I’ve made natural alternatives to most of our household and toiletry products, but homemade shampoo was by far the toughest.
I tried the “no-poo” method, which has great results for some, but did not work on me at all (and I have some terrible Christmas pictures to prove it!). If you have coarse hair that isn’t naturally oily, this method may be great for you! I have baby-fine hair and it didn’t work for me.
I also missed the foaming aspect of shampoo (I know… the “foam” in regular shampoo is made by chemicals and detergents…)
I tried plain liquid castile soap, which left a tangled mess, and I tried a bunch of homemade recipes that didn’t work well at all.
Finally, at the inspiration of a natural coconut milk (scented) shampoo that I love, I’ve finally found a recipe that I’m happy with and that doesn’t leave my hair tangled, oily or both.
It works on kids hair too (that’s a picture of my daughter’s newly washed hair) though it isn’t tear free, so watch the eyes!
Natural Shampoo Recipe
It’s such an easy recipe that I can’t believe it took me this long to think of it…
Secret ingredient: Coconut Milk!
What You’ll Need for Homemade Shampoo
- Coconut milk (UPDATE: a couple of readers mentioned that the canned stuff did not work well for them, but that homemade coconut milk worked great… Depending on your hair type, homemade may be better for you)
- Liquid castile Soap (like Dr. Bronners)
- Essential Oils of choice (I’ve used peppermint, lavender, rosemary and orange or combinations of those)
Homemade Shampoo Recipe
Yield
Nutrition
Notes
- If you use a foaming dispenser, it also makes a great shaving cream.
- Some people find that a 50:50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and water used as a rinse helps get hair cleaner and increases shine.
Don’t want to make it?
When I’m traveling or don’t have time to make my own, I’ve used a few organic shampoos that worked really well. My faves are:
- Wellnesse Cleansing Shampoo – I’m beyond excited to share that the recipes I’ve been making for over a decade are now available in my very own personal care line! We use only the safest EWG-rated ingredients as well as ingredients from nature with proven benefits, like nettle to strengthen and revitalize hair. There’s one for curly hair too!
- Morrocco Method Raw and Natural Organic Shampoo – this doesn’t lather like normal shampoo but it has been absolutely amazing on my hair and has helped strengthen it over time.
- Acure Organics Shampoo
Another wonderful and cost effective option is to make your own shampoo bars (like bar soap for your hair).
But… Don’t Wash Your Hair Every Day!
I can’t leave out one of my biggest healthy hair discoveries: hair is happiest when you don’t wash it every day! Read this post to find out why the experts say how you wash your hair matters just as much as what you wash it with!
Ever made your own shampoo? Gone “no-poo?” How’d it go? Share below!
Do you have a recipe to make conditioner to go with this shampoo? 🙂 I’d love to make some conditioner and some leave in conditioner 😀
My sister lives in australia. She tried making your shampoo bar recipe. She used essential oils but she said the bars smell really strong like fish oil?
Hi,
For this recipe and other natural beauty products, do you find that you don’t need to add a preservative? Does it not grow mold?
How to preserve homemade beauty products.
I’m wondering what keeps the coconut milk in the homemade shampoo from spoiling ?
Coconut oil is naturally antibacterial. You can leave it out on the counter for months.
Hi Katie! I am going to give this a try, do you think it would be ok to use both a little baking soda and an oil in the mix? I have an oily scalp, but dry frizzy hair. (Diagnosed with Hashimotos 2.5 years ago)
Thanks!
Michelle
Were would the cheapest place to purchase the oils?
This was absolutely terrible. It took me 1 hour to brush my hair after and it feels like a grease ball. There’s also no way you could use only 1tsp of this and end up with clean hair.
Can you use this on henna colored hair?
Hi! I loved how well this shampoo cleaned my hair, and it’s better than a 2-in-1 could ever be! The only problem is that mine turned out really watery, and my kids have trouble using it for that reason. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? How can I get a thicker consistency for this shampoo?
Old comment but she mentioned in another post that you could add gelatin to homemade shampoo.
I have a question about hair types. I have oily scalp and smooth hair. My daughter has dry scalp with really coarse hair. Does this shampoo work for both types? Have others with hair like my daughters tried this and do you have any suggestions for variations?
I love this shampoo! I have thin, fine, wavy hair, and this makes my hair look thicker, healthier, and it glistens. Thank you! I started off with 365 Everyday organic coconut milk (While Foods brand), and it worked great. I switched the next month to Thai Kitchen and my hair felt weighed down and had to be washed more often. Back to 365 and great results again!
I have canned cream of coconut that I’d rather use for something else than for consumption. It’s got some ingredients in it that I want to stay away from. Would that work instead of coconut milk? I like drinking my homemade coconut milk. I’ve been wanting to make my own shampoo I have Ology lavender Castile soap and now some coconut cream. I’ve got hair that can get greasy so I can’t use oils in my hair.
Hi. 😉 I am so excited to try this! Been looking for diy shampoo but nothing worked for me so lets give it a try and yay coconut! 🙂 Hopefully this will be a better substitute to shampoo bars that I buy. Thank you for sharing this! ^_^
I will definitely try this! I too cannot do the whole no poo method because my hair gets super greasy but I’ve been making my own alternatives for a while now and recently tried almond milk mixed with a small amount of shampoo and baking soda and thatfoamed well and worked nicely but never thought of adding castile soap and I want to try the coconut milk too! Thanks for sharing!
Sadly, my experience with this shampoo was very unpleasant, even though I made your preferred homemade coconut milk. While washing it was like sticky oil coating my hair and wouldn’t rinse out thoroughly. My hair ended up oily, lifeless looking and unable to style. I had really hoped I could use it as even natural shampoos I have purchased cause scalp irritation. This did as well. Perhaps I did something wrong, but in reviewing the recipe it looks like I followed it. Any suggestions are welcome.
It could be the Castile soap reacting to hard minerals in the water, or perhaps it didn’t lather enough to disperse well
For the shampoo how big was the bottle you used? I wanted to make sure I get the recipe right for my 32oz bottle. Thanks!
Have you tried coconut oil instead of coconut milk?
I was excited to find this recipe… then discovered that the Dr. Bronner soaps still contain palm oil (yeah, it’s organic, but it still cuts down tropical rainforests and increases climate change). Wish I could find a recipe without and palm oil in it. What did the poos all include before we had palm oil?
It didn’t work for me unfortunately. I have super long.untreated wavy hair. It left my hair beyond oily-it look wet for 2 days! We are using it as a bodywash and it leaves my skin soft and moisturized!