Readers' Hair Care Tips

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Lemon
Because of its acidic properties, using lemon is a very good way to bleach your hair, lighten and add glow your skin, a daily hand-soap substitute, and to remove dandruff

As a bleach
Apply to your hair (even on skin) and expose it to the sun. Many people say to do it for 20-30 minutes.

However, I find that putting lemon on your hair before going out for a long time on a sunny day (for a picnic, a walk etc..) is a better way to lighten it. Check often to see if you have reached your desired shade. Because of lemon's acidic properties, your hair can become coarse. So I suggest whenever you use lemon in your hair, do it after you've applied oil, or use it in combination with your favourite conditioner.

To add glow
Use it in combination with any of your favourite masks (even clay) to get even better results from the mask.

As a hand-soap
Cut a lemon and just rub it against your hand thoroughly. It becomes squeaky clean.

To remove dandruff
Ingredients:
enough shampoo to coat your scalp
enough lemon juice to distill the shampoo

Mix well and massage through scalp thoroughly. Keep on from 10-15 min. and wash off with shampoo. Do only when oil has been previously applied to hair to avoid any damage to the hair. Do this once every 2 weeks. For me, I've seen that I only had to do this twice and my dandruff never came back. Do it until all the dandruff has gone away. Avoid using any products that make hair flaky. Use non-flaky moose instead of gel and non-flaky hairspray. Always shampoo well regularly and keep your scalp well conditioned. Apply oil to your hair once a week (weekends are the best).

Oil
Oil is one of the best ways to add moisture and to reduce damage to skin and hair. Any kind of oil is good, however I prefer using the following oils:

Hair:
-Coconut oil
-Olive oil
-Jasmine oil
-Almond oil
-Rosemary oil
-Sage oil

Body
-Olive oil
-Almond oil
-Jasmine oil
-Rosemary oil

*For added scent, mix the oil with a naturally scented essential oil such as lavendar oil.

Use any oil you choose and allow it to sit on low heat. I suggest putting dried crushed herbs or seeds of a plant to enrich the oil with the vitamins and healing properties they possess. While the oil is heating those properties are exerted into the oils. After the oil is well-heated, it should be allowd to cool. You should use all of the oil after it has been cooled for best results.

For Hair (hot oil treatment)
First, untangle your hair. Then, massage the "refined" oil into the scalp thoroughly. Massaging the scalp increases the blood flow and strenghtens the roots, reducing hair loss, damage of hair, and making hair healthier. After the scalp has been thoroughly massaged, untangle the hair one again and coat the rest of the hair with the oil from root to tip. Wet the towel with hot-water and cover all of your hair with it. All the moisture and vitamins are then absorbed by the hair. For better results, continue this process for the next 30-45 minutes each time the towel cools. Remove the towel. You can then shampoo your hair very well to remove the oil. For best results, however, sleep with it overnight and wash it off in the morning. I recommend this for people who have very damaged hair and split ends. They should coat their hair with their favourite conditioner for 20 minutes and then shampoo it off. I suggest this be done once a week on the weekends. It is a lot more easier than it seems.

 

For skin
Massage the refined oil well all over your body. Use this as a substitute for lotions. I prefer having a larger proportion of a scented essential oil combined with it. Do not use any scented lotions, creams, commercial perfumes on top. You should only use homemade perfumes on top because the delicate scent of the oil will then be destroyed.

Honey
Mixed with water, honey's sticky properties allow it to be an excellent styling product. It has great healing properties and add moisture to the skin. On its own, honey makes an excellent lip gloss. What I like doing is washing out a previously used lip gloss container (preferably with the stick/wand) very well and pouring the honey into it. This is good because honey doesn't need to be refrigerated.

1 tblsp. of honey with 4 cups of warm water makes and excellent rinse to reduce frizz, and add shine to the hair. After you shower, pour mixture through the hair and catch drippings in a bucket. Re-use the drippings until you feel that your hair has been throughly rinsed. There is no need to wash this out. Untangle your hair ASAP. I do suggest, however, that the end of your hair be rinsed because the mixture seems to collect there and does the work of a styling product, making that part stiff and sticky. Do this once in a while though, because it can really damage your hair.

Yougurt and Milk
Adds a glow to your skin and reduces hair's frizz, making it straighter.

Neem
Excellent exfolient for your skin. Create a paste out of neem leaves and apply it directly on your face. Keep on from 5-15 minutes. The more sensetive your skin, the shorter time you should keep it on. The herb can be combined with other mask ingredients to make it more effective.

Amla, Shikakai and Reetha
These herbs are excellent for the hair.

Henna
Really good natural dye, and really good for your hair. The powder is availabe in the market, however, it is much better to use the paste from the leaves. It makes dark hair darker with a red tint and light hair redder.

For powder
Create a thick paste out of the powder and water. Fold 2 beaten eggs, and blend (preferably a paste) out of desired herbs. Apply to hair, cover with a plastic bag and keep on for 4-5 hours, or sleep overnight with it. The time you keep on depends on the strength of the henna. Shower after the time is up.

For paste
The paste is much stronger than the powder so I prefer using that. Mix the paste with 2 beaten eggs, and blend (preferably a paste) of desired herbs. Apply, cover with a plastic bag and keep on for 3-4 hours. Then, shower

*Tip: If you have dark hair, you can bleach strands of hair to make it lighter and then apply the henna. This makes the lighter strands reddish and the darker strands look even darker. It looks really nice. If you're unsatisfied, do not worry because the more you dye your hair the darker the reddish strands will get. I encourage you to play around and see how it looks. Most commercial dyes damage your hair so much; not much risk with this process.

Use this once every month or two, not very often. Many people's hair become slightly damaged therefore take great care of it with oil and an intensive blend of good conditioners.

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