People having trouble with Dr Bronners

I've been washing my hair with Dr B for a few weeks now and every time I felt that my hair was still dirty and wasn't looking or feeling clean.. Ive seen the same thing posted around these forums.

Make sure you're not diluting it too much. I was putting in 10-11 drops in a water bottle and filling it halfway up. What I did last night was fill the Dr B cap up half way with soap and poured it in the bottle, and poured 6 full caps worth of water into the bottle as well. It's 1 part bronners, 12 parts water. I diluted it wrong for 3 weeks straight, and had some badass dandruff and wondered why.. turns out my hair wasn't actually getting cleaned for that entire time period. I think some of you people having problems may have been doing the same thing as I have, try this way out and see how it works for you.

 

thanks for the tip! also you might have to try different dilution ratios till you find what's right for you, everyone's hair is different

 

i don't even dilute it ;]

 

i didnt dilure either for awhile but just got expensive
i started diluting and it lasted 12 timesas long and stil got nme as clean and rinced even easier

 

it still sucks for my hair. oh well!

 

Yeah I'm having a problem with dr.bonner.

It's been 2 months and my hairs aren't dreading up.

I usually put 10-15 drops and fill the cup halfway with water.

No combing, no shampooing or whatever. Just dr.bonner.

 

I've tried uber dilution (waste of time), and then gradually making the Dr. Bronner's ratio a bit bigger until I was using straight DB. It didn't work. My hair was STILL flaky as hell, it looked like I was walking outside in a snow-flurry. My scalp also felt dirty and dry, my hair felt like brillo pads... it was nasty.

I've been using the original shampoo I bought for my dreads (natural hemp shampoo, which is supposed to work well for dry and frizzy hair), and the results are a million times better.

I'm kind of pissed, because DB wasn't cheap. Maybe my sister will want it...

 

I don't use it, there's plenty other shampoos that work just as well as Dr B's, and some of them work even better.

 

i use the bars and they do me just fine. i just keep them out of the shower so they dont melt so quick.

 

Ive heard that the Giovanni tea tree shampoo works really well. Also Ive heard that straight up baking soda works well too. Ive never used those, but maybe youll want to trt it. Do the different kinds of Dr. B make a difference? For example, I currently use the hemp peppermint Dr. B castille soap, I dont dilute it and I love it! I know there are other kinds of Dr. B....like lavender hemp and rose hemp or whatever, maybe try the different mixtures.

 

For those that say Dr B's doens't work for you, what product do you use? Brand and price, etc.

 

treehygger..and any1 with excessively pily hair..before u toss aeway uot brimnners.. try adding lil thyme to it fresh as a tea maybe..or as an oil..
try and see if it dont help

 

Whatever is in the shop and on special offer! As long as it isn't a combined shampoo and conditioner it works great.

 

try rinsing with a bicarb solution after using soap - works for me!!

 

I have had my dreadlocks a little over 4 years, and they are down past my waist. I use Dr. Bronner's or another castile soap exclusively on my hair. Dr. Bronner's is a wonderful product, but just because it's "natural" doesn't make it perfect. Any natural soap (a "soap" being defined as being derrived from natural animal or vegetable fats or oils, as opposed to "detergents", which appeared during WWII, derrived from synthetic oils) will have the disadvantage of reacting with hard water.

I need to make it clear that hard water doesn't necessarily mean "city water" or "chemically polluted water". Hard water refers to the mineral content of the water. We have natural well water here, and it's so hard it's a miracle we don't have limestone formations in the bottom of the tub. There's often some confusion about that.

The advantage that synthetic detergents have over natural soaps is that (in addition to being cheaper, and more readily available during the war.) they do not react with hard water. That's why you will often see even the eco-friendly laundery detergents are often actually synthetic: soaps will react with hard water and leave a scummy film ("soap scum") that will eventually turn your socks all grey.

If you get soap scum in your shower, you probably have hard water, and Dr. Bronners will react to it, leaving soap scum in your hair, making it feel dirty, even after dilution. ("OK!")

My knotty brothers and sisters, do not dispair, for there is yet hope! There are simple remedies and tricks that you can do to remove soap scum, or avoid it altogether.

The easiest and most obvious is of course to use different water other than that which comes out of your tap for washing, or at least for the final rinse. A Brita filter may not be enough. You can buy filtered, distilled, or spring water at a grocery or health food store, and use that to rinse, or you can mooch water from a friend who has softer water.

In simpler times, when families made their own soap, and synthetic detergents were not yet on the scene, a small amount of Borax was added to natural soaps to soften the water and reduce the formation of soap scum. That does not mean you can just dump a random amount of Borax in with your soap and shake. If you have experience with soapmaking (which involves caustic chemicals that can be dangerous - yes even "natural" soap starts with fat and lye.) you can find a recipe for Borax soap, and try it. The Complete Soapmaker, by Norma Coney, published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. has such a recipe. This recipe is a hand-milled soap, so you may be able to buy an unscented natural soap (such as Bronner's bar soap, or a castile soap like Kiss My Face Olive Oil soap), grate it and melt it to make your own from existing soap. The recipe I have uses 12 oz. grated soap and 9 oz. water, to which is added 1 1/2 Tablespoons Borax. Do not add too much, as overdoing it will cause the soap to curdle. The soap will change texture even with the correct amount, and become fluffier.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try adding a small amount of Borax to your diluted Bronner's (I dilute it to 33%-50% for shampooing! OK!) Again, don't add too much. Start with a small amount, and watch to see if your sample batch curdles, taking note when you hit the right amount. And keep it out of your eyes! If you don't make or mill soap yourself, check out farm markets, craft fairs or the internet for soapmakers, and ask for Borax soap.

ETA, the baking soda solution rinse is a great idea too, and works the same way as the Borax.

If you don't feel like experimenting with Borax, there is yet another option, that will remove soap scum from your hair, and help it lock up as well. After shampooing, rinse your dreads with a solution of 3 or 4 parts water to 1 part apple cider vinegar. The vinegar will remove the soap scum, condition your hair, help it lock up, and fight dandruff.

Don't give up on the Doc B's, it's a great product, but just remember that just because it's natural does not exclude it from the equally natural laws of chemistry, without which it (and all soaps and detergents) could not exist.

That being said, "Don't drink soap! Dilute! Dilute! OK!"

 

wow...that was impressivly complete!

thank you

 

Yeah well you don't want to know how gross my dreadies got before I learned all that, though, especially since I'm allergic to most shampoos and my options are limited.

 

You're welcome.

 

im no chemist and 1 of these days i'll probky blow myself uop trying ti find a new way to wash my hair but wondering could u add apple cidar vinagar right to th e brinners?

 

No, that will cause the soap to coagulate and not work very well. It's an acid ph.

The Borax and the baking soda are both sodium, and a base ph.

The only reason why I passed high school chemistry at all was because that was the year that the Regents test was stolen and somebody published the answers, so the test was cancelled.

But anyway, remember this, the sodium softens the water so the soap won't react with the hard water minerals, thus making it work better.

The vinegar removes the soap scum, and is thus better suited for a rinse.

You can do both, too of course, with even better results. But do them in separate stages of wash (sodium) and rinse (vinegar) or you'll have a mess. You really can't always just dump everything together, unless you're Jackson Pollock or something.