Hello Botanical Beauties!

I hope your week is bursting with happiness!  Mine, is well, and insanely busy, but I include HAPPY in there so WIN.

I think the more I talk about the benefits of herbal hair remedies the more I want to  create tea blends for HAIR.

Who woulda thought?

We have already discussed, lightly, the world of less or no “Poo”.  And I think its a topic that we should continue to have, because there are so many different levels and we all have different hair types and needs. This certainly isn’t a one-size-fits-all world.

I cannot discount, however, that no matter what you use for shampoo, conditioner or styling products, that an herbal hair rinse is exquisite and can really enhance your health and beauty rituals.

THEREFORE I PRESENT TO YOU:

Herbal Hair Rinse Rules:

1. Get comfortable making tea.  IF you only learn this ONE skill you will enhance your health tremendously.  BONUS if you drink some!
2. FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY.  It is so easy to get basic information on the healing benefits of herbs, plants, flowers, culinary herbs, and well, any plant really.  BUT CHECK YOUR SOURCES If you are curious about rosewater, find a health food store and ask questions.  Get a book from the library, ask ME! 🙂 or roam into the woods and find a shaman maybedon’tdothat.
3. EXPERIMENT.  Buy some tea and then make it.  Boil some water and steep the tea for 5-10 minutes and try it.  Depending on what is in it you could probably find a half a dozen uses, at least a couple. 
4. Dont overthink it.  Don’t worry about every little thing.  You are rinsing your hair with plant power.  You can’t really go wrong.
5. HAVE FUN!  You are getting connected to nature.  It reduces stress and enhances your lives.

So now that you have some plant rules under your belt, lets talk hair a little more.

I already discussed how harsh detergents strip the natural sebum from our hair and scalp. I am pretty much a less-is-more-kinda lady and this is no different.  How many hair products do you currently have in your bathroom?  My guess is.. many.  Probably more than one type of shampoo and its corresponding conditioner.

You might have moisturizing hair masks, and leave-in conditioners.  Probably serums to protect from heat products and probably HEATED products.  Gah.  Most likely there are serums for frizz, goos for volume, shine or curl.  Maybe all of the above.  Hair pomades, and mouses and gels.  Hair sprays, beach hair stuff, wavy hair mists, glittery potions, miracle hair growth concoctions and possibly more.

Gosh poor hair is now getting bombarded with a chemical cocktail on a weekly, bi-weekly or maybe even daily basis.  All those products have preservatives, chemicals for this and that, and FRAGRANCE OH YES I WENT THERE.  That’s a lot of unnecessary and un-pronounceable …stuff that your body has to remove.

We dont need that.

Maybe you don’t really need the whole shebang of poos and all the rest previously mentioned but you would LOVE to refresh, rehydrate, and restyle.

Perhaps consider a mid-week herbal no-poo rinse. Make it a ritual!  Add a glass of wine and blast the B-52’s on vinyl!  You’ll love it so much you will probably forget all about date-night and maybe be that person who for real’s says “Sorry, I can’t, I have to wash my hair” andnowyouknowmoreaboutmethanyouneeded.

DIY HAIR TEA.  (well talk about the curly hair goo later)

Try this next time you want an easy hair refresher and go flaunt it on that DATE! 

• 1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers  (you can find pre-made tea bags for convenience)
• 1 tablespoon green tea (available EVERWHERE on planet earth, cheap, in a tea bag)
• 1 tablespoon (or 1 teabag) chamomile (also readily available in a tea bag)
• GO PRO and find organic dried rose petals. Uber bonus if they are Rosa Damescena. **Hint hint I like this currently ** go to the head of the class.
• JUST A FEW drops of ESSENTIAL OILS of your choosing: Rosemary is great for hair health, tea tree (maleluca) is great if you have dry scalp, dandruff, head itchies,  that kind of thing, ROSE becasue its beautiful and amazing at adding in nourishing anti-oxidants, is an anti-inflammatary, plus the AROMA.  Lavender for inflammation, and stress reduction (especially if you can’t find lavender flowers to steep).  TRY JASMINE, OH MY!

Boil approximately 2 cups of water and add in your chosen herbs. Let the tea steep for 5-10 minutes then remove the bags, or if using a french press (did you get one yet?) do the french press thing and pour out your brewed tea into a glass vessel (careful its hot).

Let it cool, add your drops of chosen essential oil (more on blending essentials soon) and then get ready for that refreshing herbal hair rinse experience.

A few comments about herbal hair washing:

1. Before washing, comb/brush with a boars hair brush if you have one (consider getting one if you don’t) and brush the sebum all through your hair.  I also think this helps shed all the loose hairs so it doesn’t go down the drain (the men-folk will thank you).
2. In the shower rinse your hair thouroghly with water and if you can, get your hands on one of these babies.This scalp massager is a  wonderful way to further massage your scalp, incorporating this into whatever you are washing your hair with (or rinsing LOL).
3. Pour some of your cooled tea on your forehead, head leaning back obviously, and let the tea run down your head forehead backwards.  Use your massaging hand brush, or just your fingers, massage the tea blend into your scalp.  INHALE the scents if you added some.
4. Flip your head over and now do the same thing but from the base of your head forward and continue to massage the tea blend into your hair and scalp.
5. Continue to go back and forth until you run out of tea and your whole head is massaged and rinsed.

OK, here is the part where I explain what I do, but you can obviously choose to try it or just do what you are used to doing:

Uhhh, I don’t rinse the tea out.  Usually, I have added some fun ingredient for a color enhancer as well,  like beet root powder for a tint of red (you can use chamomile for blonde hair, black tea for brunettes, gosh even brewed and cooled coffee is amazing for hair ).  I like to just let it stay on my hair and really soak in.  Its mostly water after all with a lot of amazing healing flower power so it saddens me to rinse it out, and I like the color ingredient to really soak in.

So THAT is what I DO but you need to feel comfortable with your process.  I tend to be a “don’t knock it till you tried it” with a dash of “throw caution in the wind” sort of gal, because you know if someone on Pinterest says coffee makes a magical overnight gorgeous hair miracle cure… It must be true!

I kid but in truth I love LOVE to experiment a lot and see if green tea really IS amazing on my skin as much as it is INSIDE.

So I scrunch out the dripping tea-rinse and dry my hair with a tee-shirt.

I personally have curly, bouncy, unpredictable hair, so my hair routine is based on that premise, which I should probably discuss sometime soon because being a curly-gal in a product-free arena is NOT easy.

CONGRATULATIONS! You just gave your hair and scalp an amazing herbal infused scalp massage with healing plant power.

You absolutely can just carry on as usual or come back here later for more articles on body product/chemical reduction and how that works in a modern life type scenario.

BONUS POINTS if you made a second cup of tea to sip on while you are fussing with your newly refreshed and tea infused locks!