PDA

View Full Version : Help me tweak my herbal wash, please



jeanniet
November 21st, 2010, 03:54 PM
I would like to start washing/conditioning with herbs. I've done a couple of experimental washes, and the follow-up conditioning rinse seems to be working fine, but the wash itself is creating dry ends. Last time, I oiled my length pretty heavily with coconut oil to try to combat it, but as soon as I rinsed out the wash mix I could tell that my ends were pretty stripped. I used a mix of:

shikakai
aritha
amla
brahmi
methi
hibiscus

I suspect it may be the shikakai, so I only used 1/4 tsp. last time, but now I'm thinking I may not be able to use shikakai at all. I'm not sure how drying aritha is. In general, my hair needs very little cleaning agent to remove oil, whether it's shampoo, baking soda, or whatever.

Another problem I'm seeing is markedly increased shed. I have a lot of hair, so when I wash it I do tend to have a noticeable shed, but the past two washes it's been at least double the normal amount. I'm not particularly alarmed, but obviously I don't want it to continue unabated.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

hazelnut
November 21st, 2010, 04:29 PM
Well, I know that I personally can't use Shikakai because it is too drying for my hair. I can't really use Amla either because while it is a lot more conditioning than Shikakai, it still has a cleansing agent in it.
I use Brahmi and Bhringraj powders on my hair and it comes out well defined and conditioned. I think it helps, also, to try and get as much of the powders out of your head as possible. I do this by conditioning my hair with Aussie Moist and tea rinses (usually with Nettle, Saw Palmetto, or Horsetail).

jeanniet
November 21st, 2010, 04:45 PM
I think you may have a good point about the amla, because I use amla when I hendigo my hair and it has a similar feel to it after that--it takes a few days of oiling to get it back to normal. I think next time I'm just going to leave out both the shikakai and amla, and try a tea of aritha with the brahmi and methi and see how that goes.

jeanniet
November 22nd, 2010, 11:01 AM
Could a mod remove this thread, please? I realized I posted almost the exact same thing in the Indian herbs thread. Mea culpa--don't know what I was thinking on that one! :o

GrowingGlory
November 22nd, 2010, 01:34 PM
Shikakai and aritha can be drying. Amla is conditioning. It might help to leave the first two ingredients out of the wash and see if your hair ends are less dried out.

jeanniet
November 22nd, 2010, 02:01 PM
It seems that for some people amla can also be drying. I think I'm just going to have to do some experimentation and see what works and in what amounts. I'm going to cut down on the amounts of what I use, too. Seems my hair tolerates less than usual amounts. What's odd is that I'm half Indian, and my hair is very Indian, so you'd think it would tolerate normal amounts better!

GrowingGlory
November 22nd, 2010, 04:10 PM
Oh, sorry. I never heard that about amla before. Maybe add some raw honey?

jeanniet
November 22nd, 2010, 04:45 PM
I don't think it's true for a lot of people, just some. Would be my luck that it would be true for me. I like amla; it really brings out the curl in my hair. I sure hope I don't find out it's the culprit!

earthymamawitch
November 23rd, 2010, 12:46 PM
Do you pre-oil before you do the herb washes? I also second the recommendation to put some honey in the paste or tea or even some AVG - it helps lots for me.

little_cherry
November 23rd, 2010, 12:57 PM
Do you pre-oil before you do the herb washes? I also second the recommendation to put some honey in the paste or tea or even some AVG - it helps lots for me.
Hmm...AVG..what a good idea! I did try the honey once...not sure if it did anything. I really need to get my hands on Methi...I know flax seeds are used in gel, but I wonder how conditioning it is?? Hmmm...

I made my own pumpkin conditioner to use during the winter...I posted about it in my blog.

Deborah
November 23rd, 2010, 03:56 PM
I did a lot of experimenting a while ago with Indian herbs. For my very fine hair I found Aritha to be extremely drying; Shikakai much less so. Adding more Methi powder into whatever mix you choose will make it a lot more conditioning. I used half Methi to whatever other herbs I used with good results.

jeanniet
November 23rd, 2010, 04:38 PM
I did pre-oil. At first I tried using my usual oil mix (jojoba, camellia, and argan), and then last time I used coconut oil, and quite a bit of it. I use oil and Nightblooming's panacea on my ends almost daily.

So honey, check. AVG, check--I put that in the conditioner, but didn't try it in the wash mix. Increase methi, check. Decrease aritha and shikakai, check.

Deborah, do you mean that if you used 1 tsp. shikakai, you'd use 1/2 tsp. methi? I wonder if you could use it in an even ratio, or even higher? When I used shikakai without aritha (1 tsp.), it was still too drying, so if I try it alone again I'd want to use no more than 1/2 tsp. Wonder how it would work with 1/2 tsp. shikakai and 1 tsp. methi?

Thanks for the help. I'll report back on my next wash attempt. It's a good thing I'm keeping track of all this!

Deborah
November 23rd, 2010, 07:09 PM
...Deborah, do you mean that if you used 1 tsp. shikakai, you'd use 1/2 tsp. methi? I wonder if you could use it in an even ratio, or even higher? When I used shikakai without aritha (1 tsp.), it was still too drying, so if I try it alone again I'd want to use no more than 1/2 tsp. Wonder how it would work with 1/2 tsp. shikakai and 1 tsp. methi?

Yes. But I used a couple teaspoons of shikakai and one teaspoon methi, about twice what you mention..