I got this great idea from fellow blogger and naturalista Yoli Ouiya after meeting up for tea and coffee one day. (She has beautiful locs by the way). I’ve done oil rinses before, and I’ve made my own deep conditioners, but it had been ages since I actually did a hot oil treatment. Yoli made two great suggestions. Don’t use more than 1/4 cup of oil, unless you have really long hair and apply most of it to a wet scalp, pulling the excess through your strands.

Here’s what I did:

credit: Leon Dale

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned tea rinses in my post 10 Ways to Combat Winter Hair Shedding Naturally, and how they were a good way to help prevent untimely loss of hair. Well, I’ve been actually doing the process for 3 weeks now and I LOVE it. I saw a difference in hair loss after the very first week! Of course as the weeks went on, and I got more rest and ate better, the hair loss went down even more. Apparently, the tannins in caffeinated tea help thicken the hair shaft and make hair appear fuller. Also Black tea is a natural astringent, which means that it penetrates the pores of the scalp and dissolve excess sebum (oil produced by the glands).

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…

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! Aztec 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.

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:

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?

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

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

-Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner

* I no longer support this product because they reformulated the ingredients.

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