Soapnut: The best soap & conditioner, also natural!

Note: This was originally posted in my other blog on Rural India. As it seems to be very unrelated to the context of that blog, I am posting it here.

I have been using Soapnut (or Ritha or Kunkudu kaaya) from my childhood. It is simply the best. It is very popular in South India. In particular, rural andhra pradesh people use soapnut for taking headbath (a bath that includes washing the hair on the head). Many other parts of India, soapnut is used for cleaning the jewelery or precious metals.

I have seen small companies selling soapnut powder but it is not effective. I think, innovation is needed in order to extract the juice of soapnut and preserving it. So it is a wonderful business opportunity to make soapnut into a liquid format for selling it as liquid soap/shampoo.

Other personal observations:

1. Telugu & Tamil people take headbath once in a week unlike elsewhere wherein bath includes washing the hair as well!
2. Soapnuts available in Andhra is fine for eyes however, soapnuts of elsewhere may hurt the eye during the bath.
3. I did an experiment for the past 12 years by not drying the hair after my headbath. Traditional belief is that one may face the risk of catching cold then. However, my observation is that one may face the risk of dandruff but not catching cold.