I suppose it could be said I had a war with my hair growing
up. Back then, it was too true to be funny. When I was really little, 3-5 years
old, I had Shirley Temple curls which grew out into, well, a stringy mess.
There wasn’t a whole lot of information on how to care for curly hair back
then, and my hair was a constant source of confusion and irritation to me and
my poor older sisters who tried to help me fix “wild-child” hair.
As a result, I kept my hair either in a ponytail, braided,
or in some sort of updo. I kept it fairly short. I went through no bangs to
extremely poufy bangs. It was just sort of embarrassing. It didn’t help that I
had really thin, unhealthy hair. I often
had split ends and my hair sort of looked flat and unhealthy.
It’s probably been quite a few years ago, some time in my
teens, when I heard of the harmful effects of commercial shampoo, conditioner,
and other hair products. Ingredients like sodium laurel sulfate caused hair
loss and other damage. There are parebens and other things in hair products
that are basically poison to my body.
For awhile, I switched to the no-poo method for my hair. You
know, the whole baking soda and vinegar method. That was very interesting to
say the least. My hair was greasy, oily, and my scalp would get all flaky and
disgusting. I tried various, and might I say expensive, natural hair gels and
mousses, which would either leave my hair limp and shapeless, or extremely
stiff.
I then started playing around with making my own hair gel. I
still hadn’t figured out the whole shampoo thing, but I was using some cheaper
organic conditioner that really worked for me. My first batch of hair gel was
made from egg whites. As you can imagine, this hair gel was extremely
perishable and had to be refrigerated to avoid hair that smelled of spoiling
eggs.
Last year, I was sick and tired of the whole egg white gel
thing. I wanted something none perishable that really, really worked for my
naturally curly hair. I got in the kitchen and mixed up a batch of the hair gel
I currently make for my shop, and haven’t stopped making it ever since. It’s
thick like store bought gel, but it doesn’t weigh down my hair or make it
stiff. It’s completely natural, even good for my hair, thanks to a wonderful
ingredient called aloe vera gel.
It’s been a long journey filled with a lot of days of
staring in the mirror wondering what in the world I did to my hair. Now, I have
very healthy, happy hair that does what I want it to do. I rarely get split
ends, even though I do blow dry my hair and straighten it at times (oh, the
horror!). It’s very bouncy and curly when I fix it that way as well.
My hair method is actually quite simple. I only wash it
every other day or every 2 days. It hardly gets greasy. I use a natural shampoo
bar (no, I don’t make my own…yet), and I use a conditioner that has coconut oil
in it (still working on developing my own conditioner, stay tuned to my shop
for its arrival!). I don’t usually blow dry it, unless I’m in a hurry. If I
want to style my hair curly, I’ll put a bit of my hair gel in it, and let it
dry without touching it, then scrunch it after it’s dry. About every 2 months,
I treat my hair with black and red henna mixed with either coffee or tea, which
brings out my natural highlights and makes my hair soft and manageable.
I’ve grown my hair out longer than it’s ever been. It’s
healthy and grows rather fast. It’s still manageable even being long, which is
very nice, since that has never been the case for me. It’s been a long journey
with my hair, and I’m glad I don’t have to put as much thought into it as I
have in the past!
As I said before, I’m working on developing my own shampoo,
conditioner, and maybe my own hair spray. For now, I’m really happy with the
hair gel I have for my own hair, but by popular request I’m probably going to
work on different consistencies and mixes for varying hair types. What other
hair products would you all like to see in my shop? If you’d like to check out
my hair gel, find it here and here.
Have a blessed week!
:-)
