help with dry shampoo recipe please

[GrandmaArial]

A friend who is a community health nurse has asked me to come up with a dry shampoo for her elderly patients that can’t hang over the sink for extended periods. I have searched and searched for a starting point. All I have come up with is powder.. cornstarch, corn meal, even flour. I know this can be messy so may be counter indicated for someone who’s bedridden. Does anyone one have and recipes/suggestions? I suppose we can scent some cornstarch to make it a more pleasant experience for her people, no Eos though as these people all have serious health issues and many Eos can be counter indicated with the health issues and/or meds they are taking.

TIA

[Jadryga]

Cornstarch works very well, but if it's pure cornstarch I find it a little drying.

Here's a quick recipe off the top of my head that you could try:

1/4 cup corn starch/oat flour

1/4 cup arrowroot powder/orris root powder

1/4 cup kaolin

1 tbsp honey powder

1-2 tbsp powdered herbs

Since you don't want to include EOs, you might want to include a bit of powdered herb for a subtle scent instead.

A mix of lavender and chamomile powder with a little mint would be nice? Nice and soothing, but with a little mint for freshness I'd probably even add a little rosemary powder, for the refreshing scent as well as the hair benefits since the ground herb is much, much milder than the eo.

If you have it in a little powder dispenser it shouldn't be too messy. I found a nice one on Mountain Rose Herbs:

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/supply/misc.html

It has an adjustable dispensing lid, which will reduce mess considerably A little goes a long way anyhow with dry shampoos, doubly so since you have to work it into the scalp somewhat. Too much can be a tad drying.

Dang, now I want to make this recipe too!

[Jadryga]

I've also been thinking about a hair refreshing spritz before you mentioned this (I sometimes get cornrows done, and while I get lots of compliments on them, they are SO SO ITCHY!), so I thought I'd share it too... these were what I thought would be good:

witch hazel (the alcohol free version)

peppermint hydrosol

neroli or chamomile hydrosol

a little honey or honeyquat

maybe a little acv

maybe a little white willow bark extract

some spray-safe preservative, maybe phenoxyethanol

Since it uses hydrosols rather than the eo, it's much, much milder. Theoretically, this will also help somewhat with the itchy scalp you sometimes get from greasies, the neroli or chamomile are slightly astringent and soothing. Peppermint is cooling, witch hazel is soothing and will also help somewhat with itchies.

Honey for softening and humectant properties, acv for general hair care, and white willow bark for flakey scalps, also anti-inflammatory.

This would probably be good in conjunction with the dry shampoo, as an after "shampoo" spritz which will theoretically counter dryness somewhat, and give them more of a "clean" feel.

Well, hope this helps!

Kept this a separate post so it's not so long-winded or confusing

[GrandmaArial]

Thank you so much Jadryga. Good ideas! I also found an article that suggests egg white. Whip it up (just the white) massage it in and using a damp cloth wipe it off. She can’t go around with fresh eggs and a mixer of course, but I’m wondering if powdered egg whites might be an answer. I remember as a small child my great grandmother washing my hair with egg whites (she stuck my head under the faucet to rinse though), and egg whites dry to a stable powder and are used in recipes like royal icing for that reason. Any white she misses should brush out in a few minutes as a powder. I think this would make it so all she would have to do is lay a towel under their heads to contain the mess.

And I was thinking a touch of finely powdered herbs could add some positive properties but are mild enough to not be a risk (after all the people she would use it on do eat foods with the same herbs in it). Thank you for reassuring me on this.

I think I will try making up some batches of both and see what works best. I guess she and I will not be washing our hair much for awhile… I can’t imagine I will be able to get any of my other testers to work this one for me! LOL.