You didn’t address the question to me, but many people find that clays have a detangling/smoothing/clumping effect on their hair— so a
little clay, whatever “a little” is for you, can add these properties &/or detoxification properties to your DC, whether store bought or home made.
if you’ve ever tried a DC you liked that had a bit of clay in it, then you can expect similar or better results depending on your concoction.
Naturelle Grow had an amazing DC with pink clay. It performed a kind of voodoo on my hair and also lots of other ladies, including a poster... named Yvette? She might’ve changed her name but she started a Curly Proverbs based thread a few years back. If I remember, I’ll link to it. I only stopped buying NG when I decided to keep my purchases limited to what I could buy easily on the ground.
Shea Moisture also had a clay treatment, the OG formula for the Purification Mask (which I am hoarding my last jar of, and planning to kick off Jan 2021 by using up)— and I (and many others) LOVED the original formula. I personally used it as a CoWash at some times and a DC or prepoo at others. It was really great stuff.
Those are the most notable I tried.
I’ve also heard amazing things about DCs/treatments with a bit of clay in them from Honey’s Handmade, Soultanicals, and Anita Grant, but have no personal experience with those brands.
My suggestion would be to use your experience with a commercial clay based product as a comparison for what’s possible with some experimentation at home. Or even, if you have a nice slippy non-silicone conditioner that you feel like you can CoWash with, that makes a nice 1/3 for a creamier formulation to your clay wash. One of my favorites for this purpose is Elucence’s Moisture Balancing Conditioner— but that’s a difficult to find (maybe discontinued?) product (I’m using the last of my gallon up by Spring 2021).
sorry for the novella! Hope this helps!