*Originally written by Hailey Roe
As a newbie to the Iron Horse world many of you may not know yet, so I will take a moment to introduce myself; my name is Hailey and I am going to cosmetology school while working at [ the pub ]. While brainstorming blogs, a suggested idea was something combining my two current interests: beer and hair. So naturally, DIY beer shampoo was the winner! I tested out a recipe and here’s how it worked.
What you’ll need:
1 cup of beer
1 cup of shampoo (brand of your choice)
First off, before you create this beer-lover’s concoction for luscious locks, you have to select your beer of choice. Will it be a stout, for a rich chocolatey aroma? Or a delicate cream ale, for blondes who want some sun-kissed highlights? I chose the Iron Horse IPA, because I really wanted the shampoo to be fragrant.
Step one: Measure out one cup of your beer, poor this into a small saucepan and, over a medium to high heat, bring it to a boil. This is the time where you may want to open a window or turn on an overhead fan. The smell of boiling beer is similar to beer bread and it may be overwhelming in your house or apartment. Beer does not come to a roiling boil like water, but it’s fairly easy to tell when it has started boiling. Once the beer is boiling, set your timer for 15 minutes.
Step two: While you’re waiting for the buzzer, in a medium sized bowl, measure out one cup of your choice of shampoo. I chose a fruity Herbal Essences shampoo, something that I thought might go with the IPA aroma.
Step three: Finish the leftover beer not used in the boil.
Step four: Once the fifteen minutes is up, remove the beer from the heat and allow it to cool completely. This shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, but allows you plenty of time to finish off the rest of your beer.
Step five: Pour the cooled beer slowly into the shampoo and stir it gently until it’s blended. Stirring gently is an important detail because you don’t want to end up with a sudsy mess, or at least I didn’t. Once it’s completely mixed, you can pour it into a container (like an empty shampoo bottle) with a lid.
Step six: Time to test your beer shampoo! I found this wonderfully wacky concoction to actually be an excellent shampoo. As a stylist-to-be, I wouldn’t normally recommend a drugstore shampoo, but with this infusion of beer, it rivals my favorite salon-brand shampoo! The suds, interestingly enough, become less soap-like and more like the head on a pint. The scent was not especially hoppy or beer-like in any way. It seems that adding the IPA to the shampoo gave the shampoo a more full-bodied, strong scent. Although the consistency leaves a little to be desired, being a little too watery and therefore causing you to use more of the product than you may normally need. What I thought would be a one time use, might actually turn into a recurring theme in my shower routine. Or at least until what I made runs out.
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