Interesting! What color is your homemade shampoo? It sounds weird, but I've learned to avoid many colored shampoos because they tend to darken my (blonde and light grey) hair.

I share your concern about the chemicals we come in contact with, although I confess I haven't given much thought to the ingredients in my shampoo or other hair products. I really should.

I didn't read this post before I wrote about the "Low" and "No-poo" shampoos I found. The homemade shampoo sounds interesting. I recently read that in past eras women used raw eggs!

The beauty industry really fooled everyone. Making a product that suds so we think it cleans but all it does is damage our hair, then they make another product to try to mask the damage and coat our strands in gunk.

I hear a lot of criticism about the beauty industry, and no doubt some of it is deserved. But I'll be 73 this month, and I've been using commercial shampoos my entire life, and I have beautiful hair. If all those shampoos have been damaging my hair, I think I'd notice.

The same thing is true of skin moisturizers. I've been buying face creams since I was 16, and I'd hate to think what my skin would look and feel like if I didn't moisturize two or more times a day. I don't use high-end brands, but I'm happy with my favorites. I occasionally run across articles quoting one doctor or another who says the beauty industry has us all fooled, and Vaseline is just as good as any moisturizing cream. No way would I put that stuff on my face.

Alisande- have you been using conditioner as well that whole time?

Alisande, I use Vaseline on my face, but just a tad. I used to use it by it's self as nothing helped my very dry skin. I have since found Eucerin Q10 works well but a put a small smear of Vaseline which really seals in the moisture.

I have very dry hair as well. It's very hard to manage. I think people with good quality hair can get away with doing all the above. I try not to wash my hair everyday, and I can get away with it, but it certainly doesn't look as nice as freshly washed and blown.

I need all my hair products to have my hair look like hair!

TexasGem, conditioner off and on, but totally off for the past 5 years or so as it tends to make my hair flat. By the way, what's a CG?

Thanks for sharing, Ellen. I'm glad it's working for you.

CG stands for curly girl. VERY dry hair that will frizz, tangle and mat if I use shampoo. I'm guessing you have an oily scalp?

People with oily scalp usually don't like conditioners for the reason you stated.

Btw- I also use Vaseline in the winter to keep moisture in my skin. Other than that, I don't moisturize.

I'm not aware of having an oily scalp. Seems unlikely, as the rest of my skin is so dry. Conditioners were fine until I got older and my hair started thinning.

Alisande, my shampoo is the color of dirty dishwater. Kind of a see through grayish beige. How appealing is that? Doesn't bother me though. No dyes.

Actually they now tell you not to do the vinegar we were told to do by our mothers. What I use is this shampoo ordered from hair dresser and you only use very little on your hair and only once too and no conditioner which isn't good. Instead I use sometimes dove the shake and squirt white stuff and just a bit on my hair to give it some bounce to it or this other dry conditioner but again not all the time.

Don't use Pantene shampoo they are still going on how bad it is and now its saying it burns you.

More and more are making homemade items like that plus soap and detergents.

They are pouring chemicals in our bodies and air, they tell you on tv to use lots of this and that and people do, no, you use very little of anything and it works just as well I find. And the costs are unreal too.

Too many are fanatical in cleaning their houses and the chemicals that everyone and pets that live in it are getting too much bad stuff in them and the pets are on carpets and such and there they breath in the chemicals.

Our world has too many health issues that shouldn't be but are and pets too due to our terrible environment.

Everything is chemicals. The homemade concoctions are chemistry as much as the commercial ones. All so called "man made" chemicals go back to chemical that "nature" provides. Shampoo is applied for a short time and rinsed away. It is not absorbed by the body. It certainly cannot enter the bloodstream. All this fretting is for naught. Did they stop teaching basic science now? I can't believe the thought processes and fear of chemistry that is out there.