3 Easy Summer Herbal Shampoo Recipes

I’ve put together 3 hot process herbal shampoo recipes that are full of summer herbs, brightness, and scents.

Summer soap making is actually a lot easier than winter soap making. You don’t have to worry much about insulating and clean up is easier when the soap residue isn’t hardening in your sink and drain.

I like chunky hot process shampoo bars becuase they look rustic and creamy, waiting to be used and enjoyed.

Hot Process vs Cold Process

Just in case youre new to the processes or need a refresher, I wanted to touch on the differences between hot processing soap and cold processing.

Hot processing involves slowing cooking your batch of soap after combining the oils and lye water and bringing it to trace instead of simply pouring it into a soap mold.

This is the difference between hot and cold processing. The cold process pours the soap into a mold at trace, while the hot process heats the saponifying oils and keeps going until the entire batch is thickened and ready to scoop into a mold.

Hot process speeds the saponificatin process so that it’s finished within a few hours. Cold process, instead, takes 24-36 hours while cold process soap sits and works, and then takes an additional few weeks to evaporate the water so that the soap is hard enough to last while using.

The cooking process of hot processing causes enough water to evaporate that the soap is hardened after 24 hours rather than 3-6 weeks.

Ingredients for Summer Herbal Shampoo Recipes

It’s always fun to infuse soap with herbs. I do that with my spring soaps here. You can find those herbs all summer, so thery’re not just spring soaps.

I also make jewelweed soap during the summer, becuase of how great it is at dissolving poison ivy oils. Jewelweed tends to start blooming toward the end of June, so if you aren’t sure which plant is jewelweed, then it’s easy to identify when they get those orange or yellow flowers on them.

I also make Jewelweed soap each summer for my shop, so make sure to check them out there as well.

Nettle

Today, I wanted to use something that grows everywhere around me. Nettle it is!

Nettle is actually an amazing herb to use on hair. I’ve given you a nettle shampoo recipe before due to how it balances oils. Hair too dry or too oily? Use nettle! A nettle shampoo can be used or even a rinse made by making a nettle tea (Simply wash as usual and then rinse with the nettle tea and towel dry.).

I’ve paired this with rosemary and geranium essential oils.

Hibiscus

Another great herb for shampoos is hibiscus. Now, before you get excited for a beautiful pink soap, hibiscus turns brown when saponified. A creamy, tan soap is still beautiful.

Why hibiscus then? its been studied and shown to revitalize hair shafts and therefore is used to improve thickness of hair. If you already have very thick hair, then maybe focus on a milk and honey shampoo. But if you’re wishing to thiken those locks, then try a hibiscus herbal shampoo recipe!

I’ve paired this with neroli and lemon essential oils for a tropical, bright scent.

Holy Basil

Holy Basil doesn’t taste like basil. It’s more minty than anything. Plus, it (like ashwaganda and other great herbs) builds your entire system when taken as a tea.

Holy basil, combined with peppermint essential oil, makes a cooling shampoo that’s calming and used for dandruff reduction as well!

Making Herbal Shampoo Recipes

The easiest way to add herbs to hot or cold process herbal shampoo recipes is to make a tea and use that water for your lye water. The herbs will darken the soap though, so adding to your oils is a way to infuse your soap without having the lye react to the herbs.

Simply heat your oils until they are melted and then add your herbs. Let them steep in the oils until the oil cools to about room temperature.

Remove the herbs from the oil by pouring them through a mesh sieve and continue the recipe as usual.

3 Summer Herbal Shampoo Recipes

Each of these recipes makes 2lbs of soap, or 8 four ounce bars. They have a superfat value of 10%.

I usually write up everything with cold process instructions, but I wanted to make these recipes and use them now, so I hot processed them and thought I’d share them in a way that you could do the same. If you want to cold process them, you won’t change anything but the instructions. If you need to learn how to cold process, click here.

Balancing Nettle Geranium Shampoo

As I mentioned above, nettle is a great equalizer when it comes to hair oils. It’s great for all hair types and helps oily and dry hair due to its balancing properties.

I’ve paired this shampoo with rosemary and geranium, but feel free to change the essential oils to what you want. You can keep the amount as a good estimate of what you’d need.

2lbs of soap at 10% superfat content.

Hibiscus Neroli Lemon Volumizing Shampoo

Hibiscus will not make your soap pink! It will make it a creamy dark color that I actually love. I don’t add any other colors from herbs or clays when using Hibiscus, because it will make them look muddied.

Hibiscus is used to revitalize hair and add thickness and volume. Enjoy!

2lbs of soap at 10% superfat content.

Calming and Cooling Holy Basil Shampoo

Holy Basil is a great minty tea to have in your house. It has great health benefits as a pain killer, antioxidant, and anxiety reducer, as well as a general building up of your systems.

In shampoo, it works to calm th scalp and oftn used as a rinse to stop dandruff.

2lbs of soap at 10% superfat content.

Enjoy these recipes. Leave a comment with any questions and let me know how you like them.