Home Remedies for Hair - Natural and Herbal Hair Care for Shiny, Healthy Hair

Herbal infusions have been used as efficient, inexpensive home remedy for hair rinses since time immemorial. Elizabeth Woodville, king Edward IV's queen, was famous for her luscious blond tresses. History tells us that she washed her hair in chamomile, rinsed it with lemon juice and polished it with silk. She obviously had a great deal of time! And, as we're still talking about them, her remedies must have been effective.

Quality of our diet

Our hair reflects the quality of our diet. After that, damage limitation is the order of the day. Sun, wind, pollution, drying, coloring and vigorous brushing all take their toll on the state of our hair. And we all know the result: stressed hair, dull and lifeless with no body or shine, but plenty of frizz and split ends.

A healthy, varied diet, lots of water and a reduction in environmental stress will all contribute to strong, shiny hair. But how can this be achieved? We can't avoid going out, so sun and wind and the attendant pollutants will always be with us. But we can stop drying, curling or straightening our hair every day. Let your hair dry naturally after washing - you'd be amazed how soft it will feel.

We can also reduce the number of styling products we use. Talk to your grandmother to pick up a few hair care tips. Sounds weird? Back then, most of today's styling and beauty products had not yet been thought of, but great hair and beautiful skin was certainly appreciated. Many of the 'traditional' hair care products would have come from the kitchen or the herb garden. Fresh and natural, they would enhance the hair, not stress it.

At Home Hair Treatments

Here are some herbal homemade hair treatments and natural home remedies for hair, which have also stood the test of time:

When your hair looks very stressed, nettles are a wonderful tonic and detox. Infuse dried nettle leaves (some health food stores now carry nettle tea bags) and drink the tea. The infusion can also be used as a hair rinse.Home remedy for conditioning your blond hair - To shine and condition blond hair, rinse in chamomile tea. Add one teaspoon of lemon juice to a liter of tea for extra shine.If your hair is very dry, infusions of elderflower, parsley or sage is a great home remedy for dry, frizzy hair and it will calm the frizz and restore moisture.Greasy or oily hair will benefit from a rinse made with lemon balm, rosemary, lavender or mint.

All these herbs will calm the scalp and reduce the sebum production. Learn more about natural remedy or shampoo for oily hair. Red heads add highlights to their hair by using a strong infusion of calendula (marigold) as a hair rinse.A rinse made with sage will darken brown hair as will an infusion of rosemary. Both can also be used to darken gray hair, giving a brown tint.

Effective home hair treatments don't have to be expensive or time consuming. By making use of fresh and dried herbs, we can achieve strong, shiny, and healthy hair. What's more, these traditional treatments have stood the test of time and benefited generations of women, so it's well worth to continue that trend.

Many of these herbal ingredients are now used in professional beauty treatments and included in natural hair and beauty products, so if you don't have the time or desire to make your own home remedy, then go for natural hair and beauty products.

Friends Link : All Nature&Beauty

Homemade Recipes for Hair and Skin Care

Image via Wikipedia

Over the past few years, I have been experimenting with making my own hair and skin care products. For many Black women with natural hair, finding products that work with our own unique hair type is a process that can involve a lot of time and money. I like to try my own blends and see what works. It's fun and affordable, and after some trial and error, has great results!

My hair is all natural and highly textured. It's wiry, super coily, and tends to be dry. It is thin with a straighter texture around the front hairline, and extremely thick through the crown. My hair care goal is to increase moisture and softness, and make my hair easier to style.

My skin is very dry and highly sensitive. I normally use all natural soaps, or the "sensitive" version of commercial soaps. I use shea butter for moisture, but I sometimes get lazy about applying it. I wanted a skin moisturizer that would make my skin soft and smell good, but as quickly and easily as possible.

I already happen to have quite a few essential oils on hand, and have done pretty extensive research on which ingredients work well for natural hair and skin care. I have developed two products that have become part of my regular hair and skin care regimen: a water based natural hair moisturizer, and a skin moisturizer which doubles as an insect repellent and triples as an insect bite soother.

Kaya's Herbal Hair Cocktail

Fill a four to eight ounce spray bottle with water. I use recycled spray bottles from Victoria's Secret body sprays. They will give you a nice fine mist that doesn't soak your hair and drip all over. Distilled water is great, but I use tap water.

Add a few drops of Suave Tropical Coconut Conditioner. To that, add about a quarter teaspoon or five to six drops each of rosemary essential oil and cinnamon essential oil. If you like, add a few drops of grapefruit, vanilla, sweet orange, or lavender oil. You can use an eyedropper, or just eyeball it.

I like to spray this mixture on sopping wet or towel blotted hair and allow to air dry. This is after either rinsing my hair with water, or washing my hair with conditioner. I wash with shampoo occasionally.

If I haven't rinsed or washed my hair on a particular day, I spray my cocktail on my dry hair and let it sit for five to 10 minutes while I take a shower or brush my teeth. Then I use my hands to finger comb my hair into place.

If my hair is extra unruly, or I'm wearing twists and want them to lay a certain way, I use bobby pins to pin it down while it dries. I also use this spritz as a styling aid when I'm double strand twisting my hair. It makes my hair soft and easy to comb, and my twists come out soft and well defined.

If you want to add extra moisture to this mix, add olive oil, vegetable glycerin, or aloe vera juice.

Kaya's Herbal Skin Cocktail

This summer, the mosquitoes are biting like crazy. My skin is dry and itchy with the changing temperatures, and because I ran out of my usual soap and had to use a backup. So, I made myself a little mix.

Fill up a spray bottle with water. Add a little bit of apple cider vinegar, rosemary essential oil, peppermint essential oil, and tea tree oil. Add some extra virgin olive oil; a teaspoon or two. I lightly spray the mixture over my entire body after my shower, while still standing in the tub. You want to spray your whole entire body, including your face if you like, without dousing the place. You can also spray this mixture on your hair.

The great thing about this moisturizing body spray is that it also repels insects and soothes itchy insect bites. I spray it directly on bites if I get them, and it stops the itching almost immediately. It smells great at the same time.

Safety Issues

Essential oils are potent. If you are pregnant, trying to become pregnant, nursing, on medication, or in a state of ill health, be extra careful with them. Even if none of the above are the case, you should still research any essential oil you use, and check with your doctor before trying something new.

Try your new blends on a test area before using on your entire scalp or body. See if you notice any reactions such as redness, swelling, itching, or burning. If so, discontinue use.

Never use essential oils full strength. A few drops in four to eight ounces of water is plenty.

Start with blends of only one or two ingredients. This makes it easier to use the process of elimination if you have a bad reaction to something.

Many essential oils have natural antiseptic properties, and retard bacterial growth. However, when you mix oil and water there is the potential for contamination. Applying products to your skin that contain bacteria or fungus can cause a lot of itching, inflammation, or worse. Store your concoctions in the refrigerator to lengthen their shelf life.

See Also : All Nature&Beauty

Colon Cleansing Herbs - Herbal Formulas My Grandma Once Followed

Image via Wikipedia

Good manner dictate that you never bring the subject up, not in polite society or in the presence of your dearest friend. Many modern commercials seem to portray discussions about bowel movements as idle tea chatter and that is simply not the case. This subject is hard to approach even with the trusted, family physician. Everyone has a colon that much can be asserted, but very few people want to know what it does. Ignorance is not bliss in this case; in fact, it could damage your health. It's high time the subject of colon cleansing herbs came out from behind closed doors.

Popular talk show host, Dr. Phil, maintains that you cannot change what you don't acknowledge. Along those lines, do you really know what denotes a healthy bowel movement? Let's get through the details quickly and move along to something more pleasant. Many physicians will tell you that most of today's illnesses begin with bowel problems. Bowel movements are brown in color measuring about one or two feet long. They may also be tinged with green. Any variation from this description may indicate that a proper round of colon cleansing herbs would not come amiss. Do take a backward glance after you've had a sit down and evaluate the situation. Do it just for the sake of your health.

Colon cleansing herbs come in pre-made formula form or in single herb form. Psyllium husks are very popular and have a good reputation of softening waste in the colon which aids in easy expulsion. You may find Psyllium husks combined with other herbs that act sympathetically with its function such as licorice, acidophilus, marshmallow root, and dandelion root. Other herbal formulas for colon cleansing are not for oral use but intended to be added to the contents of an enema bag.

After clearing the colonic decks with a good treatment of colonic cleansing herbs, have a look at what's in the cupboard. If you're serious about your health, processed food must go or you will be right back where you started in no time at all. Don't backslide, move forward toward good colonic health.

Friends Link : All Nature&Beauty