Tapioca starch miracle: deodorizer , shampoo and body wash

Two to four teaspoons of tapioca starch per cup of water. Pour on dry hair and this alone is a deodorizing shampoo. Massage evenly into hair. Rinse thoroughly after a minute.

I have oily hair. Even if I wash with pure Castile soap and leather twice daily I still smell. If I'm not careful, it's not smell, but horrible smell soon after shampoo. The kind that people accidentally came close within a feet will bounce back and cover their noses. But after I got the smell, a tapioca starch shampoo alone can remove the smell immediately. It's not a cover up. The hair 'smell' better into the day when the very mild starch odour disappears.

I have tried baking soda. A lot of it in a paste enough to pour on hair and massage into it. To my surprise it doesn't work.

My theory is that the root/scalp has oil that repulse water. If you apply soap/detergent, it's like washing a grease filter with soap/detergent. It won't work as detergent works on the surface and cannot handle bulk grease. Baking soda can deal with grease but it doesn't work on scalp. Maybe dry or wet, the coarse particles cannot reach the scalp. All shampoos have the formula to reach the scalp but then they are too strong and strip away oil on the shaft.

Of course tapioca starch (and similar starch) used in cooking is an oil emulsifier. It doesn't dissolve in water nor thicken cold water so water is a good carrier of it. Shake well so the starch is evenly in the water bottle. Just pour and the starch will reach the scalp.

You can use dry tapioca starch but I doubt it will reach the scalp as efficiently as a water mixture.

Now I'm using dilute castile soap and tapioca starch mixture. They don't seem to cancel each other. With soap it's easier to tell if the mixture reached your scalp. It seems the mixture stays on the scalp longer and it is easier to massage into it. The soap also smell nice, with moisturizer and acidic balance.

My hair can take straight liquid Castile soap (or solid bar), which is already mild. Diluted is enough as long as I don't smell. With tapioca I think I don't. I have little helpers to check it. It seems that I can use less tapioca with soap in it.

Wet shampoo isn't a bad thing because that's how to rehydrate skin and scalp. But you need moisturizer to go with it. Castile soap have lots of it. If you don't want soap with tapioca starch, you can add your own ingredient.  But be careful, I tried to thicken the starch water mixture with Guar gum but it's a disaster.

If you search for tapioca, you can find the better home made articles for personal care. It is used in many commercial things like dry shampoo, deodorizer. 

For my soap tapioca mixture, it's a deodorizing shampoo and body wash all in one, how convenient. It's also a 'conditioner' too as you don't need one. It's almost as easy to use as a bottle of concentrated shampoo, but preparing a bottle for each kid is a bit of work. I'm trying to figure that out.