Haircare Recipes | Savvy Brown

* Haircare Recipes

So I tried Henna Again…

Posted in Hair, Hair Archive, Haircare Recipes | Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

After reading all of you guys’ helpful comments on My First Henna, I got some new ingredients and finally got around to doing my henna again a couple of weeks ago and it came out MUCH better this time. Here’s what I used:

Henna Mix 2

Ingredients*:

2 cups of steeped hot green tea (3 tea bags)
200gms of Jamila Henna
2 tbsps milk thistle powder
2 tbsps of almond oil
4 tbsps Suave Tropical Coconut condish
2 tbsps red wine vinegar (I figured it’s acidic and it’s red so why not right?)

*Everything highlighted can be purchased at the Savvy Shop

Directions:

Pour Henna powder into a bowl and add steeped hot green tea and vinegar to the mix. Add milk thistle powder and let sit for 4 hours. Then add the rest of the ingredients until the consistency is like pancake batter.

I then coated my hair just like last time, but this time I only left it in for 4 hours. I also used more Suave condish to rinse it out. (My only mistake? Rinsing my hair in the shower, and not the tub what a mess! I’m still cleaning some of it out of the shower!)

I followed it all up with a deep conditioning treatment of coconut milk, AOHSR Condish and raw honey. (I’ll post that recipe soon!)

This time my hair came out soft and shiny and I think the color was a little richer. I think it might have changed my curl pattern a bit as well. Although I heard about people saying that henna changed their curl pattern, they always said it happened after using henna for awhile. This is only my second time using it! Here’s how it turned out after I did a twitout with Karen’s Body Beautiful Hair milk and KBB Hair Cream. (A review of these products is also coming!)

Here’s the results, you can really see the color change in my puff…

Using Bentonite Clay as a Deep Conditioner

Posted in Hair, Hair Archive, Haircare Recipes | Friday, March 26th, 2010

If you’ve been following this blog and the savvybrownblog twitter page then you’ve heard me talk about the many uses for Bentonite Clay. One of my favorite uses for it is as a Deep Conditioner for my hair. Bentonite clay can remove buildup without stripping hair of its moisture making the hair really soft and easier to detangle. It can also bring out curls if any, and add sheen. It is sometimes mixed with another ingredient like marshmallow root powder, coconut milk, yogurt or just water. I like mixing mine with Apple Cider Vinegar. Although I have some coconut milk left over and I think I’ll try that this weekend! A ztec Secret is a popular brand, and it’s available in the Savvy Shop!

Here’s what I did:

Bentonite Clay Deep Conditioner

Ingredients:

6 tbsps Bentonite clay
2 tbsps + 1 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar (I use the real kind with the apple bits floating around)creamy and smooth

Directions:

Mix the clay and vinegar until it’s the consistency of yogurt. You can add more vinegar if you need to. Apply all over making sure to cover hair and scalp thoroughly.

My First Henna Treatment

Posted in Hair, Hair Archive, Haircare Recipes | Friday, March 19th, 2010

After hearing TONS of people talking about how great henna for you hair is, I decided to try it myself a couple of months ago. Why use henna? Because it’s much healthier for your hair than most over-the-counter hair dyes. With multiple uses it also conditions and softens the hair shaft. (I got this recipe from Curly Nikki) Here’s what I did:

Preparing the Henna:

Steep 4 green tea bags in 2 cups of water

Mix 200gms Jamila Henna in cooled tea (they come in 100gm boxes)and 1 squeezed lemon. I had a little left over, so next time I’ll mix a box and a half.

I stirred it by hand with a butter knife making sure all the powder was wet and absorbed into the mix. It should be thick like mashed potatoes and will look dark olive in color. (It kind of smells like hot wet leaves. Yum.)

Let it sit for 8 hours.

Then I washed, detangled and conditioned my hair following my regular routine.

At this point, the color of the henna mixture had deepend to a dark brown, and it has become much thicker….like…well…mud.

I wanted it a little but thinner so I added 2 tbsps of raw honey warmed up in the micro, 1 tbsp of coconut oil, and stirred that in until it was more the consistency of guacamole. I also added several drops each of peppermint oil and orange oil to make it smell a little better.

Applying the Henna:

I applied it to my hair section by section and when I reached the top of my head, I hand-parted it again all over making sure I didn’t miss anything.
Then I put a plastic shopping bag on my head, wrapped my head in a towel and went about my business for the next 3 hours.
Washing this stuff out is tricky. (Think of it as washing a mud pie out of your head.)
I filled my bathtub halfway and pulled my hair down into it. I luckily have a hand sprayer on my tub, so I dunked and used that to rinse it out…5 times.
Then I deep conditioned with Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner mixed with castor oil for 30 mins (I should have done this for longer, probably overnight)
Then I rinsed it out and and used my trusty Bee Mine Bee Hold Curly Butter as a leave-in, and two strand twisted my hair in medium-sized twists and then set the twists on rollers.

Here’s the result:

Next time I will reserve a whole weekend for this process. Whew! It did make my hair a little redder, but you can only see it in the sunlight, it’s really subtle. It did turn some of my little gray hairs into little red wires though! I definitely didn’t deep condition long enough though, because my hair was kind of dry I solved that by applying my spray leave-in conditioner daily. So next time I’ll DC for a few hours.

I also wonder what I could do to make the rinse out a little easier. Any suggestions?

Hair Guacamole

Posted in Hair, Hair Archive, Haircare Recipes | Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

This is my favorite deep conditioner, and although I use store bought DC a lot, I keep coming back to this one!

Avocado/Mayo Deep Conditioner

Ingredients:

1/2 of a RIPE soft Haas avocado meat mashed with fork well
1/2 cup regular mayonaise (DON’T leave this out, otherwise you’ll have pieces of avocado left in your hair!)
2tbsps of oil (I use raw coconut oil, but you can use jojoba, olive, grapeseed, etc.)

Directions:

Put the avocado and the oil in a mini food processor or blender and blend, then add the mayo until smooth. Apply to hair from root to tip and cover with a plastic bag or plastic shower cap and wrap head with a towel. Leave on for a couple of hours, then rinse out with warm water.

Put any extra in the fridge (or add chopped tomatoes and urn it into a dip!)

Try it and tell me whatcha think!

NOTE: This Deep Conditioning Treatment is NOT to be used with heat. I wrap my head in a plastic bag and a towel, and let it sit while I clean my house. A couple of hours later, I wash it out.

Daily leave-in conditioner

Posted in Hair, Hair Archive, Haircare Recipes | Monday, January 18th, 2010

Pour 1/8 cup of conditioner into a small spray bottle

Pour in a little oil (oilve, sweet almond, avocado, coconut, jojoba or any other natural oil that you choose)

Pour in a few drops of glycerine

Add a few drops of essential oil (optional, but I like tea tree, peppermint or jasmine)

Fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake vigorously.

Shake and spray on your hair daily, to keep it hydrated and moisturized!

This is a great way to use up those little bits of conditioner left at the bottom of those conditioners you’ve been trying out. Some of my favorites to use are:

- Giovanni Smooth As Silk Conditioner
- Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner
- Suave Tropical Coconut Conditioner

Do you make your own leave-in conditioner? What are some of your leave-in conditioner mixes?