Ayurvedic hair care · Three herbs
Hair Treatment Powder
Amla, Reetha and Shikakai — blended
A wash and a mask, from the same pouch.
Three of our single herbs, blended: reetha and shikakai for the saponins that do the cleaning, and amla for the strand. Mixed thin it is a wash; mixed thick it is a treatment you can leave on. Nothing else is in the pouch — no fillers, no synthetic preservatives, no fragrance.
The reason it works both ways is a number. We measured this blend at pH 3.2 – 3.5 — between our two washing herbs, and inside the range cosmetic products designed to be left on the hair are usually formulated to. Shikakai on its own is far more acidic than that, and we do not recommend leaving it on at all.
Where it sits — our own readings
All three read on the same handheld meter, calibrated against pH 4.00 and 7.00 buffers, from mixes made at one part powder to three parts water by weight. Not laboratory certificates — numbers you can check yourself.
What is in it
Three of the eight single herbs Radico makes, each of which you can also buy on its own.
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Reetha
Sapindus mukorossi
Saponins. The cleaning
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Shikakai
Acacia concinna
Saponins, and the acidity
-
Amla
Emblica officinalis
The strand — and it touches colour
One thing to know about the amla. Of our eight single herbs, amla is the only one that changes a plant colour result — its acidity shifts a henna result cooler and slightly deeper. That is why it is in 23 of our 24 shades. It also means this blend is not colour-neutral the way reetha or shikakai alone are. Washing with it will not strip a herbal colour, but if you are colouring, leave two to three days between the two.
- What it is
- Three organic herbs, milled and blended. Nothing else
- The herbs
- Amla (Emblica officinalis), reetha (Sapindus mukorossi), shikakai (Acacia concinna)
- Measured pH
- 3.2 – 3.5 at one part powder to three parts water, on a calibrated meter
- As a wash
- Mixed thin. Two to three minutes, then rinse
- As a mask
- Mixed thick. Fifteen to thirty minutes
- Lather
- More than reetha or shikakai alone, less than a shampoo. Foam is not what does the cleaning
- Effect on colour
- The amla will shift a henna result cooler. Leave two to three days after colouring
Foam, pH and the pouch
What we measured, and what we cannot hold constant
Most of what makes this blend behave the way it does comes down to two things: how much it foams, and how acidic it is. Neither is what people expect — and one of them is the reason the same powder works as a mask and as a wash.
Foam is not what does the cleaning
Reetha and shikakai clean through saponins — compounds the plant makes that lower the surface tension of water. They lift oil the way any surfactant does. What they do not do is produce the thick, persistent lather of a shampoo.
It is worth separating those two things, because they are not the same property. Lather is what happens when a surfactant traps air. Cleaning is what happens when it surrounds oil. A surfactant can do one well and the other barely at all — which is why industrial and dishwasher detergents are deliberately formulated to foam as little as possible. Foam gets in the way there, so it is engineered out, and the cleaning is unaffected.
If you have used our single herbs, you will notice this blend foams more readily than either reetha or shikakai does alone. We do not have a mechanism to offer for that — it is an observation from mixing all three, not something we have investigated.
Conventional shampoos foam heavily because people expect it. Foam is the part of a wash you can see, so it became the part that got engineered.
We measured the pH — and then diluted it
Plant washes are widely described as acidic. We have not found anyone publishing numbers, so we took our own, on a handheld meter calibrated against pH 4.00 and 7.00 buffers before the session.
The interesting result was not the figure itself. It was what happened when we changed how thick the mix was.
Three mixes, one pouch, one session. Between the thickest and the thinnest — a change that drops the powder concentration by a third — the reading moved by 0.03. A strong acid diluted that far would have risen by around 0.2, and even a simple weak acid by half of that. This one barely registered the change.
That is the signature of a buffer: a weak acid sitting alongside its own conjugate base, holding the pH steady no matter how much water you add. It has a practical consequence.
Mixing it thick for a mask does not make it more acidic than mixing it thin for a wash. The consistency changes how it behaves on the hair — whether it holds or pours — and nothing else. The fifteen to thirty minutes a mask sits on your scalp is spent at the same pH as the two minutes a wash does.
| pH | What follows from it | |
|---|---|---|
| Shikakai alone | 2.1 – 3.0 | A wash only. Rinse within two to three minutes |
| This blend | 3.2 – 3.5 | A wash, or a mask you can leave on |
| Reetha alone | 4.54 – 4.90 | A wash. Nothing added |
| Hair’s own surface | 4.5 – 5.5 | For reference |
Cosmetic products designed to be left on the hair are usually formulated between pH 3.5 and 4.5. This blend sits at the bottom of that range, which is why we give a fifteen-to-thirty-minute window for the mask rather than an open one. Shikakai on its own sits well below it — and that is why blending it changes what the powder can be used for.
Why the number moves between batches
The three readings above came from one pouch. Across different batches, our readings for this blend have fallen between about 3.2 and 3.5. We would rather show you that spread than pick a single figure out of it.
The blend is three milled herbs and nothing else, in the same proportions every time. What we cannot hold constant is the herbs. Growing conditions vary from season to season and from one harvest to the next, and the acid content of a fruit or a pod varies with them. The pH of a pouch reflects the year it was grown in.
We could hold that figure still. It would take a pH adjuster, and there is nothing in this pouch but amla, reetha and shikakai. A number that never moved would be telling you something had been added to keep it there.
Your own reading will differ again, because water hardness moves it too. What does not move is the pH across dilutions within a single pouch — and that is the part that matters for how you use it.
The batch we measured OMP/26/E/001 · milled 05/2026
Why this one is not vacuum sealed
Our colour pouches are vacuum sealed at the point of milling, which is most of the reason they keep for close to five years. This blend is not, and it is worth explaining why, because the shelf life is shorter as a result.
Vacuum sealing this powder compresses it into a solid block. Not a firm cake you can break with a spoon — a block you would need a hammer to get through. We tried it. What comes out is unusable.
So it is packed loose, and the pouch you receive carries a date and an expiry just under three years apart rather than the five a sealed colour pouch gets.
What we do instead. We hold small quantities in the United States and air-freight from India frequently, rather than shipping a container and warehousing it. It costs more per pouch and it is more work. The point is that what reaches you is close to the milling date rather than close to the expiry.
Every pouch is printed with the batch number, the date it was milled and the date it expires. You can check where in that window yours sits before you open it. If it is closer to the far end than you would like, tell us.
What acidity does to hair
The outside of a hair is covered in overlapping scales, the cuticle, laid down like tiles on a roof. How flat those scales lie is most of what we perceive as smoothness. Flat scales let a strand slide past its neighbour; lifted scales catch on each other, and hair feels rough and tangles.
Alkaline conditions lift the scales. Acidic conditions let them lie down. That is the whole reason conditioners, acid rinses and every “pH-balanced” claim on a shelf exist — and it is why washing hair with true soap, alkaline at around pH 9, leaves it rough.
You will sometimes read that acidity opens the cuticle so nutrients can get in, and then closes it again. That is the wrong way round. Alkali opens; acid closes. A wash on the acid side is not letting anything in — it is leaving the surface flatter than an alkaline one would.
What we notice. Hair comes out of this wash easier to run fingers through than we expect it to, often without a conditioner afterwards. We are reporting that as an observation rather than a measurement — combing force can be measured properly and we have not done it. What we can say is that the pH gives a reason to expect it.
Keep it out of your eyes
Saponins are surfactants, and surfactants sting. Being a plant does not make a molecule gentle on the cornea, and the mechanism that lifts oil off hair does not distinguish between hair and eye.
There is a second problem a liquid shampoo does not have. This is milled plant material, so the wash carries fine particles that never dissolve. If some gets in your eye, those can lodge there and keep working after the water is gone, so the stinging continues rather than fading.
Tilt your head back while you rinse and keep your eyes closed while the wash is on. If any gets in, flush with plenty of cool running water well past the point it stops hurting — the aim is to carry the particles out, not just dilute the liquid. Do not rub; rubbing works a particle further in. If irritation persists after a thorough flush, see a doctor.
What we will and will not claim
That saponins are surfactants, and that acidity keeps the cuticle lying flat, are physical chemistry rather than health claims. The pH figures are our own, on a calibrated handheld meter, from mixes made the way we describe here. They are not laboratory certificates. We publish them because they are numbers you can check yourself with an inexpensive meter, and because we have not found anyone else publishing any.
What we have not measured is any outcome. We have not compared cleaning efficiency against a conventional shampoo, and we have not measured combing force. We are not claiming this cleans as well as, or better than, a synthetic formulation — we would need a controlled comparison to say that honestly. What we can give you is the mechanism, our own readings, and a clear note about which parts are observation.
We are not claiming this powder treats any scalp condition, and in the United States a cosmetic may not make that claim.
Radico Organic Hair Treatment Powder is a cosmetic product for external use on hair and scalp. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Patch test on the inner forearm 48 hours before first use, and stop use if irritation develops.
In practice
Two ways to use the same powder
How much water you add decides what this becomes. Thick, it is a treatment you leave on. Thin, it is a wash. The powder is the same either way; only the consistency and the time on the hair change.
One part powder, two parts water
As a treatment
- Ratio
- 1 : 2 by weight
- Consistency
- Thick yogurt. It holds on the brush without dripping
- Time on hair
- 15–30 minutes
- Shoulder length
- About 30 g powder (1 oz) to 60 ml water (2 fl oz)
Long enough to condition, short enough that the acidity is not sitting on the scalp for an afternoon.
One part powder, four parts water
As a wash
- Ratio
- 1 : 4 by weight
- Consistency
- Pourable. Thin enough to run through and reach the scalp
- Time on hair
- 2–3 minutes
- Shoulder length
- 10–15 g powder (⅓–½ oz) to 40–60 ml water (1½–2 fl oz)
A paste would sit on the hair; a liquid runs through it and reaches the scalp, which is where the cleaning happens.
One powder, three consistencies. The pH reading we published was taken at 1:3, in the middle of the two. Going thicker or thinner changes how the mix behaves on the hair; it does not change what is in it.
Weigh the powder rather than spooning it — a spoonful of milled herb can vary by as much as a third depending on the spoon and how it is scooped. Add the water gradually, and let the mix stand five minutes before you judge it; the powder keeps absorbing water after the first stir.
As a treatment
- Mix at one part powder to two parts water — a thick yogurt consistency — and let it stand 5 minutes.
- Apply through the lengths, working from the mid-shaft down, then bring what is left up to the scalp.
- Leave on 15 to 30 minutes under a shower cap so the paste stays damp. A dried-out paste stops working — it is the water that keeps the plant compounds in contact with the hair.
- Rinse thoroughly with warm water, head tilted back. Rinse for longer than you think you need to; this is milled plant material, and fine particles settle at the nape and behind the ears.
As a wash
- Mix at one part powder to four parts water and let it stand 5 minutes. It should pour.
- Wet your hair first, then pour the liquid onto the scalp in sections. It will run, so work in parts and tilt your head back to control where it goes.
- Massage the scalp for two to three minutes. Expect a modest amount of foam — more than reetha or shikakai give alone, far less than a shampoo. It is not a measure of how well it is working.
- Rinse thoroughly, head still tilted back.
Keep it out of your eyes
Saponins sting, and because this is milled plant material rather than a dissolved detergent, fine particles can lodge in the eye and keep stinging after the water is gone. Keep your eyes closed while it is on, and if any gets in, flush with plenty of cool running water well past the point it stops hurting. Do not rub. If irritation persists after a thorough flush, see a doctor.
How often — what we found
You can use this daily. We do not think you need to, and we would rather say so. Using it every day gets through a pouch quickly, so we tested longer intervals to see what was actually necessary.
Washing with it every two to three days, and rinsing with warm water only in between, the slip held for the full two to three days. Hair still ran through the fingers easily on day three.
One condition is worth stating plainly. That was the whole routine — this powder, and warm water on the days in between. No conventional shampoo at any point during the test.
We have not tested what happens if you alternate this with a sulfate shampoo, and we would expect a different result: a strong detergent strips more than water does, and a scalp responds to that. What we can tell you is what a water-only routine looked like in our own hands — not what a mixed routine would look like in yours.
If you are coming from daily shampooing, expect a few weeks of adjustment. Scalps washed daily with a strong detergent tend to produce oil at the rate that washing demands, and that rate takes time to settle.
This blend and colour
Reetha and shikakai carry no pigment, and neither affects a colour result. Amla is different, and it is in here.
Amla is naturally acidic, and acidity shifts a henna result cooler and slightly deeper. That is why it is one of the herbs in 23 of Radico’s 24 shades — the effect is measured into those recipes. It also means this blend is not colour-neutral the way our two washing herbs are on their own.
What follows from that. Washing with this will not strip a herbal colour you already have. But henna and indigo both keep developing for up to 72 hours after application, and a surfactant wash inside that window will take some of the result with it — more so here, because the amla is working on the tone at the same time. Leave two to three days between colouring and washing with this.
If you would rather not have the amla
All three herbs in this blend are also sold on their own, and the two cleansers are colour-neutral. If you colour your hair and want a wash that does nothing at all to the tone, reetha or shikakai alone will do that.
The trade is the pH. Reetha alone reads 4.54 to 4.90 and shikakai alone 2.1 to 3.0 — neither of which is where you want a treatment you leave on. This blend sits at 3.2 – 3.5, which is why it is the one of the three you can use as a mask.
The rest of the range
Three of Radico’s eight single herbs, blended — and all three are available on their own.
Organic Hair Treatment Powder See all Ayurvedic hair care
Three ingredients in the pouch. No fillers, no fragrance, no synthetic preservatives.