Two years ago I wrote a blog post about my experience using our goat milk soap as shampoo (You can find it here). The post gets incredible traffic, last year pulling in thousands of views. After spending several years using the soap I felt it was time to revisit this post and share some tips that I have learned from years of continued use.
In 2014, I set out to eliminate all commercial body care products from our household in order to reduce the chemicals that my family was being exposed to. That year we started to make our own deodorant, and used our handmade goat milk soap for everything possible, including washing our hands and bodies (of course), shaving, and shampoo. If you read the post from two years ago you will learn that I was quite skeptical about changing out my shampoo, but knew it was something that I needed to at least try.
In all of this the important thing to remember is, like with most natural alternatives, it’s not going to act like and give you the same result as their commercial counterparts. There are pros and cons on both sides.
The commercial soaps are often chemical based. They include chemicals that are specially designed to give your hair specific qualities, and in many cases they do as they are designed to do (pro). While these chemicals may be able to make your hair do what you want it to do, they could also be harmful to your health and to the environment (big con). For me, commercial soaps made my hair frizzy and my scalp dry and itchy, no matter what brand or specially product I used (con).
Natural soaps, like our goat milk soap, are made with natural materials making them better for you and the environment (big pro), however they are not specifically designed to be used on hair (con). Because the soap does not strip your hair nearly as bad as the commercial brands do (at least in my experience), it makes your hair feel heavier (con), but hair tends to be a lot less greasy between washings (pro). For me, our goat milk soap made my hair feel stronger and less frizzy (pro). My waves continue to be more uniformed and less wild (pro) but my hair does not feel the same as it did with the commercial shampoos (con).
With both the commercial shampoos and our goat milk soap I have to strip my hair at least once a month. While the build up on my hair and scalp with our soaps has been far less than it was with the commercial shampoos I still need to strip my hair with this vinegar and water mixture about once a month.
When I started my experiment I was using our Castile soap because it was our most moisturizing bar and I was dealing with a very dry scalp and frizzy hair. I later found that this soap was too heavy to be used as a shampoo. Some of our customers, who have serious scalp issues, still swear by it, but for me it weighed my hair down too much. I have since started using our coffee goat milk soap or canine shampoo. The coffee goat milk soap’s PH is perfect for hair and the canine shampoo contains tea tree which is great for for dealing with dry itchy scalp.
All in all I have had a good experience using our goat milk soap as shampoo. After years of use my hair feels stronger and more healthy.
Hi!! I’ve noticed that a few other bars of soap also contain tea tree oil. Just wondering why you’ve specifically mentioned the canine bar as good for your hair because of its tea tree oil. Thank you!
Hi Jessica! We specifically like the canine bar because in addition to the tea tree oil, the oatmeal and the other essential oils work well for us. The tea tree bar would work as well. We would recommend avoiding the deep space for your hair even though it has tea tree because the activated charcoal may dry out your hair.