I’m always looking for natural ways to care for my hair. I’ve learned that I don’t have to shampoo it every day. In fact, my hair looks healthier when I skip a day between shampoos. Plus the natural oils protect it and make my hair shiny and easier to style. And, a baseball cap is always there to work wonders on bad hair days!
Since I stopped using traditional shampoos and conditioners I seem to have less bad hair days. My hair is softer, stronger, and less frizzy. Looking back, I now realize how strange it is that I was using these harsh chemicals to strip the oils in my hair and then using other non-natural products to restore the shine and softness.
Going natural for my hair care has allowed me to experiment quite a bit with homemade solutions cleaning and styling. So far I have two different bar soaps that I get from local soap makers (Northumberland Soap Works and Smallbones - see related links below) that I love. One is clay based and seems to revitalize my hair when I need it. The other I use to keep my hair clean and shiny. I even use them on my 11 month old daughter as I am confident about their ingredients and safety.
Now that I’ve grown my hair out longer, I am curious about other options I have for natural hair care and styling. Here are some recipes I found that I will be testing out.
Hair Spray: Simmer two sliced lemons in a pan of four cups of water for an hour. After it cools, pour the mix into a spray bottle (I know that lemon can lighten the colour of your hair when you go out in the sun, so keep this in mind). If you want a stronger holding hair spray, add a ½ cup of sugar to the mix. Also, add an ounce of vodka to homemade hair sprays so you don't have to keep them refrigerated.
Hair Gel: Dissolve a teaspoon of unflavoured gelatin in 1 cup of hot water. Don't use it as a hair gel until it is cooled and thickened.
Hair Conditioner: Mix one part apple cider vinegar with two parts water. Once you shampoo your hair, rinse your hair with the vinegar mix and don’t rinse it again with water. The smell does go away. This works great on my hair! I used to get tangles and knots all the time; not anymore! Apple cider vinegar is also good natural way to control dandruff.
Scalp Conditioner: Massage plain yogurt onto the scalp through the hair. Cover hair with a shower cap. Leave on for 30 minutes to an hour, and then rinse it off.
Get Rid of Gray Hair: Use the recipe above for hair conditioning with apple cider vinegar. Taking natural apple cider vinegar liquid or tablets regularly supposedly helps keep your grays away. I don’t need this yet although my husband does (and he attributes it to me!!!) We’ll try it on him.
If you have any other homemade and natural products that work for you, please feel free to email me or post to the forum. Have a great natural hair day!
Save to Del.icio.us
