Soap/shampoo have been around for thousands of years...though not in the form that we think of them today. All soap/shampoo is, is an emulsifier...something which helps suspend the natural greases/dirt on the skin/hair into the water and then be rinsed away. Mostly these were made from some form of fat or grease themselves, then treated with an alkali.

I'm Lakota (what most people call Sioux), and traditionally we used the roots of Yucca plants for shampoo. Some of my Navajo friends have noted that they did the same in their tribe.

When traditional soap is thought of, most people think of Lye Soap, a harsh soap made from ash and lard. Here's a website that details making it yourself: http://pgburrell.home.mindspring.com/id13.html

Most traditional people had their own version of soap, and how to make it. Here is a website that has a BUNCH of recipies from a number of people and cultures...
http://www.soapnaturally.org/soap_recipes/index.html

This is one but great tip from my old folks in the Philippines: my granny was the one who really demonstrated me how they have used the coconut husk by burning it into ashes.

Procedure:

1. Burn the coconut husk/s

2. Mix the ashes with the amount of water to wash and moisten your hairs.

3. Pour or run the mixture into your hairs while combing at the same time.

Result:
The hairs are really shiny and very smooth to touch whether your hairs are still wet or dried after.

Personally, I am keen to use natural ingredients especially on shampoos, soaps, etc. on my body. You would know the difference yourself.

in ancient china they use to use gleditsia fruit or grifola to clean their hair. it says they also used some spices to give it an extra aroma....what every works right?

traditionally shampoo is made from rice husk and rice straw (merang). The husks and straws are burned into ash, and the ashes (which have alkaline properties) are mixed with water to form lather. The ashes and lather are scrubbed into the hair. However, this makes the hair dry. Therefore, after shampooing, Indonesians apply coconut oil to remoisten the hair
(from Yahooanswers)
My father told me, in his village people used to grind the leaves and flowers of hibiscus with water and used it to clean the hair.It won't make big lather.
In briton Sake Dean Mahomed, started a shampoo bath which was the first one in Briton.He used an Indian treatment of champi or shapooing and it was very popular at that time.He was also called as shampoo surgeon.

The origins of personal cleanliness date back to prehistoric times. Since water is essential for life, the earliest people lived near water and knew something about its cleansing properties - at least that it rinsed mud off their hands. A soap-like material found in clay cylinders during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soap making was known as early as 2800 B.C. Inscriptions on the cylinders say that fats were boiled with ashes, which is a method of making soap, but do not refer to the purpose of the "soap." Such materials were later used as hair styling aids. Records show that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from about 1500 B.C., describes combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing At about the same time, Moses gave the Israelites detailed laws governing personal cleanliness. He also related cleanliness to health and religious purification. Biblical accounts suggest that the Israelites knew that mixing ashes and oil produced a kind of hair gel. The early Greeks bathed for aesthetic reasons and apparently did not use soap. Instead, they cleaned their bodies with blocks of clay, sand, pumice and ashes, then anointed themselves with oil, and scraped off the oil and dirt with a metal instrument known as a strigil. They also used oil with ashes. Clothes were washed without soap in streams.