Do I need to freeze my conditioner blend?

[Knifegill]

I've been making small batches of conditioner with alaffi hair lotion, cocoa and coffee. It was an experiment, and I'm just going to keep using it unless there's a reason not to. Do chime in! Anyway, I've been freezing it and then warming it once every three or four days before shower. I was worried about the coffee or cocoa going moldy. Does the formation of ice crystals harm the conditioner at all? Should I just make smaller amounts and refrigerate?

This is for CO wash only, no poo.

I like the alaffi hair lotion for its shea butter and the fact that it's meant for curly hair. I'm no scientist and am crossing my fingers that they have it formulated correctly. It's the orange geranium version. I wonder if any of the ingredients on this lotion are anti-mold, and negate the need to freeze.

I like the cocoa because it sort of scrubs and makes my hair feel clean.

And the coffee is for caffeine to help my hair grow, but if I never shampoo, it's not really getting to the root anyway. Unless it is. So I am just keeping it. It's also acidic and smells nice.

I did coffee grounds last round but they are a pain to rinse out, so not this time.

[lapushka]

I don't think there's anyone with experience on this particular blend and freezing; henna can be frozen. I don't see why this couldn't be? I'd say just keep trying it. You'll notice when it goes off!

[AlexDig]

It sounds like there's not a big water component to your mix so I'm guessing that you could just keep in it the fridge but I doubt that freezing would negate the benefits either so it might be a preference thing. I keep my homemade hair lotions in the fridge, otherwise they get moldy but I've never tried freezing them...maybe I'll give it a go! :-)

[Anje]

Conditioner (or a hair lotion base?) might get texture problems after freezing. But if you haven't noticed a problem, then clearly there isn't a problem. :)

Do you need to freeze it? My gut says it depends how much other stuff you added. If that's liquid coffee, you increased the water activity of the resulting stuff by a bit, I imagine, and it's probably better to freeze it. Products like your hair lotion tend to be formulated with enough preservative to keep them from going bad when left to themselves. If you start diluting it with significant additions (especially of things that microbes like, like water and energy sources), you can easily outstrip the preservatives' ability to stop microbial growth.