The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (44 page)

Making a quick and perfectly green conditioner is extremely easy. As with face masks, you usually already have all the ingredients in your kitchen cupboard. If not, they are readily available in health food stores and online. While there are excellent, lovely scented conditioners for every possible hair dilemma, your own conditioner will come at a fraction of the price, and you can custom-tailor the blend to suit your needs.

“Any of my conditioners can be recreated at home,” says John Masters, who started blending his own shampoos and conditioners from his kitchen to use on clients in his home salon back in the 1980s. “Olive and jojoba oil make ultimate hair conditioners. Always use organic extra virgin olive oil on your hair for deep conditioning and massage. It can solve so many problems!” Another praised natural hair conditioner is avocado, rich in omega-3 oils and proteins, which you can mash and put directly on your hair. “Essential oils of lavender, rosemary, cedarwood, ylang-ylang, palmarosa, and geranium are all beneficial for the hair,” adds Masters.

Green Solutions for Oily Hair

If your hair tends to be greasy and you need to wash it every day, you need to rebalance the oil production in your scalp. Use a mild shampoo, or better yet, an organic baby shampoo, which is generally more oil-stripping than adult shampoos, and apply an oil-balancing hot oil treatment once a week. (Don’t be scared, extra oil won’t make your scalp oilier!) The next recipe also works well against dandruff because dandruff and oily scalp march hand in hand in many people.

If your hair is oily, look for shampoos with natural astringents such as sage, tea tree, juniper, and lemon.

Apple cider vinegar is a traditional, time-tested treatment for oily hair. You can use vinegar if you have dandruff, too, even if you think your hair is dry. Splash some vinegar in the palm of your hand and run it through your hair with your head tilted back. Massage the vinegar into the scalp. The odor may seem strong, but some people find it uplifting, and it will be gone after shampooing. After just one application, your hair will be more bouncy and shiny. With daily applications, you will soon be receiving compliments about your hair!

Honeydew melon makes an express hair treatment for oily hair. Simply mash or blend a quarter of an organic melon, then massage the puree into your scalp. Cover with a clean towel and relax for ten minutes, then shampoo and rinse out.

Neutral henna is an excellent toner for oily scalps that are prone to dandruff. Prepare a quick hair mask with neutral (uncolored) henna, aloe vera juice, and lemon juice, blended in equal proportions, and then massage it into your hair and scalp. Leave it on for a few minutes. This mask can lighten your hair color a little bit, so you may want to replace lemon juice with organic apple cider vinegar.

Sweet and
Sour Oily Hair
Conditioner

1 cup jojoba oil

½ cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons brown sugar

5 drops rosemary essential oil

5 drops sage essential oil

5 drops tea tree essential oil

Yield:
4 ounces

Brown sugar works as a mild soothing agent. For dark hair,
you may substitute apple cider vinegar for the lemon juice
because it can be mildly bleaching. But if you do want to
lighten your hair a little bit, go ahead and use lemon juice!

1. Combine all ingredients in a glass container and shake well to dissolve the sugar.

2. Apply the blend to dry, unwashed hair, starting at the roots and massaging the oil into the scalp. Rub the oil into the hair in a downward motion away from the scalp to seal the hair cuticle. Scalp massage encourages the penetration of active essential oils and helps prevent pore clogging with dry sebum and dead skin cells.

3. Comb the hair through. Follow with a mild shampoo. Massage the shampoo into hair, slowly adding water as the oil dissolves. Lather as usual and rinse.

Green Solutions for Dry, Damaged Hair

Coloring, highlighting, perming, straightening, air-conditioning in the summer, heating during the winter, too little sleep, too many chemicals in your shampoo—all of these can dry out hair and make the scalp itchy and flaky. This should not be mistaken for dandruff, which is usually accompanied by a greasy scalp.

While conventional conditioners simply coat the hair and scalp in silicones and mineral oil, providing instant results that are gone before the end of the day, natural solutions work slowly but the effect remains longer.

Shampoo your hair with plain egg. It may sound ridiculous and feels even worse, but the effect is completely worth it. Eggs won’t lather and will try to sneak through your fingers. Be prepared to waste a few eggs down the drain until you master the technique. The trick is to carefully separate the yolk and use it on your hair; save the egg white for a tightening, nourishing mask or a quick salt scrub for your face. If you prefer your shampoo to lather, make a simple egg shampoo by blending one egg yolk with one tablespoon (or two squirts) of castile soap. Blend them briskly in the palm of your hand and rub into your hair immediately.

In ready-made shampoos for dry hair, look for ingredients such as jojoba oil, aloe vera, cucumber and licorice extracts, milk and soy proteins, vegetable glycerin, and panthenol (vitamin B5). Some of the best shampoos for dry hair include John Masters Honey & Hibiscus Hair Reconstructing Shampoo, Lavera Rose Milk Repair Shampoo for Dry Hair, Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Moisturizing Shampoo, and Avalon Organics Lavender Nourishing Shampoo.

Keep plain jojoba oil in your shower and massage a handful of oil into your scalp at least once a week. You may also add a few drops of jojoba oil to your shampoo as you work it through your hair, but make sure to rinse thoroughly. Desert Essence sells a generously sized bottle of organic jojoba oil (Desert Essence Jojoba Oil for Hair, Skin & Scalp) that you can use as a facial cleanser and a nutritious mask for dry hair.

Diet matters, too. In the winter, when many people suffer from drier hair and scalp, introduce more oily fruits and vegetables, such as avocado and broccoli, in your diet. “Your lifestyle has a synergistic effect on your health and appearance,” says John Masters. “A diet rich in organic raw fruits and vegetables is extremely beneficial for the condition of your hair. Olive, avocado, and fish oils will help keep hair healthy and shiny.”

Here’s a recipe for a nutritious preshampoo conditioner that infuses your hair and scalp with much-needed moisture.

Mediterranean
Garden
Preshampoo
Hair Butter

3 tablespoons organic virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons avocado oil

2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon organic spirulina extract

10,000 IU vitamin E

2 drops lavender essential oil

2 drops bergamot essential oil

2 drops chamomile essential oil

Yield:
4 ounces

Use daily before shampooing for maximum results. This
hair mask will last for one week of daily treatments.

1. Blend all ingredients in a small bowl, making sure the essential oils spread evenly.

2. Massage one tablespoon of the treatment into wet hair and scalp, concentrating on split ends and areas of itchiness. Leave on for ten minutes for intensive conditioning.

3. Rinse thoroughly and shampoo as usual.

Use a leave-in conditioner that doubles as a styling aid. Look for soothing and calming ingredients such as aloe vera gel, oat and soy proteins, panthenol, cysteine, and other amino acids. Too much oil in your leave-in conditioner can weigh your hair down, so save oils for a conditioning mask or an oil massage.

If you can pull off a “bedroom hair” look, or disheveled, carelessly pinned or twisted hair, go for it. For corporate types, it’s still possible to skip every other shampooing by adopting chic ponytails on long hair. If you have short hair, you can refresh your look by dabbing a bit of cornstarch into the scalp followed by blow-drying on a low setting.

Air-dry your hair whenever you can. Frequent blow-drying can damage the hair, causing split ends. If you must blow-dry, make sure that your hair is thoroughly towel dried first. I have found that organic cotton towels absorb more moisture than conventional ones, perhaps because the fibers aren’t damaged by chlorine bleaching.

If you are going into the swimming pool or ocean, soak your hair in fresh water first and seal the cuticles with a light mist of jojoba oil so your hair won’t be exposed to moisture-drenching salt or toxic chlorine.

Always remember to wear a hat in the sun or windy, cold weather. Hats prevent damage from UV radiation and dehydration from wind and frost.

Sultry Shine
Liquid Hair
Mask

1 apple, peeled and cored

3 tablespoons neutral henna

½ cup light beer

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 drop lemon essential oil (optional)

1 drop hops essential oil (optional)

Yield:
4 ounces

Apples provide vitamins, and the malic acid gently
exfoliates scalp and hair follicles. Beer also is a time-tested
shine booster. For best results, use flat beer with
no bubbles.

1. Puree the apple in a blender. Add the henna, beer, and baking soda and mix thoroughly. Add the essential oils, if using.

2. Apply the mask on freshly cleansed hair, leave on for five minutes, and rinse off with tepid water. You can store this mask in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Green Solutions for Boosting Shine

Silicone serums are not the only solutions for vibrant, shiny hair. You can achieve far better and long-lasting results without the greasiness of petrochemicals if you try one of the following recipes.

To bring out the natural shine, start with your shampoo. If you have less than two ounces of shampoo left in the bottle, try adding a teaspoon of baking soda, which removes any residue from your hair without stripping too much natural moisture. If you are happy with the result, buy a bottle of inexpensive organic shampoo (aim for a basic formula without bells and whistles) and add 1 teaspoon of baking soda per 2 ounces of shampoo. Shake well and sit for about an hour before using. Don’t expect soda crystals to dissolve completely. You will get a softening, mildly scrubbing scalp cleanser that you can use once a week to keep your scalp healthy and itch-free.

The simplest rinse to boost shine is apple cider vinegar. Dilute one-half cup of organic vinegar in one cup of water and use it as a final rinse after a thorough shampooing. Lemon juice mixed with water in the same proportion can also be used as a last rinse to give your hair a shiny and bouncy look. But beware: both mixtures should be applied carefully, with your head tilted back, so they do not get into your eyes!

If you have dark hair and would rather not experiment with bleaching lemon juice, try bringing up extra shine with coffee. Brew a cup of strong organic coffee, let it cool, and use it as a hair rinse.

Finally, the simplest recipe for shiny hair: after shampooing, just rinse your hair with cool water to close the hair cuticles. Don’t use cold water, though: this can restrict blood vessels too much, resulting in a headache.

Green Solutions for Increased Hair Volume

Our hair may look limp and lifeless for many reasons. We may use the wrong styling products that weigh down our hair instead of holding it up. We may use conventional conditioners loaded with silicones and quaterniums (synthetic polymers) that coat the hair with a shiny film. The shine will wear off by midday, leaving limp, greasy locks behind. Whatever the reason, we can easily correct it by some of the following methods.

First, ditch your conditioner with mineral oil, quaterniums, poly-quaterniums, stearalkonium chloride, and similar industrial-strength hair softeners. Check the ingredients label, since these ingredients may hide between plant extracts and infusions. Try wonderfully natural volumizing conditioners such as Burt’s Bees Very Volumizing Conditioner, Avalon Organics Biotin B-Complex Thickening Conditioner, orAubrey Organics Ginseng Biotin Energizing Scalp Tonic, which is marketed for men but makes an excellent leave-on volume-boosting conditioner for anyone. Among the volume-boosting ingredients to look for are panthenol, hops, coltsfoot, nettle, and horsetail extracts, and the amino acids cysteine and methionine (the building blocks of hair follicles). Make sure these ingredients are near the beginning on the ingredients list of the conditioner.

Second, determine whether the lack of body in your hair is due to excessive oil production or to a lack of natural sebum. If your hair feels like straw by midday, most likely you have dry hair, and you’ll want to follow the recommendations in the section on solutions for dry, damaged hair. If your hair feels like a bowl of spaghetti, then your hair is on the oily side, and adopting some steps from the solutions for oily hair section will certainly help.

If you have a few minutes of spare time and a head of limp, lifeless locks to deal with, try blending up a quick volumizing conditioner at home. Here’s what you will need.

Be Cool
Hair Milk

½ cup witch hazel

¹
/
3
ounce vodka, cognac, or brandy

3 drops peppermint essential oil

Yield:
4 ounces

1. Blend all the ingredients in a stainless steel shaker. Don’t try to sniff!

2. Apply as a hair rinse, keep on for a few minutes, and rinse off. The smell will soon evaporate, leaving a faint herbal scent.

To boost circulation and make your hair follicles strong and perky, you will find a weekly scalp massage a blessing. For an invigorating rub, pour two drops of lavender oil and two drops of rosemary oil onto your fingertips, rub them together to warm up the oils, and then massage in strong circular motions. Massaging with essential oils boosts the blood flow to the scalp and encourages strong hair growth.