Healthy Scalp, Healthy Locs
Nyesha Samuel, Publisher/Master Loctician
These 3 products are the perfect combination to keep your hair healthy and moisturized this season.
There are few things that will pamper African American hair like butters that include Shea butter. Shea butter is smooth and luxurious for your hair, and it will help your hair maintain a smooth and hydrated look. These are non-guilty pleasures, such as you might experience when you get a massage, a pedicure or a manicure.
Shea Butter Body
When you think about creamy hair butters, one of the first types that comes to your mind will be Shea butter. Some creams will all rehydrate your hair to some degree, but Shea butter is one of the most lavish ways to keep your hair healthy.
Shea butter helps to rehydrate your hair, and it forms a protective coating that aids in preventing loss of moisture in the winter months or in dry climates. When you add Shea butter to other ingredients that nourish your hair, they will help keep it radiant and healthy.
Hair butters are luxuriously hydrating, due to the nut and seed oils that form the basis of the blends. The oils in Shea butter creams are made by pressing the kernels or seeds of the nuts from which they are derived, and cooking the mixture that remains until the oils and fat are released.
Clarifying Shampoo
You probably have days when it seems that your hair is heavy and in a mood to misbehave. African American hair may react to exposure to pool chemicals and other outside influences, and it will be harder to comb. That's how you will know it's time to use a good clarifying shampoo.
Your hair develops a build-up of many different kinds of hair care products. Gels, mousses and hair spray, as well as mineral and hard water deposits can cause a build-up on your hair over a period of time. Even some conditioners and shampoos can make your hair feel limp, greasy and dull. Using a clarifying shampoo can help get rid of those deposits, and will make your hair shinier, and give it a new start.
As a rule of thumb, you can use clarifying shampoo once or twice a week, to help your hair rebound from everything you put it through. If you swim often, the chemicals in pool water will cause your hair to become dull and lifeless. Even if you only use small amounts of product in your hair, it can still need clarifying once a month or once every other month.
Here’s an Herbal Shampoo recipe that you can try at home;
Organic Herbal Shampoo Recipe
Two cups of distilled water
1 1/2 tsp. Soapwort root
*30 drops of essential oil
Decorative bottle
Directions for Organic Herbal Shampoo
Bring water to a boil
Add soapwort root, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool for an hour.
Add oil and stir thoroughly
Bottle and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
If you don't grow your own soapwort, you can find soapwort root (dried) online or at your neighborhood health food store.
*You can use a number of different essential oils, either alone or in combination to create a signature fragrance: lavender, rosemary, geranium, rose, and sandalwood are only a few.
Rosemary Hair Oil
You can create a lavish lavender and rosemary hair oil to treat your hair and bring back its lustrous look. Rosemary harbors antioxidants that will help to nourish and strengthen African American hair. Avoid buying products over the counter, because these may have synthetic ingredients rather than the natural ones that will help your hair recover from the rigors of work and play.
The best way to purchase rosemary hair oil is in a bottle with tinted coloring, because excess light can cause a breakdown in the ingredients that could result in the oil losing its effectiveness. Lavender is sometimes blended with the rosemary oil, to make an essential oil mixture that will treat your hair gently and naturally.
Below is a great Hair Oil recipe you can make at home;
*1/2 cup of dried rosemary leaves
*1/2 cup olive oil
Combine ingredients then heat up until warm. Strain. Coat the entire scalp and ends of hair with the oil mixture. Wrap hair in a plastic bag or shower cap. After that you can wrap a towel around your hair over the plastic or you can sit under a hood dryer with just the plastic wrap and no towel to aid the oil in penetrating your scalp and hair. Do either method for 15 to 20 minutes. Wash hair twice to remove the oil. Use the treatment twice a month or when your hair needs a deep conditioning.
