Are you tired of toxins in your shampoo, but still need something to tame the grease? This easy, DIY shampoo for oily hair is free of non-toxic ingredients and promotes healthy, clean hair.
What’s in the bottle?
My journey to natural hair care began quite a few years ago, after the birth of my 3rd child. I had just recently discovered my gluten-intolerance, and it set me off on a “get rid of all the junk in my life” journey. After cutting out my toxic deodorant and toothpaste, my shampoo was the next thing to go.
Bye-bye cheap bottle of Suave with your fake fruity smell. I mean, just look at all the ingredients in that bottle I was pouring onto my skin!
Um… what? I don’t even know how to pronounce half of those ingredients. And if you’re a health-nerd you know one thing for sure: if you can’t pronounce it, don’t use it on (or in) your body!
A journey to safer hair care.
My first stop on the non-toxic hair-care road was the classic no-poo go-to: baking soda. For a while it worked well on my hair, but after about a year my luscious locks (ok, I really don’t have those) started getting dry and a breaking easily. I knew my hair needed something a little more gentle.
So I turned to coconut milk. Um. Yikes. That left my hair WAY too greasy.
Next up: Castile soap and essential oils. Thankfully they were just what I needed!
Easy, DIY shampoo for oily hair.
If you’re new to the poo-free lifestyle, or even just frustrated with a head of oily mess, give this DIY shampoo a try! It uses a simple combo of essential oils and non-toxic Castile soap to help your hair stay clean and healthy.
Though there are quite a few essential oils you can use to help tame the grease, lemon and rosemary are my favorites. Lemon is great for dealing with oily hair, plus it smells nice and fresh! Rosemary also helps blood flow to the scalp and help your hair grow strong and healthy.
All the options.
Here are a few other grease-control essential oils you can use in your DIY shampoo. If you just want to use what you have on hand, that’s fine, or you can mix them up! When it comes to essential oils, I tend to use Plant Therapy for just about everything. I really like their quality, and that they have a KidSafe line. But you can definitely use whatever brand you want. Now is good, and I’ve used Young Living and DoTerra too. I probably wouldn’t use something so expensive for shampoo, though… I’d save that for health issues.
- melaleuca (tea tree)
- peppermint
- vetiver
- ylang ylang
- cedarwood
- petitgrain
More DIY “recipes.”
Looking for more natural, non-toxic, DIY body care products? All of these are easy to make in your kitchen and only require a few ingredients!
- Non-Toxic Hair Care for Kids
- Honey & Cinnamon Lip Balm
- Easy Homemade Bug Spray
- Natural Remedies for Cold Sores
- DIY Itch Be Gone Paste
- DIY Shampoo for Healthy Hair
- Natural Tips for Healing Sunburn
In the recipe card I’ve linked to some of the products from my affiliate partners that I like to use. Purchasing through these links won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks!
DIY Shampoo for Oily Hair
description.
Ingredients
- 25 drops lemon essential oil
- 20 drops rosemary essential oil
- 1/2 cup castile soap
- about 1 cup filtered water
Instructions
Pour soap into a 16 ounce bottle with a squirt or pump-lid. (One like this would work.)
Add in essential oils and fill the bottle the remainder of the way with water.
Shake gently before using to mix essential oils into the shampoo. Use as you would a ‘normal’ shampoo.
Store in the shower.
I love trying out natural, non-toxic personal care products! Thank you for sharing this. I look forward to trying it soon 🙂
Glad to share it, Jennifer! I hope it works for you.
Isn’t it great to find natural ways to care for our families, ourselves, and our homes!
It is! I’m so glad there are natural options available… and easy to make ourselves!
HI Raia,
I love DIY shampoos! The essential oil recipes sound really healthy for hair with the lavender and lemon in it. I haven’t used regular store bought shampoo in years. I use plain unscented castile baby soap and every once in a while I put henna in my hair which will give it body and shine. I do add lemon to that too that will bring out highlights. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Pinned & tweeted!
Glad to share, Marla! I’ve never tried henna before, but I have friends who love it. 🙂
I’ll have to check this out!
Thanks for linking up with Welcome Home Wednesdays! Live every Wednesday at 7AM CT.
liz @ j for joiner
Hi Raia, I enjoyed reading your blog, and I learn a lot from it. I have oily hair this is the reason why I need it to wash daily, I’ve been looking for some remedy that could help to minimize the oil in my hair, so I think you’re homemade will be helpful for me.
I hope it worked for you, Angel!
I’m trying to find the right recipe for my first try at making my own shampoo. I’m curious, how long is the shelf life of your recipe when stored in the shower? I can’t find anything online that answers this question except with suggesting preservatives…
Well, it usually lasts me a couple months. I’ve never really timed it… sorry. 🙂
I only wash my hair once a week, and my husband is mostly bald. Even that much would be too much. Thank you for the tip about vegetable glycerin.
You’re welcome. 🙂
Do you remember what the tip about vegetable glycerin was? I re-read your article, and didn’t see it. When I finished reading the article, that was my first question to myself, “what does she think about vegetable glycerin?” Just yesterday I researched a DIY shampoo for clarifying hair, as my son has been in the pool all summer without a good wash, and I found one that was almost exactly like yours except that it didn’t add the rosemary and it added vegetable glycerin. My son has long, thick, hair. It could be me, but I braid it up for a week or 2 at a time, and it seems like it’s getting thicker every time I unbraid it, lol! Anyway, I made and used the shampoo and my son said he could tell the difference, and when I checked, I could BARELY tell the difference. I started to wonder if the “ickiness”, I was feeling was more from him just having naturally oily hair rather than from him being in the pool all summer, so I searched DIY shampoo for naturally oily hair, and here I am. He has a mixture of curly and straight hair, but the oil in his hair weighs it down so much that it’s just heavy and more straight than curly these days. Do you think there would be a difference if I didn’t add the vegetable glycerin? I’m just thinking maybe he needs to wash more regularly, but between him, my daughter with the same type hair as his (just not as thick), and myself, this mama is tired. Tired, I say, LOL! I know you feel me Raia. LOL!! Anyway, thanks in advance for repeating your tip about the vegetable glycerin and for any extra advice you might have.
Hey Audrey, sorry for the confusion as to vegetable glycerin. As far as I know, I have said absolutely nothing about it in my post or anywhere else, and that comment you’re replying to was spam. I just responded to it just in case, but I have no idea what “volume shampoo” is talking about. Sigh. Anyway, this shampoo recipe is for adults, just FYI, sorry I probably didn’t mention that in the post. I have a section on kids hair here…
https://raiasrecipes.com/2017/03/non-toxic-hair-care-for-kids.html
Now, as to your kiddo’s hair, first off, if he hasn’t gone through puberty yet, I would just scrap the shampoo all together and just wash his hair with water. The answer to oily hair isn’t to shampoo it more frequently, that will just cause your scalp to produce more oils! So keep trying to let his hair go weeks between washing it with shampoo, if you have to use it. And if you can handle it, just use water.
If your son is a teen and dealing with hormones causing extra greasiness in his hair, that might be helped better with some diet changes. If that’s not it, then I would just use this shampoo once a week at the most. If you feel like it’s not doing the best job on his hair (everyone is different!), you could try doing a nettle rinse once a week. Make a strong nettle infusion, strain it, and saturate his hair thoroughly with it. Then let it sit for at least 5 minutes and rinse it out. The end!
Sorry for the book, but I hope that helps!
Good blog, natural hair shampoo for dandruff free scalp and for a best wash.