cedarwood EO

An Herbal Apple Cider Vinegar(ACV) Cleanse for My Oily, Flakey, Sore Scalp

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Hey everyone! I hope this post finds you well.

 

Scalp Treatment

Scalp Treatment (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I thought I’d share what I use to cleanse my scalp.  Though I never been medically diagnosed but based on my research, I think I’ve got a mild case of Seborrheic dermatitis. This has been a problem for as long as I can remember and it gets worse when the weather changes. If  I don’t keep the oily build up off my scalp, I produce enough flakes to supply a mini ski slope.  Also my scalp gets quite sore and not just from scratching either. Ironically the soreness would go away when I scratched my scalp with a comb.

Now I had already tried dandruff shampoos, rosemary, tea tree, lavender, peppermint, sage and cedarwood essential oils, oiling my scalp with natural oils and aloe vera juice/gels.  All of these made my scalp flare up more. In the summer of 2010 while in the 3rd day of retightening and right after washing my braidlocks, I noticed that I still had greasy flakes. The kicker was I had not oiled my scalp in 5 days…from the last wash.  And I had not oiled my scalp then either! :-0   Silly me, I thought I had been suffering from a dry scalp all these years! :-0

So I decided to again search for a more natural, cheaper way to help with the oil build up.  Quotidianlight on Youtube had done a video on Seborrheic dermatitis and in it she mentioned salicylic acid. The light bulb went off in my head because I had found out a few months prior that salicylic acid is white willow bark. It’s basically nature’s aspirin.  Well I’ll be!  Momma Nature knows best and has been at it waaay longer than man has. I decided to  revise (many times lol ) what I had concocted before, combine it with straight Apple Cider Vinegar which I had used at the beginning of my loc journey.  This is what I came up with:

  • ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) Any kind will do. I use the Walmart brand.

    Apple Cider Vinegar

    Apple Cider Vinegar (Photo credit: AndyRobertsPhotos)

  • Sage Tea (This is just sage leaves steeped in heated water then cooled) I use it to cut the ACV instead of just plain water.
  • And the following dried herbs:  Burdock Root, Comfrey Root and Leaves, Horsetail aka Shavegrass, German Chamomile, Nettle, Hibiscus Flower, Sage ( in addition to the tea) , Slippery Elm (I heard it keeps the Comfrey from going rancid), Peppermint and White Willow Bark
  • Aloe Powder
  • Neem Powder,  if  I remember to put it in the mix. lol
  • Lavender or Cedarwood essential oils for preservative (because of the sage tea being made w/water) and for the soothing properties too.
  • Peppermint essential oil ( for extra tingle)
I don’t really measure anything but I use approx 2 teaspoons of everything adding one or two more of what I feel I need.

First heat the ACV in a pot. Low heat is preferred and even better if you have a glass pot.  Add the herbs, put a top on the pot and let them simmer on very low heat for at least an hour. I try to let mine go for 2 hours or more. Then place the mix in a glass jar. I don’t like having to do this all the time so I generally will  use 3-4 cups of Apple Cider Vinegar.  Make sure the ACV is covering the herbs completely in the jar.  Vinegar is a preservative and by making sure the herbs are covered, they won’t go rancid. After letting this mixture set for a few days though I’ll let mine steep a lot longer, strain the herbs out. Place in the container of your choice. I like to use a mesh strainer first for the big stuff, then strain a second time with knee-high stocking for the small stuff.

When I first started using this particular combo which has gone through some additions and subtraction of herbs (mainly for cost

Vinegar is commonly infused with spices or her...

Vinegar is commonly infused with spices or herbs—as here, with oregano (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

reasons), I was using the ACV mix straight, no chaser. That was to get my scalp under control which took about 6 weeks. Then I started cutting it with plain water resulting in a  50-50, 40-60 mix. Later I decided to use sage tea since sage has been used for conditioning for eons and is supposed to be quite good for dandruff.

I’ve been using this for about 1 1/2 years now and my scalp really likes it. What I do is apply the mixture on my scalp with a spray bottle making sure that I get all areas of the scalp and message in well. Then, I let the mixture set on my scalp for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes I’ll put on a conditioning cap. The other herbs and the sage tea cut the vinegar smell down a little bit, however it does not bother me and rinses out easily so no vinegar smell is left in my locs.

The result for me has been a better feeling scalp that’s not still sore after washing it and I can cancel the contract to supply flakes for the ski slope in my area that does not get snow. lol  As long as I keep up with washing my scalp at least weekly, I’m fine. Otherwise my scalp threatens me with early termination warnings for cancelling that ski slope contract.  🙂  Also note, I don’t put anything else on my scalp. No shampoo, soap, oil or anything else for that matter besides water of course.

I also use this as a facial cleanser/toner.

Hopefully this will spark some ideas for you to try if you are suffering with this issue.  Share your concoctions!

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Herbal Scalp Cleanse

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Hi everyone! I thought share with you as I have done on my You Tube channel about an herbal cleanse I’m experimenting with for my scalp. After all this is somewhat of a hair blog right?

With this locking journey, I am discovering what my true hair texture is, what it really likes and so on. After my last retightening it dawned on me that I have an oily not dry scalp and dry porous hair. If you’ve been with me for awhile on this blog, you’ll remember me saying once the warm weather rolled around I was going to start rinsing my hair daily or at least every other day until it’s time to retighten. During those 4-6 days, I’ll spritz the locs.

Well, I noticed that on day 5 sometimes day 4 of the retightening session, my scalp would start acting up as it’s done for as long as I can remember. By the time I get to the top of my head (I work from back to front) my trouble spots would be itchy, a bit sore and of course when I scratched, would flake. What really made me take notice was this last time when I scratched and the flakes fell they were oily! How can that be when I had stopped oiling my scalp 3 months prior?

All these years I was thinking I had a dry scalp?! I was only making matters worse by adding more oil, washing my hair infrequently and when I did wash, it was with sulfate shampoos or too oily shampoos. Since I first put the braidlocks in, I started washing weekly but prior to that I was washing any where from every 2 weeks, stretching to 4 weeks as my hair grew longer and was more time consuming to maintain.

Thanks to MzCJA, I was inspired to do some research on herbs and came up with an herbal cleanse for my scalp. Check out her blog for her posts on her herbal infusions. I’ve been playing around with it for about a month now adding some herbs, taking some out but I’m so far satisfied with the batch I made yesterday. I’ve been using it for the most part on my scalp and as part of the base for the shampoo for the locs themselves for the past month. I’ve been massaging it on my scalp every other day and rinsing it out.

Here are the ingredients if you would like to try it:

2 cups Aloe Vera Juice
2 tsp Lavender flowers
1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seed powder
A few drops of cedarwood essential oil
1/2 tsp of the following dried herbs:
Thyme
Comfrey root
Comfrey leaf
Patchouli
Nettle
Chamomile
Burdock root
Horsetail (Shavegrass)
Hibiscus flowers
Marshmallow root
Coltsfoot
Rosebuds
Irish Moss
White Willow Bark
Marigold (Calendula)

(Skip the rest of the reading if you’d rather see/hear the video at the end of this post.)

Slightly boil the aloe vera juice. While you are doing that put all of your herbs in a jar. Pour the hot aloe over the herbs, put your top on the jar and let them steep. I usually do mine for at least 2 hours and I like to use a jar with a lid on it since it seems to hold the heat in longer than in a coffee cup.

All of these herbs have either astringent or emollient properties and some have both. Others have follicle stimulating properties. The result has been that my scalp feels cleansed but not stripped. I’ve been spraying the remainder on the locs since I’m now working out and they feel clean without being stripped as well. I’m still doing a weekly shampoo and I’ll do a another post at a later date after I’ve had time to observe how my locs react to this African Black Soap I just got as a giveaway.

OK, I just had a senior moment…I just realized I published the post WITHOUT the video. duh! So if you are reading this and want to see the video give me a moment alright! 😉 Some of y’all know what I mean! LOL

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Disclaimer: All of the products mentioned in this post have been purchased by me. I have no affiliation with the producer/manufacturer or distributor of the product nor am I being paid to review the product. The opinions set forth in this post are solely my personal opinion.

Aloe Vera Gel/Juice, Peppermint and Cedarwood Essential Oils

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Ok I had this bottle of Aloe Vera Gel that I bought 2 years ago when I first went natural that was about to expire in July in this year. I was using this in the shealoe mixture consisting of shea butter, coconut oil and of course the aloe vera gel. Well now that I’m locking I did not want to risk using that mix in my locs though I still use it as a face and body moisturizer. Anyway, there was oh probably 1/4 left in the bottle that I did not want to go to waste and for those of you that have seen my You Tube videos know I don’t like to waste anything, especially hard earned dollars. So I thought I’d pour the rest of the aloe vera gel in my shampoo mixture since it was almost empty. I then added a bit more Dr. Bronner’s, peppermint & cedarwood essential oils. Wow, you talk about even softer locs after they’ve dried than before for me! Now part of that may also be because it has been raining here at least once a day for the past 3 weeks therefore the humidity in the air has been minimum 70%. But the sheen has been kicked up a notch, even the locs in the back that are doing their thing. I’ve also oiled my scalp only with coconut oil and a couple drops of cedarwood and peppermint EOs each.

Motowngirl has info on a few essential oils so that’s where I got the idea to try the cedarwood and peppermint oils. On another website (click here) mentioned that peppermint oil was for dry hair & helps promote growth. As far as the peppermint I can understand growth but I would not have thought is was for dry hair. However it really does make sense in that the mint family of plants thrive in drier growing conditions. Dry conditions… dry hair, maybe there is a connection. The other reason for trying this combination of essential oils is that I’ve had issues with high blood pressure in the past, so I thought it might be a good idea to look for an alternative. So to clarify (no pun intended), I am no longer using rosemary or sage essential oils in my shampoo mix or spritz.

Aloe Vera, I’ve found in my research is strengthening for the hair, soothing for the scalp, aids in hair growth and has amino acids. One lady on the LongHairForum says uses it as a strengthener since it has protein in it, using it like Aphogee I would assume. I’m gonna try it that way, since that will be a whole lot easier to deal with than henna.

If you use the aromatherapy kind of essential oils that are for external use only, which is probably what you’re getting at the health food store and use them a lot check out this site the http://www.thecatalog.com. I ordered the EOs that I’m using at quite a bit of savings than if I purchased the same ones at the health food store. I was very pleased with how the order arrived.

I got the big bottle of lavender, peppermint & eucalyptus oils and quite a few other oils since I like to make air fresheners out of these in addition to using them for my hair and future concoctions. Here’s an example of the savings. The lavender EO was $47.19 for a 16oz bottle with sales tax (which they did charge for my state by the way at 10 %) is $51.91 and with shipping (if you ordered less than $75.00), grand total $56.91. That means that each ounce, which is the size of the bottles that you purchase at the health food store or GNC is $ 3.56. I don’t know about y’all but where I live even at GNC, I paid $8.79 for that 1 oz bottle. Buy 16 of those and you’ve paid (sit down b4 you read any further ’cause you may have already done this) $140.64 sales tax included. Which is better $56.91 or $140.64 especially if you are purchasing/using the same product/thing whatever on a regular basis?! This is an illustration/reason to have liquid savings aside from your emergency savings to take advantage of things like this and how we unconsciously dribble away our money. But that’s a whole ‘nother post.

Disclaimer: All of the products mentioned in this post have been purchased by me. I have no affiliation with the manufacturer or distributor of the product nor am I being paid to review the product. The opinions set forth in this post are solely my personal opinion.