Cold-pressed vegetable oils nourish and moisturize the hair naturally. Many vegetable oils are good for an oil hair treatment at home, but some of the best and most commonly used include olive oil, jojoba oil or coconut oil. Add herbs or essential oils for your hair type or color, or to treat dandruff naturally.
How to Use Jojoba, Coconut or Olive Oil for Hair
Warm up the oil a little (place the oil in a bowl and the bowl in hot water) and massage it into your hair. If your hair and scalp are dry, or if you are doing a hair treatment for dandruff, massage the oil into the scalp, too. Wrap your hair first into plastic wrap or aluminum foil and then into a towel. Let the oil do its work for at least 20-30 minutes before you wash it off, although you can happily leave it on for an hour or two. You can also add essential oils into your homemade hair treatment.
Herbs and Essential Oils for Natural Hair Care
- Rosemary is a great hair tonic, especially for dark hair. Add a few drops of rosemary essential oil to olive, jojoba or coconut oil and massage into your hair and scalp, as above. Or add a few drops of rosemary oil to the final rinsing water after washing your hair. You can also make a rosemary infusion with fresh rosemary leaves: add at least a tablespoon of fresh rosemary into about a liter (32 oz, give or take) of boiling water, let the herbs infuse until the water cools down, strain (to make sure bits of rosemary don’t end up in your hair) and use the infusion to rinse your hair after washing.
- Chamomile essential oil is good for blond hair and gives it a golden tone. It can be mildly drying, so use it together with a nourishing oil treatment to minimize the drying effect: add a few drops of chamomile essential oil into jojoba, olive or coconut oil to treat blond hair. If your hair is oily, use a chamomile infusion. Make the infusion with fresh chamomile flowers (like the rosemary infusion above), then strain it well and use for rinsing your hair.
- For dandruff, make a 3% dilution of Tea tree or Lavender essential oil into a base oil and massage into your hair and scalp. Bergamot and Sandalwood are good alternatives to use for oily dandruff.
Natural hair care is also about eating well. Find out the best foods to eat for healthy hair in Marcela’s Healthy Eats for Beautiful Hair this Holiday Season.
Photo by veganbaking.net on Flickr.com
Sources:
Lesley Bremness: The Complete Book of Herbs (Studio, 1994)
Patricia Davis: Aromatherapy, an A-Z (Random House, UK, 2004)
Great post and tips! I use either Amla or coconut oil, I wrote about it here. This is what I use http://www.chaiacupoflife.com/hair-oil
Will try Rosemary next time!