It’s summer and it seems like gardens everywhere are exploding with fresh herbs just begging to be used in new and interesting ways!

In addition to being kind of obsessed with using herbs in as many recipes as possible, I love using fresh herbs in hair care because they can be so powerful and effective…without all the chemicals you normally see in conventional hair care products.

This recipe is made out of 3 fresh herbs and I specifically picked ones that are most commonly found growing in people’s gardens and at the farmers market.  Rosemary has been used as a stimulating scalp tonic for centuries, mint helps with dandruff/itchy-ness and just feels refreshing on the scalp, and–let’s be honest–lavender is just about the most versatile beauty herb there is (but for the sake of this recipe, I find it very calming for the scalp).

Ingredients:

• 8-10 soapnuts
• 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• a handful of fresh mint leaves
• 6 sprigs of lavender
• 2 cups water

Note: you can reuse these soapnuts up to 3 times before they don’t foam anymore so don’t throw them away! Just dry them out and reuse for the next batch.  This makes this recipe super cheap as well.

Steps:

1. Put your ingredients into a medium sized pot and place over medium-high heat.

2. Stir every few minutes while the mixture comes to a boil.

3. Turn down the heat, place a lid on your pot, and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes

4. Turn off the heat and let sit for about 15-20 more minutes. I then poured my new fresh herbal shampoo into a mason jar but you can use any container you have on hand.

5. Get into the shower but don’t get your hair wet.  Shake your jar to get the herbal shampoo to foam up.  Slowly pour the mixture over your hair, focusing on your scalp.  (I would stop occasionally and reshake the jar to get more foam.)

6. Leave on for about 10 minute–using that time to do the rest of your shower activities–and then rinse the mixture off. (Don’t get soapnut fluid in your eyes! It burns like crazy.)

7. I always, always follow up my shampoos with ACV rinses and I highly recommend it here.

Note: adding essential oils to soapnut mixtures and still have them foam can be tricky.  I wouldn’t recommend adding any to this particular recipe unless you have a lot of experience with using soapnuts.

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