Herbs and Their Uses

[Flaxen]

Flaxen has been very kind to add links on Page 1 of this thread for each herb too. (Thanks Flaxen!)

You're welcome.

[mira-chan]

Stinging Nettle, burn nettle, burn weed, burn hazel (English) Urtica dioica (Botanical name) Krapiva (Russian), Žihľava/ Pŕhľava (Slovakian), Etelännokkonen (Finnish), Ezo Irakusa (Japanese), Urzică Mare (Romanian), Vanlig Brännässla (Swedish)



The perennial plant is native to Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. It is more common in cooler temperate climates and grows 1 to 2 meters tall.

Nettles are edible, very high in minerals and vitamin content and best eaten when young. The root also has very good medicinal and hair care properties. The stem is not edible on older plants but can be used to make thread and fabric. It is a diuretic though not a strong one.

It is commonly used in cosmetics and shampoo. There is herbal oil made from stinging nettles in Eastern Europe but it is more commonly used as a dried herb.

Stings are considered good for you but far from pleasant. There are non-stinging varieties of nettle but their medicinal and edible use is low.

Nettle tea rinse makes a great hair rinse, very shiny hair and controls dandruff. It is especially good for oily hair.
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Recipes:

Scalp hair tonic

Rose water and nettles hair scalp rinse
Place in a bowl several fresh sprigs of stinging nettle of ¼ cup dried stinging nettle
Heat water to nearly boiling, pour over nettles
Let steep for 10-20 minutes, strain and reserve the “tea” in the applicator bottle
Add 1 tea spoon of rose water.
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Color enhancing rinse for brown or black hair

stinging nettle
sage
walnut shells or rosemary.

To make the rinse, boil 3 cups of distilled water or springwater. Remove it from the heat. Add 3 tbsp. of dried herb, stir, cover and steep 30 min. Strain and cool. Shampoo, squeeze out excess water and saturate your hair with 1 cup of the rinse. Squeeze out the excess.The rinse may stain light towels, so always use dark ones. You can store rinses in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
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For stimulating hair growth, the old herbalists recommended combing the hair daily with expressed Nettle juice.

[Aisha25]

Wow nice herb Mira-chan I never hear of this stinging nettles before where do they grow??

[mira-chan]

Wow nice herb Mira-chan I never hear of this stinging nettles before where do they grow??

They are a northern herb, very commonly used in European medicinal and hair recipes. It grows like a weed where I'm from in Russia (I took the first picture on our land in Russia.). It does apparently grow in California and much of the USA too. Probably in the cooler parts though. Here in NY I usually see nettles but not the stinging ones.

I'll add some of the information I have on European herbs as I compile it from my notes. I have some recipes that I translated from Russian magazines that may be useful.

[Aisha25]

That sounds very nice I cant wait to see these herbs it will be new and very interesting to learn more and more

[ChloeDharma]

Nettles grow everywhere here too.....once dried or heated they loose their sting and apparently can be used like spinach (saag), the only problem here is it's so polluted where they grow within walking distance that i'm nervous of picking them.

I've been wanting to add information about Kapoor Kachli to this thread but haven't had much luck finding out about it's use for hair.....i'll keep trying though.

ETA about the nettles, i've started adding the contents of a nettle teabag to my stews lately and that works nicely so i expect it could be added to vegetable soups etc too (i'm thinking hair friendly nutrients )

[Diamondbell]

Thanks mira-chan, that's so very interesting. Nettle is really good for hair. Doesn't it burn your hand when you pluck them? I remember using gloves while plucking them. Wish I could get some!! I didn't know there were non-stinging varieties!

I like the font size and color you used too!

[Aisha25]

Nettles grow everywhere here too.....once dried or heated they loose their sting and apparently can be used like spinach (saag), the only problem here is it's so polluted where they grow within walking distance that i'm nervous of picking them.

I've been wanting to add information about Kapoor Kachli to this thread but haven't had much luck finding out about it's use for hair.....i'll keep trying though.

ETA about the nettles, i've started adding the contents of a nettle teabag to my stews lately and that works nicely so i expect it could be added to vegetable soups etc too (i'm thinking hair friendly nutrients )

Chloe are you talking about this http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkm_Y.C...li-Powder.html?

[Diamondbell]

I've been wanting to add information about Kapoor Kachli to this thread but haven't had much luck finding out about it's use for hair.....i'll keep trying though.

Me neither -- no luck so far with getting any proper information on kapoor kachli. Still looking...

[mira-chan]

Thanks mira-chan, that's so very interesting. Nettle is really good for hair. Doesn't it burn your hand when you pluck them? I remember using gloves while plucking them. Wish I could get some!! I didn't know there were non-stinging varieties!

I like the font size and color you used too!

I thought I'd match the current format, and the plant color.

With nettles, gloves are your friends. Once dried they don't sting, much.

I used to use my sleeve, pull my hand into the sleeve, grab the nettle plant and then chase neighborhood kids away with it. We usually have a few nettles that were my height in raspberry bushes.

There are also non-stinging nettles that have very pretty bright (white, purple and yellow) flowers.