Faux-'Poo or Low 'Poo, Just Not No-'Poo

'Poo Update

Click here to read The Surprising Conclusion to the Me versus 'Poo situation:

http://canducifamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/2013/04/poo-update.html

Conclusions

I tried the homemade castile shampoo for about a month, and I eventually ended up with a serious amount of build-up on my hair.  Now, possibly you could integrate some other natural product into your routine and avoid the build-up, but once I realized I was free from my supposed coconut allergy I skipped straight back to the store and bought some cheap shampoo. 

However, the homemade castile soap is fabulous as just plain soap and is mild enough to use for a facial soap even for me, with my ridiculously sensitive (just not to coconuts) skin.  I'm sure it has some useful applications in the household as well.

Faux-'Poo/ Low 'Poo
Ok, so this is another non-food-related post on what is technically a cooking blog, but I feel like the information is relatively valuable.

I refuse to go "No 'Poo" or "shampoo-free", and specifically by the method of cleaning one's hair with baking soda and vinegar.  Yes, it's all-natural.  Yes, according to its proponents it makes one's hair shimmer with the magical light of algal phosphoresences upon a tropical sea.  Yes, it is less damaging to the environment.  I'm sorry, but any beauty regimen that involves a 1-6 month "adjustment period" in which said beauty appears to be making a serious backslide is not for me.  However: there is an alternative.

The Recipe

Step 1) Find your favorite store-bought all-natural soap.  (See?  I've already eliminated the step where you cause yourself disfiguring burns trying to learn how to use lye to make soap.)

Step 2) Shave it with a paring knife into small pieces/shreds.

Step 3) Put those shreds with approximately 3-5 C. (720-1200mL) water (less for a smallish bar, more for a larger bar).  Plain tap water, distilled water, well water, whatever floats your boat.

Step 4) Stir it a few times, but mostly just leave it alone, for 48 whole hours.  2 days.  At the end, your goal is to have no more recognizable pieces of soap and instead a (thick, goopy) liquid.  So it's somewhat subjective.

Shazam, all-natural shampoo that, in addition, you can dilute to the strength that is appropriate for your hair texture.  I am not kidding when I say I hardly need conditioner anymore because my shampoo no longer strips the life out of my hair.  What I use when I do is a whole other story that involves far more grief than the "making my own shampoo" process.