Solid Conditioner Bar Recipe

I had been looking to make a solid conditioner bar for a while. I thought it would last longer than a traditional bottle and allow me to control what I put on my hair.

I have very fine flyayway hair and the silicones in commercial conditioner weigh it down, make it look dull and no matter how many times I wash it, I always look like I have greasy hair within a few hours. I wanted something that would still condition my hair adequately and stop it from looking frizzy, but without weighing it down and looking greasy.

I did a lot of reading and found Susan at swift craft monkey to be extremely helpful. I used her post on solid conditioner bars to develop my own version, using ingredients I had available to me.

http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/conditioners-solid-conditioner-bars.html


I only made 200g as a trial batch as one of the main ingredients BTMS is pretty expensive.

Ingredients

Heated Phase                                
BTMS Conditioning Emulsifier 120g
Cetyl Alcohol 20g
Cocoa Butter 10g
Shea Butter 10g
Avocado Oil 10g
Hydrolised Oat Protein 4g


Cool Down Phase

Honeyquat 8g
Panthenol 6g
Fragrance 4g   (2g Lime EO and 2g Cypress EO)
Plantaserve E (preservative) 2g


Directions
Melt the heated phase in a double boiler until it has only just all dissolved, (you don't want it too hot or all your fragrance will boil off as soon as you add it). Then add the cool down phase and stir thoroughly.

Spoon into mould, I used a silicone muffin tray as I find the shape fits nicely in my hands.

I left them for 24hrs to dry out as Susan suggests and I was really pleased with the result. You only need to drag it over your hair a couple of times, then comb it through to the ends while you are in the shower. The bars last for much longer than a traditional cream conditioner too so even though the BTMS is quite expensive, it still makes the bars fairly cost effective. I find they work really well when combined with my cold process shampoo bar and a citric acid hair rinse.