Zao Jao Tradition : About Jung Chang's Wild Swans & her grandmother 's hair routine

We searched online for stories about Chinese Honey Locust and came across a post like this on a hair care forum. （https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/archive/index.php/t-9629.html）

This artice is from a net- friend Kuchen:

“I'm re-reading Jung Chang's Wild Swans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Swans), the story of her life and that of her mother and grandmother in China. Her grandmother was born in 1909 and traded as a concubine to a warlord general by her own father. Chang talks about her grandmother's hair routine when she was in her fifties, and I thought it was great LHC material. I don't think anyone here has experimented with this stuff!

She never used shampoo from the shops, which she thought would make her hair dull and dry, but would boil the fruit of the Chinese honey locust and use the liquid from that. She would rub the fruit to produce a perfumed lather, and slowly let her mass of black hair drop into the shiny, white, slithery liquid. She soaked her wooden combs in the juice of pomelo seeds, so that the comb ran smoothly through her hair, and gave it a faint aroma. She added a final touch by putting ona little water of osmanthus flowers which she made herself, as perfume had disappeared from the shops. I remember watching her combing her hair. It was the only thing over which she took her time.

So, um, what is a honey locust? ……“

Now, let's answer this friend's question.

What is Zao Jiao? Zao Jiao
English Name: Gleditsia Fruit, Chinese Honey Locust
Literal Translation: "Soap Thorn"

Zao Jiao, a key herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is the dried fruit of the Chinese honey locust tree (Gleditsia sinensis Lam.).

As one of the 50 fundamental herbs in Chinese herbal medicine, its purplish-brown fruits are harvested in the autumn when fully ripe, then cleaned and sun-dried for medicinal use.

The use of Chinese honey locust for washing hair dates back to ancient China, at least to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). During this period, people relied on natural plants like soapberry and honey locust not only to clean their hair but also to wash clothing and utensils.

Without synthetic soaps or shampoos, these plants were prized for their rich lather and effective cleansing properties, making them essential to daily hygiene in ancient times.