Vinegar Hair Rinse

As promised, here's some info on using vinegar hair rinse.

Many people are shocked when I tell them that my family uses a vinegar rinse in our hair. It's really not that weird. Just search the web and you'll find lots of references to it. Here are a few that I have read:

•  Little House in the Suburbs, 
• Chagrin Valley Soap (this one goes into a lot of detail and gives some recipes)
• official Heinz Vinegar site
• Urban Beauty Collective
• DocLocs: Sisterlocks

The science behind it is fairly simple. Think of the cuticle of the hair like shingles on a roof. When all is well, the shingles should neatly overlap, providing a protective barrier between what is inside the shingles (your house) and what is outside the shingles (the elements). Alkalinity (soaps and many hair products) causes the hair cuticle to open up, exposing the hair to the elements and making it drier, less shiny and more prone to tangles and breakage. Kind of like, if a storm were to raise the shingles on your roof, leaving the house exposed to the elements. Most commercial conditioners coat the hair to make it appear smoother, but do little to actually improve its condition (Listen closely to the TV ads for hair products, most are very careful to say it will improve your hair's appearance or will make it appear healthy, but they won't say that it will be healthier). This would be like putting a tarp over the damaged shingles, but not repairing the roof. Here's what the vinegar does. First, it removes soap residue left in the hair after washing, leaving hair less weighed down; and soap, by its nature attracts oil and dirt, so less soap left behind can mean that the hair looks and feels clean longer. Second, being a mild acid, it balances the PH and causes the cuticle to lay back down, leaving the hair smoother and shinier; thereby, repairing the shingles on the roof.


I had read about vinegar rinse for hair for years but had never tried it. I don't know why, it goes completely against my frugal nature to continue to throw money at commercial conditioners that weren't even working for me instead of trying the cheaper homemade alternative. For some reason, I always thought I would eventually find one that worked, but I never did. I'm not a very demanding person when it comes to my hair, I just wanted to be able to brush it without it feeling like I was yanking it out of my scalp, and it would have been nice to not have so much frizz. When I started researching my recipe for shampoo bars, I kept reading more and more about the vinegar rinses. After making the shampoo bars, but while they were still curing and could not be used yet, I decided to try the vinegar with the commercial shampoo. I was very pleased with how much smoother my hair was. It had a little more shine and a lot less frizz. But with the commercial shampoos (as well as "regular" soaps), I still needed to use heavy conditioners at least twice a week, as well as the vinegar to keep it nice. Still, this was an improvement. The real improvement, for me, came when I started using the rinse with my shampoo bars. The recipe for my shampoo bars was designed specifically to be highly nourishing. The oils that I choose are high in vitamin E and protein as well as natural moisturizers. The combination of the Moisturizing Shampoo Bars and the vinegar rinse have given me the smoothest, most manageable hair that I have had in 25 years, or more.  I no longer use any other conditioners. It has had as great of improvement for my 2 girls as well.

The "how to" part is really simple. Just put a little vinegar in a bottle, add water, pour on your hair after washing, rinse and have fun. The amount to use depends on who you ask. I have seen everything from full strength to 1 tablespoon per cup of water. I go for a happy medium and use about 1/4 cup(2oz.) in a 32oz. bottle and fill with water. This lasts me 1 to 2 weeks. The bottle that I use is just an old shampoo bottle with a dispensing lid. What type of vinegar is also a bit of a debate, Heinz says white, everyone else says apple cider. I don't think it matters as far as performance goes, but I use the apple cider. There are also different opinions about how long to wait before rinsing, and whether to rinse at all. This I believe, is just a matter of opinion and could vary for different hair types, experiment and see what works best for you. Talk about frugal, at the rate that I use this, it costs me about 4 cents a bottle.

Until next time when I'll ramble about..... "Jeremy the cow".

Moisturizing Shampoo Bars

The shampoo bars are, and I say this in all humility, FABULOUS! Even though I did make them, from a recipe that I did develop myself. I mean, look at them aren't they beautiful? All golden and swirly.

Seriously, my family and I have been using them for several months now and we love them. They have far exceeded my expectations.
I would not, however, say that they are ideal for everyone. I think that if you had oily, flat hair you would probably need a different recipe. So I am calling these "Moisturizing Shampoo Bars". And, I will work on developing a more deep cleaning formula for those with oily hair.
I'll give you a breakdown of how these have worked for each of us and our hair types.

My Husband- before the shampoo bars his hair was like normal, guy hair, drier in the winter less dry in the summer, but so short you couldn't really tell the difference. Since he is a construction worker and and all around dirty boy, he shampoos daily. His first reaction to the shampoo bar was "wow, this is really great." He went on and on several times in the first month or so about how soft his hair was and how shiny it seemed. But as the summer got hotter and his hair got nastier (think cement dust and rust mixed with gallons of sweat and baked under a hard hat for 10 hours), he found that the shampoo bar was not harsh enough for his sweaty head. So, he alternates the shampoo bar with a deep cleansing shampoo, as he feels necessary, to maintain his lovely "do".

4 Year Old Son- thick golden, little kid hair with a dirty scalp thanks to sand boxes and mud pies. His hair is still as glisteny as ever (maybe even a little more), but his scalp seems to come cleaner with the shampoo bar than with the baby and kid shampoos.

10 Year Old Daughter- medium thickness straight hair between chin and shoulder length. Before the shampoo bar she always, always, always woke up with horrible rat's nests  bed-head, tangles. Her older sister has made an art of describing what it looked like had happened to her hair in her sleep. And while some of the stories were admittedly funny (especially those involving huge, 8ft tall bed bugs and aliens), 10YO usually ended up in tears either because of the story or the detangling process.  I had tried for years to put an end to the tangles with no luck, and my husband would not let me shave her head.  Thankfully, the shampoo bar and vinegar rinse combo (see my next post for more info on vinegar rinse) have made her mornings go much smoother. And as far as the texture and appearance of her hair goes, it looks and feels like spun silk. Light and smooth and golden. I have actually made other people (who know me and my soaping ways) feel it.

12 Year Old Daughter and Myself (I'm clumping us together because she is my Mini Me (a clone really) and just about anything said about one of our hair can be said about the other's.- we both have extremely thick, coarse, dry hair with oily scalps. And it takes forever to dry. If you've ever seen the commercial for "pyramid hair", you have some idea what it looked liked. Since using the shampoo bar both of our hair is smoother and more manageable and easier to get a brush through (that is a big deal in itself). I no longer have to use heavy duty conditioners, or any conditioners for that matter, just the vinegar rinse. For the first time in nearly 4 decades my hair has movement and is touchable and we both have more natural wave showing instead of just fuzziness. As far as the oily scalps go, even that seems to be more under control now. My guess is that the commercial shampoos stripped the skin of natural oils, resulting in an over-production  of oils (kind of like treating acne with alcohol).

In summary, I don't think most of our hair has ever been this healthy feeling and looking.  But, as I said this recipe is not for all hair types- which means I must go back to the drawing board for another formula.

These are currently available on my website.

Shampoo Bars

I am working on making shampoo bars and head-to-toe soaps (for hair, body, and shaving). I have researched and developed recipes and I’ve ordered all of the special oils and plant extracts. Now I’m just waiting for the last of them to arrive. I’ll be using some old tried and true recipes and some new ones that I developed from recent research.
I will be posting some special hair rinse recipes to co-ordinate with the shampoo bars.
I was just reading a post about using soap instead of shampoo on Little House in the Suburbs. I think it is cool that this came up on the day that I was making these.
I’ll do a follow up after these are ready to let you know how the new recipes turn out.
By the way, I may have made some progress on the liquid laundry soap, but the jury is still out so I’ll will say more on this later.