You probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that friends often present me with their beauty products (and accompanying ingredient lists) to be deconstructed and rated. So, as it happens, a friend handed me her conditioner—a posh, expensive natural brand hair conditioner. The ingredients were pretty good, but what struck me was that it was really just lotion (I even used some on my hands). And as soon as I had that thought in my head, I knew I had to make my own creamy hair conditioner—but mine would be absolutely loaded with goodness.
The water part is the first bit. I infused the water with horsetail and marshmallow root to give the shampoo strengthening and detangling properties. To that I added vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada) and silk (humectants, to help keep the hair hydrated and happy), bamboo bioferment (like natural dimethicone, for slip & shine), and phytokeratin (to help strengthen hair and add shine). If you don’t have the bamboo bioferment and/or phytokeratin, feel free to replace them with more infused water.
For the oils I chose camellia seed and broccoli seed. Camellia seed oil has been used for centuries for hair care in Asia, and it absorbs like a dream. It’s made from the seeds of the plant that gives us tea, and it’s a lovely, light oil.
Broccoli seed oil is a new offering from New Directions Aromatics, and was described as “an easy substitute for the activity of silicones where the film forming activity results in a natural shine, and cuticle smoothing of the hair while preventing oxidation”. Needless to say, I had to try it. It is nicely silicone-like, but absorbs beautifully without leaving a perma-film.
Last, but not least, a medley of essential oils designed to add strength and shine to hair.
Bamboo & Broccoli Oil Hair Conditioner
100mL | 3.4 fl oz boiling water
1 tsp marshmallow root
1 tsp horsetail/shavegrass powder2g | 0.07oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
1 tsp silk peptides (optional)
2g | 0.07oz bamboo bioferment (optional)
2g | 0.07oz phytokeratin (optional)5g | 0.17oz complete emulsifying wax (not beeswax!)
10g | 0.33oz camellia seed oil
10g | 0.33oz broccoli seed oil15 drops bergapatene-free bergamot essential oil
2 drops cape snowbush essential oil
7 drops cedarwood essential oil
12 drops lavender essential oilBroad spectrum preservative of choice (why?)
Pour the boiling water over the herbs and let steep until the water is room temperature. Strain and reserve the liquid, discarding the herbs.
Measure out 70mL of the herb water into a small glass measuring cup and add to that the glycerin, silk, bamboo bioferment, and phytokeratin, stirring to combine. Warm in the microwave for 20—30 seconds.
Weigh the emulsifying wax and oils into a small saucepan and melt together over medium heat. Once melted, add the herb water mixture to the pan and heat through.
Remove the pan from the heat and whisk as the mixture cools, until you have a thick cream (the thickening may take a few days if you are using a different emulsifying wax from emulsimulse/ritamulse). Whisk in the essential oils and preservative.
Decant into a 120mL/4oz pump-top lotion bottle.
To use, start with a dime-sized amount. I generally just apply it to my ends in the shower. If you find you need an all-over dose of moisture, I’d recommend diluting the conditioner with a bit of water in your palm before spreading it through your hair, and I’d recommend avoiding your scalp. Rinse out or leave-in, as desired—I’ll rinse if I apply it all over my head, but I’ll leave it in if it’s just on the ends.
Don’t have the oils called for in the recipe? Check this out.
New to lotion/conditioner making? Watch my basic lotion how to video!
Now this sounds fantastic!!! Just what I have been looking for!
Awesome! Let me know how it goes when you give it a try 🙂
Sounds wonderful! Only ingredients I have from that long list is emulsifying wax and lavender essential oil, so trying that is going to be just in my dreams…
You could make this by swapping all the fancy oils for something you have on hand that absorbs relatively quickly 🙂 It won’t have the same silicone-like effects as the broccoli oil, but it’ll still moisturize.
I’ve been reading your blog for a long while now and I’ve gotten a bunch of neat ideas and recipes to try out.
But my biggest question is… what products do you make that you use on a daily basis? I mean in my soap room, I have hundreds of soaps curing and many more ready to be used. But I still go back to the boring old coconut oil and salt bars as my skin just goes crazy with them. And I’ve bottles of various homemade toothpaste; but always go back to the bentonite-calcium-coconut oil with peppermint essential oil. No matter what wonderful goodness I make, I still seem to gravitate back to the very first stuff I made as I seem to like it best. What about you?
Hi Penny! I made a couple lists of some of my favourites here 🙂 Some of them are early favourites, but most of them are from the last year or so as I’ve learned so much since I started.
I was wondering, could I use silk powder instead of silk peptide?
As long as it dissolves fully in the water, definitely 🙂
Love your site!
But my problem is that i do not live in US, Canada or even Europe. So do you know a store that shipps worlwide, that sells all this things??
Thanks!
Hi Elen! Where do you live?
For the next 4 or 5 months in Israel, finally i’ll be moving to my beautiful Argentina
Hmmm. The closest supplier I know of would be the UK branch of New Directions Aromatics. I believe they ship internationally, but you’d need to get in touch with them to see how much it would cost. Sorry about that!
My scalp is very dry. I am wondering why you say to avoid the scalp?
Oil + scalp = greasy, oily hair that looks like it hasn’t been washed in 3 weeks. Your scalp might like it, but I doubt you will want to leave the house 🙂 The hair further down is older and drier, and the oils from your scalp have a hard time working their way down there, which is why you’d use a conditioner like this—the hair is dry enough to absorb it. The hair around your scalp isn’t, as it’s so close to the oil glands in your scalp.
My scalp and hair is so dry I could probably go 3 weeks and it still not look oily! I don’t think the oil glands on my scalp work! So, maybe my scalp would like it. If I make it I will let you know how it works out.
Ha, well, if that’s the case, maybe you can get away with it 🙂 Let me know if you give it a go! Also, have you tried my hair mask? It’s awfully fun & your scalp might like it 🙂
How many ounces does this make, I have 4 oz squeeze bottle and I want to know if it will fit in such..
If you add up the quantities of everything in the recipe you’ll see that it makes about 100g. I stored mine in a 125mL bottle (that’s about 4oz) and it filled it about 3/4.
I just whipped up a batch of this today and can’t wait to try it! Although mine didn’t thicken into a cream. The consistency was more like a thicker soup so I’m not sure what happened. I must have screwed up the measurements somewhere. My scale is highly unreliable!
It could be your e-wax—some take a couple days to thicken up to a cream consistency. That’s one of the reasons I like emulsimulse so much, it thickens immediately. I’ve found that both Polawax and Emulsifying Wax NF need three or so days of resting before they go from a milk like texture to a proper cream. Fingers crossed that’s the case here 🙂
How do you store this once it’s made? I made up a batch with ingredients on hand (jojoba and almond oil) and it was lovely the first time and moldy the second. Do you refrigerate?
Admittedly, almost two weeks passed between uses — maybe this is one that I should just mix up as needed?
Hi Diana! I store mine in my shower, in a squeeze bottle, and try to use it up within one to two months so it doesn’t mould on me. If you’re finding yours is moulding you can either add a broad spectrum preservative, store it in the fridge, or make it up in smaller amounts 🙂
Well, mine’s still molding, but then I’ve known for a while that the bathroom itself has mold issues, plus it’s getting pretty warm up there.
Is there a particular preservative that you recommend?
P.S. Your recommendations helped me spend my birthday money this year — my phytokeratin just arrived, and my bamboo bioferment should be here tomorrow or Thursday. Your recipes and advice are WONDERFUL.
I’ve heard good things about Leucidal Liquid in terms of an ok balance between effectiveness and not-too-scary-ness, but I haven’t tried it myself.
Enjoy your new hair goodies! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂
Well, I’ve solved the molding problem by putting it into a squeeze bottle, like you recommend. I’ve made two or three batches now, I think, that have all stayed mold-free until the end. Yay!
I’m running into another problem, though, which is that after a week or two the scent goes off — it ends up smelling almost metallic or rusty, as well as strongly herbal. I’ve tried a few different essential oil blends but had the same results after a few weeks. Have you or anyone reading experienced this, or have any suggestions? It still works fine, just smells weird.
Hi Diana! I did notice that mine started to smell a bit stronger after a while as well, which doesn’t usually happen to me with herb-infused lotions (which is basically what this is). My first thought would be to add a broad spectrum preservative and/or antioxidant, as I assume the change has something to do with a breakdown of some sort.
Can bamboo extract dissolved in water along with the marshmallow root and horsetail powder be subbed for bamboo bioferment? I only ask this because the bamboo bioferment is preserved.
It’s worth a try—I don’t have both forms of bamboo so I haven’t tried it myself, but it should work.
I have started the natural hair care method (love the lemon grass and seaweed shampoo bars!) and been at it for a little over two months. I have found that my hair (a little below waist length) has gone from being fairly manageable to one large knot that takes a good long time to comb out. i have been trying the ACV rinse but it seems to have little effect on the tangling so this looks like it will be a great one to try. However, kicking the idea around a little, do you know of anyone trying to make something like a creme conditioner with ACV as the base liquid? try to get the best of both worlds….
Hi Mary! It sounds like you need my shine and detangle ACV rinse—I have found it to be hugely helpful with tangles. Also, have you tried keeping your hair braided at night? That’s pretty much a must for me now.
I don’t recommend using ACV as a base for a cream conditioner like this for two main reasons. #1 would be that I’ve found the lower pH can break the emulsion, and #2 is the difference in application styles. You want to pour an ACV rinse over the vast majority of your hair, but if you do that with this conditioner, you’ll have to wash your hair all over again—it’s much too rich for that heavy of an application 🙂
Great recipe, worked very nicely. I made mine about 2 weeks ago…stored some in a airless pump, the rest in a plain screw top plastic bottle. Just opened the bottle and it’s started fizzing like a volcano!! Used as much as I could in my hair, but I think at least half of it has oozed out now!! I think I substituted a tiny bit if oil with castor and also my horsetail and marshmallow concoction boiled down so I made more and combined it all… but not sure why it’s fizzing!!! Any ideas?
Weeeeeeeeeird. This definitely did not happen to me. What e-wax did you use?
Hello there, Marie! I was looking for some suggestions…..This makes e hair really greasy (even the ends!) and not really moisturized. It just feels like it does when I rub plain oil on it or when I have made conditioner with water, oil and guar gum. I have been using homemade shampoo bars for almost a year and the ends of my hair are in rough shape…..The rest of it is beautiful. I wash it, use and herbal hair rinse, then a vinegar rinse, and then rinse my hair again with cold water. It is SO shiny and soft. It’s just the ends that are flat and dry and rough. This conditioner does not make it feel and softer at all! I do not want to go back to using store-bought conditioner, but I need something more than my rinses….. Please advise in anyway you can. Would a different oil work better? I’m not sure….. Thanks in advance!
Hi Cindy! Is there any chance you just need a trim? I know whenever my hair gets to where you’re describing, that’s exactly what I need.
Use btms as your emulsifying wax. Its amazing! Just water, btms and a little eo.
Love the website and have made many of the concoctions. Was wondering if you had any insight or recipes that I missed that would work for a child’s cradle’s cap.
My girls have had issue with this both before and after ditching commercial shampoo and condition. I have used an olive oil based scalp oil before which comes out with much scrubbing of commercial shampoo but now find that that treatment is nigh on impossible to remove with what I currently have. Thanks for any thoughts that you might have. Hair balm on the scalp? …
Hi Deirdre! I’m afraid I have absoloutely zero experience with cradle cap. I’m not even sure I’ve even seen a baby with cradle cap. You might consider trying a mud & clay wash/scalp soak as a gentle cleanser…? You could try adding soothing, healing herbs like chamomile and calendula.
Hi Marie can I substitute emulsimulse with turkey red oil and guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride? Thanks for putting up all these wonderful recipes! 😀
Hi Alana! Read this FAQ article, substituting the TRO/guar for “solubilizer” as you read 😉
So after you shampoo, do you then do a ACV rinse then add this conditioner to the ends???? Or is this a substitute for the ACV rinse. Then your ultimate hair serum would be added before styling?? So many products so little time! :). Just try to understand the process. Sounds like a lot. Love everything and have really enjoyed making all your recipes. Thanks for everything, you changed my world in DIY.
I wrote an FAQ on the differences between ACV rinses and conditioner here 🙂 The ultimate hair serum could be used as both a wash out or leave in conditioner; I tend to use it between washes for drier hair 🙂 Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me!
Got it! Just made all three last night, so we will see. Thanks again. Caryn