An Experiment in Rosemary Hair Conditioner

So... all this research and reading about sodium lauryl sulfate and other such skin and hair irritants that seem to be found in almost ALL commercial soaps, shampoos, and conditioners, plus all the unnecessary artificial fragrances, colorants and chemicals, has me wanting to make my own hair care products.

Shampoo will be more of a challenge, because it's made in a similar way to my cold process soap, but with potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide. Don't have it on hand... YET! But I will! Liquid soap and shampoo are projects I must put on the back burner of my mind for now.

But... a little more research and I found that hair conditioner is made pretty much like lotion... I think... I thought... maybe!

Googled hair conditioner recipes and mostly I got things like "mash up an avocado and put it on your head" or "mash a banana" or "crack and egg" or use vinegar, beer, lemon juice, etc. Not what I wanted, I was searching for a recipe that I could bottle and use and maybe eventually add to my product line... so... searched the soapmaking forum I am a member of... nobody had any answers there either... Google again... this time searched for emulsified hair conditioner recipe... about the 25th one down on the list was a recipe that looked like what I wanted... I tried my version of it... this is what I mixed together...
2 oz. oils (I used 1 oz. coconut oil, 1 oz. avocado butter)
8 oz. water
Preservative (used the Germabin II that I use in my lotions)
I added
a little bit of glycerin
2 Tbsp. emulsifying wax
Rosemary essential oil (which is wonderful for hair!)

It smelled wonderful... as soon as it cooled down, I jumped in the shower, washed my hair with my regular shampoo and applied my new conditioner!!! It felt good, smelled great, seemed to rinse out nicely...

Toweled my hair and pulled out the hair dryer... dried and dried my hair... still looked wet! Yikes... it was time to go to work!!! It was a rainy, humid day so thought my long, thick, wavy hair was just taking longer than usual to dry... so hairbanded it back and headed to work...

Never did dry! It wasn't wet, it was oily! Horrors!!! Soon as I got home from work, jumped in the shower and shampooed it all out. My hair looked great! Felt great! Soft and silky!

So... what did I learn from this experiment? The conditioner did condition ... but it's too oily... what to do next? I'm not sure!

I found ONE more recipe with similar ingredients... BUT... the first recipe did a 4:1 water to oil ratio... the second has a 16:1 water to oil ratio... will that be the one? Dunno... but I haven't given up yet... The experiment continues... I LOVE rosemary essential oil and am determined to find a way!