Making Your Own Herbal Hair Shampoo

In 1990 I decided not to use the commercially made shampoos after reading Aubrey Hampton's book, "Natural Organic Hair and Skin Care." In this book Aubrey tells you how to read the label on any product that you put on your skin or hair.

Manufacturers are constantly using toxic chemicals in their skin and hair products and disregard their toxic effects on your body. This is easily seen in the list of chemicals that they use. Here are a few of these chemicals found in many product labels:

* propylene glycol or glycol- a petrochemical used because it is cheap
* cetearyl alcohol - emulsifier that can be synthetic or natural
* methylparaben or propylparaben - typical synthetic preservatives
* distearate - this is polyethylene glycol or polypropylene glycol which are petrochemicals
* isopropyl alcohol - used as a cheap solvent to carry synthetic oils.

Here is a natural shampoo that you can make. This formulation is something that I have been using for many years. First collect the following items:

4 oz of castile soap with any scent is that available - plain, peppermint, eucalyptus.

½ oz of rosemary - stimulates the hair follicles and helps to prevent premature baldness

½ oz of sage - has antioxidants and keeps things from spoiling and is antibacterial

½ oz of nettles - acts as a blood purifier, blood stimulator, contains a large source of nutrients for hair growth

½ of lavender - controls the production of sebaceous gland oil and reduces itchy and flaky scalp conditions

2000 mg of MSM - provides organic sulfur to your scalp, which improves the health and strength of your hair. It also helps to drive herbal nutrient into the skin and follicles where they can do the most good.

One empty 8 oz plastic bottle, or any other empty shampoo or soap bottle.

Mix the herbs in a mason jar, which has a lid. Boil 2 cups of distilled water. Add 3 heaping tablespoons of the mixed herbs into the boiling water. Pull the boiling water and herbs off the stove. Let the herb mixture sit for 30 - 40 minutes. Put the 2000mg of MSM into the herb mixture after 30 minutes of cooling. After 40 minutes and the MSM is melted, strain the herbal mixture into a bowl.

Pour 2 to 2 1/2 oz of strained herbal tea into the 8 oz plastic bottle. Now, pour the 4 oz of castile soap into the 8 oz plastic bottle. Cap the bottle and shake to mix the ingredients.

The shampoo is now finished and ready for use. Use this as a base for all of the shampoos you make. You can add different herbs as you learn what these herbs do and how they help your hair. You can vary the ingredients according to your taste. But now you have a shampoo that has no additives that can harm you.

By Rudy Silva

The Main Causes Of Hair Loss In Women

When you think of hair loss it's natural to assume that it's a condition that predominantly affects men. Some experts however suggest that as many as one in four women will experience hair loss at some time in their lives. So why don't we see and hear more about it? Perhaps the answer has something to do with one or more of the following:
- Women are better at disguising hair loss.
- Women's hair loss is generally less extensive in terms of severity.
- Women's hair loss tends to be spread evenly over the head rather than concentrated in one or two spots.
So why do women lose hair - are the causes very different to those that result in male baldness? There are probably three common reasons for hair loss in women:
1. Female pattern baldness - believe it or not, most women affected by hair loss lose it for the same reasons as men. They suffer from androgenetic alopecia which is a reaction to male hormones in the body, specifically the conversion of testosterone into the hair-unfriendly DHT. In the case of women, pattern baldness may start later and the effects may be less extreme due to the influence of female hormones, but the condition is nonetheless the same as that found in male pattern baldness.
2. Telogen effluvium - this is regarded as the second most common cause of women's hair loss and this is unsurprising given the nature of the condition. Telogen effluvium is characterized by a general thinning of the hair and is usually brought about as a result of some traumatic event causing sufficient stress to interfere with the normal hair growth cycle. Given that pregnancy is a prime example of the type of event that can shock the hair growth cycle then perhaps the high incidence of telogen effluvium amongst women is only to be expected.
3. Alopecia areata - this is the third most common hair loss condition to affect women. It is characterized by patchy areas of hair loss on the head or it can be more widespread over the body. It is thought to be caused by deficiencies in the immune system but much is still not known about the condition. In many cases the hair regrows spontaneously after a variable period of time, but in a minority of cases the problem may be more severe and longstanding.
If you experience any form of hair loss arrange to visit your physician to discuss the treatments that may be suitable for your particular condition.

By Richard Mitchell