How can I shampoo with Dr. Bronner's Products?Updated 8 days ago
Our Magic Soaps and Sugar Soaps work exceptionally well to clean hair; however, the process may require a bit of tinkering to fit your specific needs. We encourage using this as a guide and to tweak anything we recommend to best fit your desired outcome.
If there’s one important thing to remember about washing your hair with Dr. Bronner’s before washing, it’s that we strongly encourage you to follow up with an acidic rinse. Due to the alkalinity of our soap, they can leave a tangly look and feel. An acidic rinse not only conditions your hair but also can tamp down the cuticles in your hair and give it a smooth and silky after-feel.
We recommend using our conditioning Organic Hair Rinse, which is specially formulated for this purpose and uses a base of organic lemon juice, but you may easily substitute it for a vinegar or lemon juice dilution.
If you are interested in these alternatives, be sure to use them in a spray bottle for the most control and ease of use. We recommend diluting apple cider vinegar with equal parts water (1:1) or diluting 1 part lemon juice with 2 parts water (1:2) due to its higher acidity. Additionally, be sure to strain and properly store your lemon juice, as it is not shelf-stable.
To learn more about shampooing with our soaps, please check out our definitive guide on drbornner.com or Lisa Bronner’s amazing blog post, From Shampoo to Soap – My Story.
Here are the instructions from our website:
- Shampoo with your favorite Dr. Bronner’s soap (Magic or Sugar Soap), and rinse this off. There is no need to dilute, even if you are using our Pure-Castile Liquid Soap. Just start with a dime-sized amount in your palm and lather it into your hair. The water in the shower is enough to dilute the soap applied.
- Important: Rinsing with our Organic Hair Rinse (after rinsing out the soap) results in a spectacular look and feel! Just stir 1-2 capfuls of this rinse into a cup of water, close your eyes, and slowly pour it while massaging it into your hair. Keep hand-combing your hair until your hair feels entirely sleek (~30 seconds). Rinse out well. Repeat, if necessary, in extra hard water conditions or with longer hair.
- As mentioned above, you may substitute this for any other acidic rinse. Just be sure all the soap has been rinsed out of your hair before applying.
- Optional: Either after rinsing your hair or after drying lightly with a towel, massage in our Organic Hair Crème for added silkiness and softness. You can rinse this product out like a traditional conditioner, or use it as a leave-in conditioner/styling crème.
Again, using our soaps as shampoos can be a long process for some people, as your hair needs to adapt to using a true soap, since these products are not shampoos. It can take a lot of trial and error and tinkering with the dilutions. However, if this is simply not compatible with your hair, then it may not be for you.
Please rest assured that you do not have to dilute the soaps when using them as a shampoo or body wash. However, you can use a 1:3 dilution (1 part soap to 3 parts water) to get started and adjust to your personal preference.
⚠Note: If you have color-treated hair, we do not recommend using our soaps as they may strip out the color.