What is African black soap?
African black soap originated in West Africa and is made from the ash of locally harvested African plants. It has become popular around the world for its skin-cleansing properties.
Black soap is often handmade by women using traditional soap recipes. The soap is extracted from a mixture of burnt plantain skins, palm kernel oil and water over an open fire to produce the ash or "soda". It's then mixed with water again until all the lye (or sodium hydroxide) has been dissolved in it.
The soap is often packaged in a small, round bar with the edges notched. This signifies that it's made from pure natural ingredients and has been created by hand. It will also have some left-over ash or "soda" on its surface which helps to remove dead skin cells - this substance is called glycerin.
What Are The Benefits Of African Black Soap?
The sections below list some of the potential benefits of African black soap.
How to use African black soap
African black soap may cause irritation or redness. To help alleviate this, people should only use a small amount of it.
Instead of applying it directly to the skin, a person should work a small piece of soap into a lather in their hands. They can then rub the lather over their damp face, body, or hair.
They should then wash the soap off with warm water. If they have used it on the hair, they should apply their conditioner of choice following the wash.
