Hair And Body Wash
1374 Words
The next morning after the morning meeting, the ladies who had discussed earlier about the Hair and Body Wash came forth as they were carrying some clay vats that smelled slightly of animal fat (presumably boar's fat) and lye (wooden Ash) that had been shifted and was as smooth as flour, a small jug filled with liquidised beeswax and lastly a small jug filled with goodness and freshness of freshly squeezed lemon and zest in them...!
"Good morrow, Your Majesty. What we have here are the main key ingredients to make the Hair and Body Wash in liquid form without using any water at all. If we eliminate the use of water, we would be able to make it into blocks form. Besides, if the Hair and Body Wash gets a bit hard to flow, just add a few drops of water and use a stick to stir and loosen up the mix once again."
"Great idea ladies... So what would you be doing now? Are you going to prepare them here in the courtyard on front of the domain?"
I asked since there could never be the perfect explanation of why the ladies were to bring the vats and pots filled with the main ingredients to display them before me, right?
"Uh... You're right, Your Majesty. We would be doing a demonstration on how you would be achieved in the finished product. Give me a second as I take a cauldron and a stirring paddle with me."
She walked briskly to the food preparation area and borrowed a cauldron and a stirring paddle which I guess would only be used to make these Hair and Body Wash from now on.
Everyone involved with the operations of this process all came forward after I motioned for them to witness the works. I do not want them to miss it for the world and the most exciting ones were Heather, Crystal and Gwen as Heather had taken down the measurements and took a bench and sat right next to the ladies to observe how closely they were going to perform the demonstration.
I laughed at the antics of those three and as soon as everyone was around, the ladies started their demonstration.
They first poured the animal fat into the cauldron and then they added lye in intervals into the lemon extract first as one would be stirring them. Not wanting to waste the balance of animal fat, someone poured some lye into it and so-called rolled the Ash to absorb all the animal fat from it.
Once the animal fat had been cleared and the lye had been slowly mixed and stirred inside the lemon mix, the fresh lemon and its zest were then slowly poured out and mixed into the cauldron as well.
"Your Majesty, lemon extract and it's zest were mixed into the lye to perform a water reduction to it. Furthermore, we would try to not use any water except in their original form so that the Hair and Body Wash blocks could be properly set afterwards."
The moment the freshly squeezed lemon and zest entered the cauldron, everyone could smell the whole courtyard filled with its fresh scent.
Lastly, the beeswax that had been softened down to be in their liquid form were poured in. The explained that the beeswax helped to hasten the Hair and Body Wash to harden into blocks. For liquid form, there was no need to use the beeswax at all.
"Your Majesty, this lemon zest need not be boiled down to create the essence. Several fruits such as lemon, oranges and green lime need not be boiled down at all. They could be prepared as such."
As she had said this, the solution inside the cauldron was ready...!
How convenient. It doesn't even take up 5 minutes even to make something like 50 liquid pounds of Hair and Body Wash.
"Your Majesty, this roughly 50 pounds that we have right now would be enough to be made into ¼ fluid pounds to be shared for each household. As for now, we would be making them into block forms because the cold weather might freeze the liquid contents and it might not be able to last long till spring."
"A palm-sized Hair and Body Wash block would be able to last a family of 4 for about a week if they shower regularly and wash their hair once a week."
"I guess it's fine for a trial period. Besides, Ben and Frank had made a few sets of the 5 by 5 mould and I'm sure it would be enough to make some blocks ready before distribution."
"You can start pouring them inside the moulds and place them inside the domain where it would be set in a few days I suppose?"
I recommended the idea and the ladies welcomed it very much. They slowly ladled the contents and I can smell how great the lemon fragrance that wafted throughout the courtyard as they slowly set the contents inside the moulds.
It was like watching them make the clay bricks but this time it was the Hair and Body Wash blocks. The ladies slowly filled each of the space within the 5 by 5 wooden moulds that were 3 inches in length, 2 inches wide and 1 inch deep.
After they had filled the moulds, a lady helped to carry the mould and place it inside the domain where a bench was laid out inside. It was then stacked accordingly and by the end of the demonstration, they had managed to fill up close to 7 wooden moulds. That would make an approximate 175 Hair and Body Wash blocks.
The contents inside the mould were yellowish in colour due to the original lemon extract. Besides, the ladies mentioned that orange and calamansi could be used so the colours would be a natural orange and green colour. How convenient...!
"Your Majesty we and completed the demonstration and right now we would like to see how long it would be able to harden under normal temperature. Normally, as I've mentioned about the beeswax, the solution for the Hair and Body Wash blocks could harden up anything from 1 to 3 days."
"Without the earlier beeswax, the Hair and Body Wash blocks would harden from 10 to 15 days long and it's not counter-productive if we were to run production for them. If it is for personal use, we would just use the liquid form. It's faster."
"Ah... I see. So the liquid form does not use beeswax but uses water instead to dilute the solution. By the way, is the beeswax readily available all year round?"
"Most bees would hibernate leaving their queen inside the hive. The honey bees are the ones that remain active while year-round and it is easy to gather some nice honeycombs from the honey bees. Do you intend to cultivate these honey bees in the future, Your Majesty?"
"Nope... Just asking. I won't bear too see any of you get stung by bees. Anyway, thank you for your insights and please check in the progress and let us know when the Hair and Body Wash blocks hardened."
"Your Queen, as well as Gwen or Crystal, would take note of the progress as well. So right now, we would wait for the next product and that would be the Hair and Body Wash in liquid form and in cute pots with lids."
"I really love the lemon scent right now from the domain. The scent site will stick around for days to come I'm sure."
The meeting ended and everyone got around their daily activities as Marcel went up to me with a proposal.
"Do you think the Hair and Body Wash in liquid form could be manufactured by using all-season herbs instead? We have lemon for the body, face and hand wash and another product just targeting then hair only. This would increase Sales. If not, customers would be satisfied for one that serves all."
"Great idea mate, run along to the ladies and find out what all-year-round herbs could be used to make the Hair wash instead."
Marcel gave a thumbs-up as he hurried along and looked for the 3 ladies earlier.
- Writer
