tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4626070491429272507.post5614976237520402589..comments2023-04-28T06:13:56.075-07:00Comments on Blingn' & Bloggin': Flax Seed Hair Gel..the revoloution for my curly hair!Christina Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05210656666754658435noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4626070491429272507.post-14311478271203711592012-08-21T08:29:13.778-07:002012-08-21T08:29:13.778-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Deenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05946606984117495768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4626070491429272507.post-82679363388979619772012-08-21T08:28:53.384-07:002012-08-21T08:28:53.384-07:00Hi there- thanks for the post! Just wanted to clea...Hi there- thanks for the post! Just wanted to clear up one little thing. You talk about shampoo bars and how when you went to Etsy you saw that "some soap makers used sodium hydroxide in their shampoo bars" and so you ruled out these bars. <br /><br />As a handmade soap maker, I'd like to shed light on this common mistake. Making soap is a process of combining fatty acids (i.e.: plant oils or animal fats) with a highly alkaline substance. In bar soap, this highly alkaline substance is lye - sodium hydroxide. (FYI: liquid soaps are made using potassium hydroxide- still considered 'lye'). If the soap maker has properly calculated, she will have made a "recipe" where all of her sodium hydroxide will chemically react with her fatty acids (oils) to produce two things: soap and glycerin (that's right- glycerin is a byproduct of soapmaking). <br /><br />There IS NO SODIUM HYDROXIDE LEFT in the soap after the 'saponification'! Sorry to shout that, but this comes up all the time and I get people asking me to make them soap (or a shampoo bar- same thing) without lye. Grrrrr. Soap cannot come into existence without lye. <br /><br />Lye is a 'natural' substance in that the naturally-occurring version comes from basically 'steaming' ash. This is why the soil after a forest fire is very alkaline. It is also why people put 'potash' on their gardens when they need to make the soil more alkaline for certain plants. Potash is lye diluted with dirt, ash, etc... <br /><br />Anyway- of course we now make a standardized version of lye in the lab, but it's the same chemical and does occur naturally. Most of us soapmakers just don't feel like messing around with a bunch of wood ash to make it- messy and annoying! Some re-enactment societies DO make lye this way though when they show how soap was originally made (as it was supposedly 'discovered' when food grease dripped onto cooking fires back in the day). <br /><br />So- to get to the moral of the story... Bar soap (including shampoo bars) does NOT include sodium hydroxide. The process of making soap is NOT a 'physical' process (like melting oils and butters and pouring into a jar to make a body butter), but rather a CHEMICAL process where you combine 'A' and 'B' and end up with 'C'. Soapmakers not only calculate very carefully to not end up with any lye in the finished product, they also often 'superfat' which means they add a small percentage of extra oils to make a super-moisturizing bar soap. <br /><br />That's it! Just my soapmaker contribution to the discussion. Soap (and shampoo bars which are normally just super-super-fatted soap) cannot exist without having used lye (sodium hydroxide) in their making. However, there is NO sodium hydroxide left in the final product. :-)<br /><br />(FYI: Detergents- most shampoos and body washes- are made following a similar process but with petroleum instead of plant or animal fats. This process yields a 'soap like' substance-- detergent -- but NO glycerin.)<br />Deenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05946606984117495768noreply@blogger.com