dandruff

Essential Oils for Hair Growth {Hair Care}

Swathy · June 18, 2012 · 25 Comments

Since I have started putting up posts on Essential Oils, I have received so many queries regarding essential oils amazing for skin and hair and acne. So, I decided that I shall do a post on them. This post would contain essential oils I have explored as of yet which are amazing for hair growth.

For all hair types

Ginger: It stimulates the hair follicles, makes the scalp feel a little warm and helps promote hair growth. It may also tingle the scalp. Ginger is mostly suitable for all hair and scalp types. It needs to be only applied on scalp. Helps with dandruff too.

Cinnamon: Similar to ginger in all properties, but it can be a little irritating for the sensitive scalps. It helps warm up the scalp and should only be applied on the scalp. Suited to all scalp types.

Rosemary: More suitable to oily scalps and hair but doesn’t dry out the dry hair either so can be used for all hair types. Helps in controlling dandruff, promotes hair growth by helping in scalp stimulation and also conditions the hair and makes it look darker. Brings shine to the hair as well over long term use.

Oily Hair

Lavender: Suitable for oily scalp. It helps control the oil production in the scalp. Conditions the hair and promotes hair growth. Also, makes the hair shiny in long run.

Ylang Ylang: One of my most favorite EO’s, it helps a lot with oily hair and scalp by not only promoting hair growth but also making the hair smell really awesome and controlling the oil on the scalp.

Cedarwood: I haven’t yet used this EO so I have no idea how it works. Its supposed to control hair fall and thus, aid hair growth in reverse. Also, its great for preventing dandruff and hair lice and other fungal and bacterial infections!!

Dry Hair

Myrrh: Probably the only EO suitable for dry hair. It helps promote hair growth and stimulates sebum production as well. I haven’t personally tried this product so I have no idea how it works.

My Hair Diaries – May 2012

Swathy · June 7, 2012 · 18 Comments

that’s without flash in normal tube light at night

Products Used

I have already talked about my hair treatment. And, I have since then received many queries regarding how well did it go and if its worth the expense. To answer that question, I need opinions of people I can rely on and I don’t generally discuss such things with anyone else so you guys will have to wait till I go to Delhi next week 🙂 I shall publish the results ASAP.

My Opinions on the Treatment

I think I can definitely see some improvement. And, I have not even used the treatment as I was supposed to (oiling and washing hair on alternate days). That’s way too much work. But, I shall confirm about the results in detail only after next week.

Now, there are some cons which I would better specify in case you decide to go for the treatment.

The oil has something sticky in it. If I keep the oil overnight, my clothes and the pillow get stained badly and they get really sticky which doesn’t ever happen with any other oil. My mom said that it might have gond or edible gum resin in it. That makes it impossible for me to keep the oil more than 2-3 hours in my hair. Well, in a sense, its good as well but it, like, takes me around an hour for application of oil according to the instructions I shared here. So, it feels pretty bad to wash off the entire oil within another hour 🙁 But, otherwise, keeping the oil overnight in this heat is not exactly feasible enough either so its fine!!!

Btw, I did check up on edible gum resin and found out that it is healthy for hair growth and also adds body to the hair.

The vinegar used in the ginger tonic is probably not that great an idea coz they ask you to apply half a cup of oil and then follow it with ginger tonic but I don’t apply that much of oil so the vinegar can dry out the scalp as well. But, again, vinegar is amazing for dandruff so probably not that bad an idea if you strictly don’t keep it above half hour.

I like the shampoo and conditioner. They both are chemicals free and the weird thing is that I have a hunch that probably the shampoo has gelatin in it. Because, I dilute my shampoos with water (its become a habit now) and whenever excess of shampoo is left, I leave it in the container only and in some hours, I find that shampoo dries off completely, somewhat like a gel or powdery. It smells nice as well.

The conditioner is amazing. It is not heavy and spreads easily on my hair and doesn’t have any smell in particular but I would definitely like to know what it is made up of. I think it does have some hibiscus as it does lather a bit just like hibiscus lathers. But, I am in no way saying that my hunches are correct.

The hair mask is good but since, its made up of grains, its a pain to wash off if it dries off completely.

The only issue I have with the whole product range thing is that they do not have entire hair mask (the above hair mask is only for scalp). Because, it is very important to have a deep conditioning treatment for hair even if one does oil the hair very regularly. That’s why, I am thinking of going for Biotique musk root again as it is entirely herbal and suited me perfectly.

I shall be continuing this treatment till I am back from Delhi and then, I shall start on the part two of the treatment which I had discussed here. I shall follow the same routine with the normal hair products and see if they give me the same results. I guess I might keep the shampoo same as I don’t have any other shampoo in my target (organic surge is pretty expensive otherwise I do have it in my list, lets hope I get it soon). And, instead of the ginger hair tonic, I shall be using my DIY Aloevera Gel I had shared little while back.

My Hair Texture

Leaving all the above pros and cons, I would like to say that my hair texture has improved a lot!! As you can see in the pics, my hair is amazingly soft and shiny. But, yes, my hair does get weighed down in a day which is pretty bad. But, I guess, I do use more conditioner. And, I am not even using any leave-in right now since the time I started the treatment and my hair doesn’t get dry or rough any time. So, overall, I am happy with the treatment 🙂 But, again, I would reiterate that whether its worth the cost or not, I shall confirm only after next week.

Aloevera Scalp Gel for Hair Growth {DIY}

Swathy · May 2, 2012 · 27 Comments

This is my first DIY which includes essential oils and are the heart and soul of this DIY after the perfume oil DIY.

Ingredients

Aloevera Gel
Rosemary EO
Lavender EO
Cinnamon Bark EO
Ginger EO

Essential Oils for Hair Growth - Rosemary, Cinnamon, Ginger, Lavender

Method

I used the Rustic Art aloevera gel for this recipe. I would not recommend fresh aloevera gel because of two reasons – first, preservation issues and second, you are not sure of how much quantity you have and how many drops of EO should be added. Thus, its better to use the commercially available aloevera gel. Take 100gms of the product and remember my guidelines to using EO’s.

In skin or hair care, you should use only 1-2% concentration of EO’s and do not exceed as it can actually be allergic and harmful. So, for 100gms of aloevera gel, we can add 2 gms of EO and we use the equivalence of 1ml = 1gm though that’s strictly not true. So, according to the 2% concentration, we can add 2ml of EO’s. 1ml has 20 drops so 40 drops of EO per 100ml/gm of any product.

Add 10 drops of each essential oil to the aloevera gel. Mix it and leave in a dark place for 24 hours. Rosemary takes care of dandruff, Cinnamon and Ginger stimulate hair follicles and increase blood circulation and Lavender is conditioning for the hair besides helping in hair growth. Do not use more than 3-4 EO’s per DIY as too many EO’s might interact negatively with each other and can make the product extremely potent as well.

Results

Apply this gel on your scalp right after you finish with your entire hair wash and shower. Do not apply it when you hair is dripping. Wait the hair to get dry a bit and then apply to the scalp so that it doesn’t cause breakage. There are two advantages – your scalp is clean so the product gets absorbed quickly and without any fear of trapping dust and since the base of the product is aloevera, it moisturizes the scalp nicely and prevents itching, flaky scalp and other scalp problems.

I made this DIY before I left for Delhi and have used it just once. Now that I am on a hair treatment, I am not using anything except the products prescribed. That’s mainly to test the efficacy and worth of those products. But, I can vouch for one thing that this scalp gel does help in hair growth. Why? Remember the ginger tonic I mentioned?

We are using ginger essential oil in this recipe and when I had applied this gel, it had tingled my scalp and gave me the feeling of warmth more than that ginger tonic does. Don’t worry regarding the tingling. Its just coz of ginger. Even if you apply ginger juice or onion juice, the scalp tingles a bit and also makes the scalp warm meaning the blood circulation has increased. And, the gel doesn’t make the hair heavy or greasy or anything. In fact, it keeps the scalp moisturised and the hair around the roots soft. It can be applied daily as well.

And, I am really hoping that you will give it a try 🙂