Introducing our solid shampoo bar's ingredients. Ingredient number 3: organic coconut oil

To make solid shampoo bars you need to combine fats (oils), water, and an alkali in a process called saponification.

In previous blog posts we've written about our alkali of choice; Sodium Hydroxide, and the most important of the fats we use; Organic Olive oil.

This week, we're introducing the second most important of the fats that we use to make Tidy's Men's solid shampoo bars: organic coconut oil.

Organic coconut oil - enhances a solid shampoo bar's lather

Coconut oil is extracted from the white meat found inside the coconuts you think of when imagining a palm lined beach.

We use organic coconut oil in our shampoo bars to enhance their lathering properties. And to add to their mild conditioning capability too.

Coconut oil can help protect your hair from damage too, so we get a three benefits for the price of one ingredient by adding it to our men's shampoo. 🙌

The organic coconut oil that we use at Tidy is refined which makes it scentless and a bit cheaper than virgin organic coconut oils. This stops the coconut oil from overpowering the mint and tea tree scent of our shampoo, and helps keep the price of our solid shampoo bars lower than they might otherwise be.

Coconut oil melts at around 24 degrees celsius, which means thanks to our mild British climate, it's in its solid state when we get it from our supplier.

To use it in our shampoo we have melt it to combine it the other oils and fats we use to make our shampoo before mixing them all with our alkali. You can read more about this process in our how to make your own solid shampoo for men blog post.

It's not just Tidy that uses coconut oil...

Coconut oil is a popular choice in skin and hair products because it is rich in essential fatty acids which leave skin and hair feeling silky smooth and well hydrated.

But it's not limited to being used in cosmetic and hair products. Coconut oil is a hugely versatile fat that has many, many uses.

A quick google for "uses for coconut oil" will return a diverse range of uses. Some a little more out there than others... here's just a sample:

It can be used as a sunscreen (though not a very effective one as it only blocks ~20% of UV radiation compared with ~90% for regular sunscreen). ☀️

It can be used to increase your metabolism, temporarily, if consumed in the right quantities. 🏃

Its high saturated fat content makes it a good choice for cooking at very high temperatures, safely. Though it can add a very distinct flavour to your food if you use virgin oil... 🍳

Used for "oil pulling" it supposedly protects your teeth from tooth decade and gum disease. 🦷

It may reduce belly fat. 🧈

It can speed up healing of small cuts and scrapes. 🩹

It can be used as the base for non-toxic insect repellents. 🦟

You can clean with it! Combined with baking soda to make a paste, you can remove stains from furniture and carpets by leaving the paste on the stain for 5 minutes and then wiping away. 🫧

You can polish wooden furniture with it. 🪑

The list of uses for coconut oil is seemingly endless!

For us at Tidy we're happy to "just" put it in our men's solid shampoo.