cinnamon

#OneMonthtoHealthyHair – Activity 4 – Essential Oils for Hair Care!

March 6, 2015 Swati 24 Comments

I am extremely sorry for not turning up yesterday. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I just could not come online!!

Anyways, I had decided to keep holi free but since I skipped yesterday, I have an activity for you today 🙂

Btw, wish you all a very Happy Holi! Hope you are busy enjoying the festival of colors instead of reading the posts here 😉 So, lets get on with the activity.

Incorporate Essential Oils

If you are a regular reader, you would already know I am crazy about using essential oils. My first was lavender which I did not really become a fan of but then I went on to try rosemary and some other exotic ones and I am a fan for life. And, since then, I have tried my level best to tell you all how awesome they are. So, this is again one of the my trials.

There are a few essential oils which you must have in your house and they are multi-purpose so you can use them from healing your wounds to cleaning the air in your house! Let us check out which 5 essential oils I think are important to have in the house.

Rosemary

This one rules the roost. Since we are talking about hair care, rosemary is the one EO which stimulates hair follicles and actually helps in hair growth.

Peppermint

Though it helps the oily scalp more but it reduces dandruff and also helps in hair growth.

Tea Tree

This one helps in cleansing your scalp and reducing the dandruff. Also, helps with acne.

Lavender

This one is not really on my favourites list. But, it helps calm your senses and lulls you to sleep, helps with hair fall and is also said to help with hair growth. It definitely helps with wounds and burns, though!

And, finally, we have

Clove

Actually, there is a list of spice essential oils which are amazing for hair growth. But, clove is probably the most easily available. I would also like to include ginger and cinnamon leaf (not bark) but remember that overusing any of the spice essential oils can be irritating for the skin. But, the advantage of spice essential oils are that they stimulate the follicles and improve the blood circulation in the scalp which leads to better hair growth.

So, today’s activity is to at least get one of the these essential oils and infuse them with all of your hair products.

How to use the Essential Oils?

Pour 5-10 drops of any of the above EO in all your hair products like shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, leave-in treatment, hair masks, any DIY’s you do, and then use the products.

You can make your own Essential Oils as well!

This would not be exactly essential oil but definitely cheaper and effective treatment. This is specially easy for all the spices which are easily available in your kitchen. So, take a table spoon of your favourite spice (ginger, clove, turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper) either in ground form or you can just use your mortal and pestle and lightly break the spices to release the oils.

Put the spice in a clear bottle and cover with oil (apricot or almond are preferred as they are better at absorbing the plant nutrients) and leave for a week in direct sunlight.

Keep shaking the bottle in between to release the oils.

After a week, your customized EO is ready for use! Remember to make it in small batches and use it within a month.

Btw, since this is not exactly as potent as essential oils, you can use around two table spoons for each of your products. And, you can keep alternating using different spices every time.

So, do try out this fun DIY and I am sure you will love it!

References:

Earlier Posts from #OneMonthtoHealthyHair event:
#OneMonthtoHealthyHair – Activity 1 – Hot Oil Treatment
#OneMonthtoHealthyHair – Activity of the Week – 1
#OneMonthofHealthyHair – Activity 2 – Get a Hair Cut!
#OneMonthofHealthyHair – Activity 3 – Go for a Hair Wash!

How do I use Essential Oils? {DIY}

May 4, 2012 Swati 22 Comments

When I had posted my haul last week, many of the requests were on how to use the essential oils. The answer to that is that I use EO’s practically in everything. So, let me just share some of my tips.

Skin Care

I use couple of drops of EO’s if I make my own scrubs any time. For example, today I made one – yogurt + besan after long long time and I used 10drops of ginger and 10 drops of Bergamot. But, that’s actually a lot. Limit it to 10 at max.
I am using Fig and Honey moisturiser currently. So, I added a couple of EO’s to it. I have around 150ml bottle of the moisturiser left so I could add up to 3ml of EO’s (that’s 60 drops of EO’s). The math is done here. I added Patchaouli, Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Rosemary, Cedarwood, Frankinscence in equal drops (10 each). And, that’s a lot, trust me. You can see a layer of oil over the moisturiser when you add. So, don’t go overboard!!!
I add at most 10 drops of any EO to my bath sometimes if I want to relax. I have used Lavender, Neroli and Ylang Ylang till now.
I have made a toner using the EO’s. I will post the recipe soon.

Hair Care

Let’s start with the hair oil. I have added ginger, cinnamon bark, rosemary to my hair oils as they help in hair growth.
Moving on, the next product is shampoo. I had added 20 drops of Rosemary EO to my Dove Shampoo and now, I have added 20 drops of Rosemary and 20 drops of Ylang Ylang to my Pantene shampoo.
Similarly, I added essential oils to my Liz Earle Botanical Shine Treatment and L’Oreal Total Repair 5 Masque. Though, I haven’t used them since I have added the EO’s coz of the treatment.
Also, check out my DIY aloevera scalp gel for hair growth which is entirely based on the efficacy of the essential oils.

So, those are some of the tips on how to use essential oils in day to day life. And, of course, my perfume oils too. So, how do you use the EO’s or plan to use them??

Aloevera Scalp Gel for Hair Growth {DIY}

May 2, 2012 Swati 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 🙂

Sugar Body Scrub with a twist {DIY}

February 29, 2012 Swati 5 Comments

Ok, let me confess that making a DIY every week is really not easy for So, today’s recipe is almost a copy of the sugar body polish which I have posted long back. I could think of nothing else and I have so many products to finish that it simply discourages me from whipping anything up. So, I have decided that next week I shall bring you a different series of DIY’s which will include Essential Oils because currently, I am a lot into them.

Ingredients

3 table spoon sugar
1 table spoon fuller’s Earth or multani mitti
1 table spoon rose petals powder
1 tablespoon spices (mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)
Honey (as required)
Essential Oils (optional)

Method

Mix all the ingredients except EO and honey. Add honey and make a gooey paste. Add 1-2 drops of your favorite drops of EO’s and, scrub and rub a dub 🙂

Results

Awesomely soft and instantly glowing skin. Moisturize well and sleep off to protect this glow and it will last you for days together. Do this once a week for a good scrubbing.

The rose petals provide luxury and spices provide a spicy edge to the scrub. And, you will like the smell too.

Hope you like it 🙂

Spicy spices for Acne {DIY}

January 25, 2012 Swati 37 Comments

Well, DIY’s are not only floral. Look around your kitchen and you will find the most interesting ingredients for your DIY. So, today I bring you a spicy mixture which can be used as a face pack or in your body scrubs or even in your hair packs. So, let us start.

The final product is not as granular as its looking in the pic but still, you should make it as fine as possible!! Mine is little grittier so has to be milled into a fine powder.

Ingredients

Cinnamon (3 parts)
Nutmeg (1 part)
Cloves (1 part)

Method

The ratio should be 3:1:1 in the order in which ingredients are listed. You can use the spices as such and mix them in a mixer or a food processor or blender to a powder and store in a clean glass jar. Or, you can directly mix the powdered versions of the spices but make sure that they are not adulterated and if organic, nothing could be better. Since they are spices, they are not likely to go bad ever but make only that much which will last you a month.

The spices are warm in nature so they will provide a nice and different experience than a regular face mask. And, it smells really warm of cloves and hint of cinnamon.

Mix with Honey
Mixing the mixture with honey is especially recommended for acne skin and all other skin types too. I tried it out on my skin though I don’t have acne or any breakouts and the result was that my skin was looking brighter and clearer immediately so I will highly recommend this face pack to all of you.

It also provides scrubbing effect as it is little gritty and be gentle and thorough in application. Make it a thick face pack and wait for 15-30 minutes. It will feel tingly in the start, may burn a very little bit for few seconds so add a good amount of honey. If diluted properly, it wouldn’t so no need to worry on that score. While you have it on, it might feel a little warm at times. And, wash it off with cold water. It really makes the skin glow immediately.

Other Uses

mix with yogurt to give a good pep up to your skin – for oily skin
mix a table spoon or two in your henna hair pack to give your a deeper brownish tinge and a richer hair color

Benefits of Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a very common spice which is great for adding taste to your dishes. But, it has more properties than that. It acts as an inflammatory on the skin and increases the blood circulation and plumps up the skin. It brings a natural glow to the face like you have put on a blush. And, it is also great for dry acne and reducing the scars and blemishes on the skin.

Benefits of Nutmeg
It is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Because of these properties, it is great for acne and eczema too. It also helps clear out the skin when used regularly and has beneficial effects on acne. Caution: It should not be used on the skin alone so we make a mix of all the spices. It can burn your skin as it is very strong.

Benefits of Cloves
It is a great remedy for acne and scars. Caution: It is also irritating to the skin like nutmeg so it should not be used alone.

Hope you like it 🙂 Pin It