Today I tried something a little different. I wanted to pamper my hair a little after putting the little one down for the night. I decided to try this idea of a 3 in 1 hair treatment: shampoo/conditioner/all natural hair tint. As mentioned in an earlier post.
Here’s what I did during each step:
Shampoo
Whipped up a small amount of rhassoul clay, water, vinegar and stinging nettle. I’ve mentioned before that rhassoul clay is a gentle, moisturizing, detoxifying all natural cleanser. Well, recently, I learned that stinging nettle has great properties for the hair as well. It can be used to fight hair loss (postpartum shedding, the struggle is real!), to improve the appearance of hair, and remedy dandruff. Basically all good and natural things that promise great results. Yay! I whipped up these ingredients into a thick pudding texture and rubbed it gently into my scalp and let it sit.
All natural tint/color rinse
Earlier in the day, over a stove, I simmered 2 TBSP of marshmallow root, a few sprigs of rosemary, 2 black tea bags and a TBSP of paprika for about 20 minutes and let it cool.
— On the ingredients –
Marshmallow root is a herb known to help with detangling, as it’s very slippery and secretes mucilage, which has been shown to be beneficial for softening the skin and hair. If you use my favorite leave-in/detangler KCKT, you’ll notice that it’s a key ingredient.
Black tea imparts shine and darkens hair. It also increase softness, manageability, shine and encourages growth.
I threw in some fresh rosemary from my herb garden too. Rosemary stimulates growth and slows down graying and has been shown to darken hair.
I read that paprika has natural red dyes. Since I wanted a darker color, with hints of red I added it.
Note: this tint/color is not permanent, because permanent color strips the hair of color. However, I hope to achieve something like a temporary black rinse.
Conditioner
For the conditioner, I added Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle to my natural tint, once it cooled down and a pinch of baking soda to raise the PH so that my hair would accept the color rinse and open up my cuticles to receive the conditioning treatment. Really, a pinch is all I needed. I then applied parts 2 & 3 to my hair in sections, coating each strand and detangling along the way, as I distributed it out of the bottle.
I let all of this marinate in my hair and on my scalp for 20 – 30 minutes and then simply rinsed it out of my head with lots of care. And conditioned my ends quickly for good measure.
My hair was fluffy, soft and very shiny after this treatment. I can’t tell if my hair is darker, but the color definitely looks shinier and I see hints of red more now. I’ve braided it up for tonight and sat under the blow dryer for a little (20 minutes) to help it absorb the leave-in and dry faster. I’ll come back with more details on the final results when I take my hair out of the braids tomorrow.
Color Rinse
Rhassoul Nettle Shampoo
Coated with conditioner and “color”
Ends are very moisturized
Rinsed hair without products
Braidout prep
Sorry for my rambling and disorganized post, it’s pretty late here.