally been used as an expectorant, and in Ayurvedic medicine as a treatment for eczema and psoriasis. Soap nuts contain saponin, a natural detergent. The soap nut shell absorbs water and releases the saponins which circulate as a natural surfactant in the wash water, freeing dirt, grime, and oils from clothing.

Soap nuts can be used to make a really easy natural shampoo or body wash that is soothing to eczema or psoriasis. Soap nuts shampoo is also incredibly inexpensive to make and completely natural. Tip: If you make a full batch, store in ice cube trays and freeze for individual use sizes or store in a peri bottle in the fridge and just take out when you shower.

If you aren’t up for making it and want a more involved (but still natural) solution, you can buy pre-made Soap Nuts Shampoo.

Soap Nuts Shampoo Ingredients

Soap Nuts Shampoo Instructions

  • If you have one, place soap nuts in a small muslin bag.
  • Place in a medium saucepan with 2 cups of the water and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
  • Add 1 cup of water and simmer for 10 more minutes.
  • Remove from heat and let cook.
  • Squeeze out the bag until it suds. Rinse with cool water and squeeze in to the pan again.
  • Store in a glass jar in the fridge until use.
  • To use: Massage a small amount in to hair and let sit for 5 minutes. Rinse well. Can also be used as a soothing wash for skin, especially in those with eczema and psoriasis.

Have you ever used soap nuts? How did you use them? Tell me below!

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

209 responses to “Soap Nuts Shampoo”

  1. Jacquelyn rJacwuelun Avatar
    Jacquelyn rJacwuelun

    tI tried what needs person said about putting the nuts in a bottle and shaking it and this worked OK too

    I like to do this recipe though and make it concentrate d. The only thing I would like to add is putting it in the fridge is too cold to poor on my head and body. I get some from the fridge and pour some in the blenderand blend until it is super thick and foamy. It is not as cold this way..lol.

    My kids think it is fun blending their shampoo every morning too! Gets them involved.

  2. Sree Avatar

    Dear Wellnessmama,

    First of all, many thanks to you for posting wonderful recipes online. I have a question here. Will soap nuts make hairs go grey soon? We are from India and plenty of soapnuts are available here. But a myth exists about greying of hair with using soapnuts as shampoo. I could not find any supportive conversations or links from the web here.

    Please advise. We indians have black hairs..

      1. Sree Avatar

        I myself wanted to test this. I made a concentrate soap nuts shampoo.. ( I made a 250 ml shampoo with 20 soap nuts ). I wanted my shampoo to be a little more special..

        Hence I added few drops of rosemary and tea tree oil to it. The smell was lingering on my hair for quite sometime and I loved the aroma too. I am continuously using this sudsy shampoo for the past week and I could see my hair is squeaky clean without dandruff.. ( I used to have before ) and its worth the experiment..

  3. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Natural vitamin E such as wheatgerm oil is greasy. If you are using soap nuts as a natural product then it is best to avoid any chemical preservatives which can be damaging. There is no need for long term storage because it is quick and easy to prepare. Just shake a few slightly crushed soap nuts (to get them into the bottle) in a shampoo bottle with warm water, leave to soak until the next time you wash your hair, then shake and use all the liquid, so no need for long term storage. You can re-use the soap nuts by topping up with warm water again and add more crushed soap nut as and when required. Use a shampoo bottle with a flip top and small hole so you can squirt the soap nut shampoo all over your hair. For ACV rinse to follow: use a similar bottle – put a bit of apple cider vinegar into a separate shampoo or conditioner bottle, top up with water and suirt all over hair, again from the small hole in a flip-top lid to distribute it all through hair. Good luck.

  4. Brielle Avatar

    I’m new to soap nuts… Been wanting to try them for a long time and finally just ordered some. I’m curious if you could add a little vitamin E to this as a preservative so you didn’t have to store it in the fridge?

  5. Marina Avatar

    If you’re worried about it going bad, just open a Vitamin E capsule and mix that in – it will preserve it and will be good for your hair too.
    I added some aloe vera gel, some jojoba oil, and some slippery elm bark powder for conditioning.
    Keep in mind that it may take a month or even two for your hair to detox. I made a leave-in conditioner from the Minimalist Beauty website. I had to try something because my scalp is so itchy and it’s actually forming scabs from seborrheic dermatitis.

  6. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Just shake some crushed soap nuts in a bottle with warm/hot water, and leave to soak until the next time you wash your hair. Use all the liquid to wash your hair, and then top up again for the next time, reusing the soap nuts or adding more crushed soap nuts when needed. I keep mine on a bathroom shelf because the fridge would make it rather cold to use. If you wash your hair at least once a week there is no problem (unless perhaps you live in a hot country – I am in the UK). If it is cold from the fridge you can always warm in up briefly in the microwave. I see no need for complicated recipes.

  7. Jo Avatar

    How long does this shampoo last until it goes bad? I’ve read other recipes online stating that you can keep it in the fridge for up to three days, but that’s too short of an amount of time in my opinion. I would like to work with something that can last a bit longer.

    Thanks : )

  8. Maren Avatar

    Is it normal?
    Having never utilized Soap Nuts, in any capacity before… I didn’t have a base-line for what is normal, and what to expect. I wanted to make a basic Soap Nut solution. I put approximately thirty nut shells in six cups of tap water, into a large enamel pot. I brought it to a boil, then simmered it all for ten minutes. I turned off the heat, and let the liquid cool completely. Then I strained the shells from the liquid.
    After this, I added coconut oil, and essential oil to bottle, and finish a hand washing liquid (for my crazy eczema). Frankly, the liquid during the cooking and cooling process smelled like musty wet dog.
    Watery consistency; no sudsing present. I stored what I didn’t use in the fridge, but whether bottled or refrigerated… The liquid went from wet dog to smelling boozy, like sickeningly sweet hard cider. Is this normal, and if not… What did I do wrong!?! LoL Please, all comments are welcome!

  9. Brandi Avatar

    I need some help in the soap nut shampoo department. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but I’ve had horrible results every time I have tried this. I made the shampoo exactly like the recipe above, once with the lavender and once without. The first few times I tried I used soap nuts from Mountain Rose Herbs. They had a really weird smell, like sweat and beef jerky. It was almost unbearable to use but I used it several times anyway and every time my hair was waxy and greasy and in terrible terrible condition. I thought maybe it was the soap nuts so I tried again with soap nuts from Naturoli. Same thing. Horribly waxy and greasy hair. I’ve been no pooing with bs/acv for 2 months now and even on my worst hair day during the transition period, my hair never looked as bad as with the soap nuts. Every time I’ve tried the soap nut shampoo I’ve had to wash with bs/acv just to get the gross feeling to go away. It was literally unmanageable, I couldn’t even get a brush through my hair. I really want this to work. What am I doing wrong?

  10. Stephanie Avatar

    I find the easiest way to use soapnuts for hair washing is to put a few crushed shells in an empty shampoo bottle, half fill with warm to hot water, put the lid back on and leave it to cool. SIMPLE!

    To use, add warm to hot water to make it a comfortable temperature, replace the lid, then flip up the top and apply it to dry hair. Don’t do a shampoo action on your scalp or hair gets tangled – just smooth it from roots to hair tips. Leave it on a for few minutes then rinse well. It can feel strange (crunchy) while hair is still wet but do resist reaching for the conditioner. Once dry, hair is beautifully clean and soft.

    You can top the soap nut shampoo mixture up with warm to hot water to reuse and add more shells as required, and keep it on the bathroom shelf for a few days. When it gets too old, just tip out the used up shells and start again.

  11. Diyanne Avatar

    After I use the soap nuts in the wash, do I hang them to dry or do I need to store them in the fridge because they have been used? How long does the shampoo last in the fridge?
    Thank you,
    Diyanne

  12. khyati Avatar

    For best use of soapnuts, soak them a night before you want to take shower (8 hours) and next day you can put them in your smoothie maker ( or food processor) and you can seive the bubbly shampoo out of it and you want conditioner you can add some fenugreek powder. The fenugreek powder needs to be soaked for atleast half hour. Best results

  13. Vivi Vanda Avatar
    Vivi Vanda

    I tried shampooing using kefir whey and soapnut,, first massaged my hair with whey n washed with soapnut,, I just dont like the smell of my hair when its finished,, after wet drying, I applied some drops of my eo perfume on it,, love the result!! Soft, clean n smell good!! Next ill add lemon for shiny effect,, 🙂

  14. Nicole Avatar

    If your hair is dry after using, make your next batch with shikakai as well as soap nuts. This is the traditional way Indian women would shampoo. It helps soften, protect and hydrate hair. I use a small handful with about 6 nuts 3-4 cups water, simmer for about ten min and strain.

  15. Leah Avatar

    Im new to all this and so far I’ve done one no poo which my hair didnt like to much but maybe Its because Im going through a bit of a detox. Anyways with some of tbe research Ive done so far Ive learned that herbs are the only way to go for some people. Soap berrys are a saponine cleansing herb as well as yucca root and soapwort which apparently is a little more sudsy.. there are herbs you can mix in depending on if your hair is oily or dry. This website answered a lot of questions I had and still have.. its like the holy grail..lol https://www.minimalistbeauty.com/no-more-chemical-hair-products-part-2-herbal-hair-cleansers/

    gives a bit of a more specific herb you can use for different hair. A cpl good persavitives is vit E oil and vegetable Glycerin.. also rosemary eo.

    The best way to prepare soap “nuts” TIP! Use the same recipe you would use to make your cleaner: Put 12 Soap Nuts in the supplied washer bag and tie it closed. Then put the bag containing the Soap Nuts into medium sauce pan with about 8 cups of water. Bring the water to a brisk boil, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for around 30 minutes until it makes a semi-thick, cloudy yellowish-brown liquid. Turn off the heat and let the mixture steep for several hours.

    When the mixture is cool, remove the bag containing the Soap Nuts and hang the bag up to dry for future use (you can reuse the same bag of Soap Nuts several times to make more shampoo and body washes with)… Hoping this helps;)

  16. Shayla Avatar

    I’ve been using soap nuts to wash my hair for about two months now (I use Wellness Mama’s recipe above, but I’m considering adding more nuts). They work better for me than any other method I’ve tried so far (egg wash, CO, bar shampoo). For people who are finding that their hair is still greasy after a wash, this is how I wash with soap nuts. It’s a bit complicated, but pretty reliable.

    I use two empty dish soap bottles. In the first, I put just straight soap nuts liquid with a few drops of tea tree oil. I put the same in the second bottle, but add a teaspoon of xanthan gum (I use an electric frothing device to blend it before I pour it in). I keep both bottles in the fridge and take them with me when I go to shower. I rinse off my body, then put the plug in the bathtub so it fills up with shower water. After wetting my hair in the shower, I pour the liquid/xanthan gum mixture all over my scalp and then squeeze a bit of the pure liquid to give it a little extra cleaning boost. I massage this in for a minute, then get down on my knees and rinse my hair in the tub water. I repeat the process, this time letting it sit on my head for a few minutes. After the second rinse, I usually have that “squeaky” clean feel to my hair; if not, I go for one more wash/rinse. I also rinse with running water from the shower at the end to make sure it’s completely out. I finish with conditioner and ACV rinse, but I’ve skipped it and it’s still fine, just a little drier.

    For me, I find rinsing by dunking my head in the pooled water is the only way that all my hair gets reliably clean and I don’t end up with a greasy patch somewhere. To save water, I sometimes wash my hair in the sink rather than the shower, or sometimes I turn off the shower early and just sit in the tub water.

    One other note: While I find this gets my hair clean if I have conventional products in it, it doesn’t always work 100% if I use oil or flax seed gel in my hair.

  17. meagan Avatar

    I have got so many receipies off your website, you have no idea how helpful you have been. I just wanted to share my shampoo experience with you, I tried soap nuts and was very impressed with them but I didnt like the fact it was like water cause it gets in your eyes and in your mouth and burns like hell and tastes awful so I stuck some oats and soap nuts in a coffee grinder and boiled the powder up with some water and its like a conditioner kind of consistency and SO much easier to use it cleans my hair beautifully and I think it may have even improved my hair condition.

  18. Tamny Avatar

    How much is this meant to yield? When I followed this I ended up with just under 200g. Thanks 🙂

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