Victorian Lemon Glycerin Juice Shampoo Recipe

I’ve tried out another old homemade shampoo recipe: the 1893 glycerin-lime juice-shampoo. 😀

victorian lemon glycerin shampoo recipe

It says: ‘Occasionally the hair may be cleaned with a mixture of glycerine and lime juice.’ (Manual Of Useful Information, 1893) But the Victorian instructions don’t tell how much lime juice and glycerin to use. So I’ve just used a 1,5:1 ratio which may be wrong. As I feared the shampoo would be too runny like other Victorian and Edwardian shampoos I already tried, I’ve added some starch this time.

Ingredients:

  • 150ml lemon juice
  • 100ml glycerin
  • 2 teaspoons starch

I’ve cooked the lemon juice with starch, and later added the glycerin.

victorian lemon glycerin shampoo recipe

With the starch, the consistency of the shampoo was better. The shampoo had a wonderful, strong lemon smell. The washed and still wet hair also had a slight citrus scent, but the scent was gone when the hair was dry. Directly after washing my hair, I thought what a wonderful shampoo: 😉 my hair looked fluffy and clean as if washed with store-bought shampoo. But when the hair was air-dried, it looked very greasy. However, after a throrough combing, the greasy look was gone, and the hair looked clean, but as if I’d used a bit too much hairspray! 😉 The shampoo makes very voluminous hair. But I don’t like to use the shampoo again, as it needs so much glycerin and lemon juice to clean the hair.

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