Nayantara Karnik

DIY Leave-In Conditioner

Nayantara Karnik · June 24, 2015 · 7 Comments

As anyone with naturally wavy or curly hair knows, once you stop trying to straighten and flat-iron it into submission, and decide to find a way to make it look like the beautiful bouncy curls you see in magazines and the internet, suddenly, horror of horrors, you discover that there are hardly any ‘curl-friendly’ products out there in our Indian market.

Now, before you straight hairs turn away, this is something that could be great for your hair as well, in fact, for anyone with dry or otherwise damaged hair.

The key to having beautiful shiny hair is hydration. For years, I religiously shampooed and conditioned my hair, yet conditioner alone never seemed to be enough; my hair still looked frizzy and dry. After much research, and several youtube videos later, I realized one simple product that could really work for me was leave-in conditioner. Till date I haven’t really found one off the shelves that worked for me. Though many people suggest using just regular conditioner as a leave-in on wet hair, that alone wasn’t enough either.

Without getting into the nitty gritties of humidity factor and climate where you live or the composition of the hair shaft, suffice it to say that ‘water alone’ does not hydrate hair. Ideally, you also require humectants and emollients in varying proportions. Simply put, humectants will attract the moisture to your hair and emollients will seal that moisture in.

On that note, let’s get straight to the tutorial. [Read more…] about DIY Leave-In Conditioner

Infused Herbal Oil to promote Hair Growth

Nayantara Karnik · June 17, 2015 · 12 Comments

The other day, I was shopping at Spar and saw some wonderful fresh basil and thyme and picked up a packet each. Unfortunately, when cooking for one, there’s only so much you can use. After making some pasta with basil and avocado sauce, a couple of other dishes and a toner with thyme, I was wondering what to do with the remainder while it was still fresh.

It struck me that I could try making an infused oil with them along with other things I had at home. My goal was something that would stimulate hair growth and combat hair loss. Unfortunately, Bangalore has been mainly cloudy of late, plus I don’t have any sunny window-sills or terraces, so I realized I couldn’t use the usual method of infusing for weeks with the help of the sun. Besides, when using fresh herbs, they need to be dried first or else the oil will develop mold from their moisture content.

Also Read : How to infuse herbs in oil?

I’ve seen many people heating the herbs in a base oil directly in a iron wok or kadhai, but I wasn’t sure about the herbal contents withstanding the heat, as some of them produce volatile extracts. I looked up the kashayam process commonly used in Ayurveda to make herbal oils. But that process involves first boiling the herbs in water and then heating the extract in oil. While this does have its benefits, I decided to shorten the process by directly infusing the herbs in the oil as many people do, but using an oven instead. I have a gas oven at home with reasonably accurate temperature controls, and I checked the lowest temperature setting on mine is around 70-80 deg C, which is not too high for this purpose. Some newer models may have even lower settings than that.

For those concerned that heating oils reduces their efficacy, what you need to be concerned about is the smoke point of the oil used. It is only after an oil has exceeded its smoke point that is begins to break down. For sesame oil, which I used, the smoke point is approximately 232 deg C/ 450 F. If using cold-pressed oils, the smoke points are lower. For those interested, you can easily find sites on the net listing smoke points of various oils.

Okra (Bhindi) Hair Treatment and Conditioner

Nayantara Karnik · June 12, 2015 · 26 Comments

Whaaat?! Bhindi? Why would anyone put that in their hair…

In fact, it’s used by Rastafarians to make their dreadlocks and keep them healthy. Okra is one of numerous natural items that contain mucilage, which is the slimy stuff you must be familiar with when it’s cooked. Mucilage is good for the skin and hair, and even for your gut health. The reason I was even looking this into was because I’ve been trying to find a way to put less chemicals into my system. And I definitely see an improvement in the quality of my skin and hair since.

Okra’s also high in Vitamins A & C, folic acid, calcium, zinc, including biotin, all of which make it incredibly nourishing for the hair. That’s probably why it’s been used as an ingredient in various high end products including a conditioner by Lush. All this means it can be used in different ways to treat and condition hair – as a rinse-out conditioner, leave-in, de-tangler or even as a hair gel as it gives excellent curl definition. The best part is that it doesn’t have a weird smell, like many natural things you may be using in your hair already. It actually doesn’t have any noticeable smell.

So in case you’re in a really experimental mood, or just fed up with the same old stuff, take a look! I’m going to show you how to make a general conditioner using bhindi, with tweaks to adapt it to your needs.

INGREDIENTS (BASIC RECIPE)

6-8 okras, chopped or sliced length-wise
1 ½ cups water
1-2 tsp oil (I used sesame this time, you can also use grape seed oil, almond oil, coconut oil etc)

OPTIONAL ADD-ONS

Aloe vera gel
honey