Dandelions for hair?

[GothicCanadian]

The dandelions are about to poke up their heads here, and they are good for so many things!
Doing a quick search online, I discovered they are great to infuse with oils, and making masks out of.
Has anyone done this? If so, did you notice good results?

[elfgirl]

Haven't done this with dandelions yet but am also curious! :) I have read that they are beneficial for use as a protectant when mixed with a carrier oil :)

[Obsidian]

I've not used them on my hair but I have made infusions with them.
Just be careful if you have hayfever, it set off my allergies something awful and made my skin burn. The flowers don't bother me but the concentrated infusion did.

[GothicCanadian]

Haven't done this with dandelions yet but am also curious! :) I have read that they are beneficial for use as a protectant when mixed with a carrier oil :)

Infuding was what I am going to try, with sweet almond oil. My hair has reacted really well to that oil.

[GothicCanadian]

I've not used them on my hair but I have made infusions with them.
Just be careful if you have hayfever, it set off my allergies something awful and made my skin burn. The flowers don't bother me but the concentrated infusion did.

Luckily no hayfever here, but that sounds terrible. Hopefully the effects didn't stay too long!

[lapushka]

In my country, in Dutch they are called "paardenbloemen" aka horse flowers, just a wild growth / weed. They are great though for some things, if infused, so I don't think it's a bad idea!

[GothicCanadian]

In my country, in Dutch they are called "paardenbloemen" aka horse flowers, just a wild growth / weed. They are great though for some things, if infused, so I don't think it's a bad idea!

It's so funny that you mention that, I am Dutch, came to Canada at 14. I only recently stopped saying "horse flowers" to people and finally remembered the English name.

[ExpectoPatronum]

Hm, I've tried tea rinses of a few herbs and flowers before, but never dandelion I don't think. Unfortunately I am pretty allergic to grass and flowers so I should probably skip it. I do wonder what sort of benefits it could provide for the hair, especially in an infusion like you're talking about.

[elaina]

i wonder which part of the plant would be best for infusions, the roots or the flowers, or maybe both? :confused:

[lapushka]

i wonder which part of the plant would be best for infusions, the roots or the flowers, or maybe both? :confused:

I think, if I remember this correctly, they typically use the buds of the flowers. Much like with chamomile, they also just use the flower buds. At least, I once had a bag of chamomile for infusion, and it was the heads of the flowers.

[Bat]

Not gonna lie I clicked this thinking it was about extreme Frizz

But also my mother drinks dandelion tea and it tastes a lot like coffee

[olivetime]

Mmmm dandelions. The whole plant is edible/usable. I haven't used it for my hair but I drink infusions weekly.

Dandelion root as tea does indeed have a coffee like flavour!

[GothicCanadian]

Yes, I know you can make the roots into a coffee, so it's stimulating... Maybe help with growth? Although I am not sure about the flower part.
They are healthy though, I know you can make them into salves and things that are anti-inflammatory.
My idea was to let my kid go crazy picking them, get her tired while I do nothing (parenting 101), then take the heads off the flowers, wash and infuse them. Which would at the very least be a pretty neat science activity.
The worst case scenario is that it does nothing, in which I will still have had a fun experience. Unless you have hay fever!

Going to be doing more research on which vitamins/minerals they possess. If anyone knows, please let me know!

[GothicCanadian]

Have you guys ever heard of Wild Chamomile/Pineapple weed? I know people do tea rinses with Chamomile, and I harvest a lot of these for teas during the summer. I wonder if it would have the same effect as "real" Chamomile.

[GothicCanadian]

Here I go again, sorry. Apparently stinging nettle is amazing for fighting dandruff.

[olivetime]

I use nettle often. Drinking it daily and making an infusion to rinse my hair from time to time.

Good Dandelion/Parenting plan @GothicCanadian :)

[olivetime]

From "Medicinal Herbs of Easter Canada"...

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=47099&d=1652790120

[lapushka]

I used to experiment quite a bit when I first got here. It can get overwhelming if you let it, so... please calm down a bit. :lol: Just sayin', it's not good for the hair either to get "jerked" from one experiment to the next.

I think it's somewhere in the guidelines here (if you read the stickies already) to only change 1 thing in your hair care at a time, and use that same said item for a prolonged time to see what it does for / brings to the hair. This way you can see what it truly does for you, or not. Whether it is a useful item, or is going to be.

Don't go from one thing to the next as it can potentially (not a given) mess up the hair quite badly.

[GothicCanadian]

Good advice, it is true, not too much at once. I could make one giant infusion mix and do it at one time but that's cheating... it is all just so exciting.

Also thanks for tge reference page, I love herbal books, I might have to add that to my collection!

[shelomit]

I love to eat dandelions (though I don't think they do anything much to either help or hurt my hair). We typically start to harvest a few leaves off of each plant as soon as they pop up in the spring (good raw or cooked), make the blossoms into wine once they appear, and then mark the spots with lots of dandelions so we can go digging for roots in the fall. I usually just dry the roots before making them into tea, but some people prefer to roast and grind them like chicory.

[clairenewcastle]

I drink a lot of dandelion tea. I also drink a lot of nettle tea, mainly because I think that it makes my hair grow faster. I don't like the taste of nettle tea (it reminds me of the taste of cows milk) so I add peppermint tea to it. The peppermint manages to overpower the taste of the nettles.

There was a time when I was using herbal rinses on my hair and I found that drenching my scalp with nettle tea then massaging it helped to shift grease. It wasn't quite as good as shampoo but it was the next best thing.