Baking Soda and Sea Salt ratios

Spraying with sea salt? Washing with baking soda? How do I make these solutions??? Well I am a pharmacy tech and I can tell you whats up for wonderful clean and tight dreads.

Na HCO3 Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda is naturally occurring in nature and is found in the oceans and our blood and is used often in medicine and the ER to correct life threatening situations. As a matter of fact there is a specific solution or ratio of water to baking soda that should be used when washing the hair based on the biology of the body and it's PH. After all your hair is living and part of your body! This solution will clean your hair, wash out residues from from previous shampoos after a couple of uses, help baby dreads from, help with hard water, and clean and balance your scalp and is suitable for all hair types.

In metric you would use 1 litre of water to 84 grams of baking soda. In English that is about 1/2 cup of baking soda to 5 cups of water.

Directions: Mix warm water and baking soda (double the amount of each for more hair!) together in a suitable container. Pour some over the hair, get into the scalp and massage it in, repeat until finished. Wrap your hair in a towel for 10-20 mins, then rinse thoroughly with warm water and a cold rinse. Follow this once or twice weekly, or if you are new to dreading your scalp will be going through some changes, and itching will be the result. Use the itching as a guide to rinse your hair (as part of your bathing routine) with plain warm water or the baking soda wash.

Conditioning is based on your hair type and how quickly it dreads and how old the dreads are. You may want to use Aloe Verra gel (with out alchohol) for new dreads or small amounts of jojoba, coconut or almond oils for established dreads. Feel free to mix in a few drops of your favorite essential oils to the above mentioned. Check and see how your hair type reacts to Apple cider vinegar. It is safe to use in small amounts about a table spoon to 1 quart of water as a rinse and a few drops of any of the essential oils that you like can be added to the vinegar before adding the water. Pour over and let sit for 2-5 mins and then rinse.

Sea salt as an accelerator is useful for hair types that do not dread quickly. Sea salt for the table is expensive over time. I would suggest going to a well stocked pet store or aquarium shop to pick up a box of aquarium salt that when mixed properly with water has a specific gravity of salt and nutrients found in the ocean that are equal to the sea to help hair lock up fast, if you do not have regular access to a beach.

Get a durable quart size spray bottle, make a funnel with an index card and stick it into the opening of the bottle add 2 tablespoons of the salt. Add about 1/2 cup of very warm water and swirl the bottle around to dissolve the salt, then add more water to the quart line. Spray your hair to almost dripping and let it sit for 10 to 20 mins followed by a good rinse of plain water or baking soda wash.

Hope this helps and is a good review

updated by @baker-street: 04/04/22 05:32:40AM

good job thanks

nice to have acurate measurements now

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My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

So ACV is optional? I thought it was a must. If I don't need it I probably won't use it. Thanks for posting this!

Hey thank you SO MUCH for posting that!! As a matter of fact, I have baby dreads and super fine, weirdly oily hair so I cant really stand to go without washing.. I use BS and did an ACV rinse a few days ago but I sort of ust guessed at the mixture and figured I'd keep on trying til I found the right mixture for me.. According to you, I had it pretty close I threw in a tiny bit of lemon juice though, like 1/2tsp or so. My babies will be a week old on Thursday!!

Oh and the salt water thing - I just spray a couple hours before I plan to shower/wash my hair.. Then its not like I'm really adding anything to my routine and I don't have to sit around while it soaks, I can continue on with my day (I have two toddlers...lol so pretty busy days!) play with kids, take a walk to the park, fix meals, etc rather than be watching the clock while waiting or the salt water to kick in so I can just go wash/rinse it out! I live in eastern NC, pretty near to the beach actually.. I don't trust going in the water though, too many things that can take a bite of me!!!!!! so sea salt water in a spray bottle it is!!

this is awesome!! i just did a bs wash today. i used 3/4 cup bs to 2 quarts water. might have been too much:/ what are your opinions on adding sea salt to the bs wash? i added 2 Tbs to mine. since getting a water filter i'm really enjoying being able to do bs washes and not having a bunch of residue left on my scalp.

No its not a must, but if your hair is feeling dry and crispy one day then ACV will correct that.

James Turk said:

So ACV is optional? I thought it was a must. If I don't need it I probably won't use it. Thanks for posting this!

Hey Practicality and intuition is a gift! Remember though that acids (lemon juice) and bases (baking soda) mixed together cancel each other out, keep them separated. I think it would be neat to try the juice of a whole lemon in 5 cups of water as a rinse, but I'm thinking because you have straight and oily hair you need to stick to just the baking soda solution for a time. The baking soda solution will balance your oily hair, and help it dread in good time. Do it as freely as you like at the start, but remember that the BS solution is very strong so you will find that three times a week is plenty. Once or twice is even more practical, especially with your tikes on hand.

kendra hutchinson said:

Hey thank you SO MUCH for posting that!! As a matter of fact, I have baby dreads and super fine, weirdly oily hair so I cant really stand to go without washing.. I use BS and did an ACV rinse a few days ago but I sort of ust guessed at the mixture and figured I'd keep on trying til I found the right mixture for me.. According to you, I had it pretty close I threw in a tiny bit of lemon juice though, like 1/2tsp or so. My babies will be a week old on Thursday!!

Oh and the salt water thing - I just spray a couple hours before I plan to shower/wash my hair.. Then its not like I'm really adding anything to my routine and I don't have to sit around while it soaks, I can continue on with my day (I have two toddlers...lol so pretty busy days!) play with kids, take a walk to the park, fix meals, etc rather than be watching the clock while waiting or the salt water to kick in so I can just go wash/rinse it out! I live in eastern NC, pretty near to the beach actually.. I don't trust going in the water though, too many things that can take a bite of me!!!!!! so sea salt water in a spray bottle it is!!

Sea salt to the bs solution sounds good and your concentrations cant be argued with, although they are a tad lower, do you compensate with more time?

Heather said:

this is awesome!! i just did a bs wash today. i used 3/4 cup bs to 2 quarts water. might have been too much:/ what are your opinions on adding sea salt to the bs wash? i added 2 Tbs to mine. since getting a water filter i'm really enjoying being able to do bs washes and not having a bunch of residue left on my scalp.

i just started doing bs washes. i couldn't do them before because my terrible water made it impossible for the baking soda todissolve. i have a shower head water filter now. i only left it on for about 5 minutes. my hair is light and fluffy! i love it oh and i added 6 drops of tea tree oil and 4 drops of rosemary oil to the mix.

great post, i haven't used sea salt. I've though of using it but i bought the locking gel instead. i don't really measure the baking soda, or ACV. i just throw some in.