ARGH! Herbal rinse disaster!!

[andrea1982]

I have this book that contains recipes for home made beauty concoctions, and one of them was a raspberry leaf tea rinse. I thought I'd give it a try. I did a LUSH pre-shampoo treatment (jasmine and henna fluff-eaze), shampooed my hair, and it felt great, like I almost didn't even need conditioner. I put a dab of conditioner, rinsed, then used the raspberry leaf tea as a final rinse. I put my hair up in a towel to dry. As drying I noticed it felt okay, but the ends were much more tangly than usual. The more my hair dried, the worse it got, so I decided to hop back in the shower and do some more rinsing to remove the tea from my hair. OMG, my hair felt all matted and so gross and dry! It felt like it used to after getting highlights or using chemical bleach! I shampooed and doused my head with coney conditioner, used copious amounts of coney leave in, and my hair finally feels somewhat normal again. (but it's not dry yet..)
Has anyone else had this experience? I feel like I've ruined my hair :(. I think I need to stop experimenting, and just practice some benign neglect for a while. I think my hair has actually gotten worse since I've tried to take better care of it, in between this fiasco and leaving protein treatments on for too long, and going off cones...
That's it! I'm going back to regular old cones shampoo and conditioner, every other day.:mad: My hair was always nice before, as long as I didn't highlight or blowdry too much.

[Gemma]

I had a similar thing happen to me.

I made a rosemary and apple cider vinegar rinse since I'd read it's good for conditioning dark hair. Well, my hair HATED it. It was frizzy, tangled, and crunchy. Absolutely awful!

It took me about 1-2 weeks of heavy conditioning to get it back to normal. I did an SMT twice in that time, and was careful to really condition the entire length after every wash.

I'm sure your hair will return to normal soon, too. :) Never fear!

[cobblersmaid]

Ugh that's too bad. I doubt you ruined your hair, but it may feel weird for a bit. Just stick to what works for a bit, to give it a break.

[lora410]

shudder:This makes me scared to try my chamomile, calendula and lavender herbal rinse tonight

[Nightshade]

shudder:This makes me scared to try my chamomile, calendula and lavender herbal rinse tonight

You should be fine :) Raspberry leaves contain a higher level of tannins than anything you're using, and I'll bet it's the tannins that made andrea1982's hair so dry.

[CopperHead]

I make a Rosemary, Horsetail and Nettle mixed with ACV rinse. I use it when I shampoo with a poo bar and it always works very well. Horsetail contains a natural silica that smooths the hair like cones, but naturally. Maybe something like this would be better for your hair.

[andrea1982]

You should be fine :) Raspberry leaves contain a higher level of tannins than anything you're using, and I'll bet it's the tannins that made andrea1982's hair so dry.

Thanks for the insight Nightshade! I'll avoid tannins in the future. Lora, I've used chamomile and calendula together without a problem.


I make a Rosemary, Horsetail and Nettle mixed with ACV rinse. I use it when I shampoo with a poo bar and it always works very well. Horsetail contains a natural silica that smooths the hair like cones, but naturally. Maybe something like this would be better for your hair.

That sounds nice, I think I'll try the horsetail once it starts growing again around here. Thanks :).

My hair is dry now, and it feels okay for now. Sheesh!

[spidermom]

The worst experiment I did was baking soda. It took 2 weeks for my hair to recover. That about did it for me as far as experimentation.

[mellie]

Andrea1982 - I often do a red raspberry leaf rinse and it works well for me when I'm too pressed for time to henna my grays. In fact, it gives my hair some extra body too, when I leave it in. Sorry that it didn't work for you!

I am curious, was it just red raspberry leaf infused in some water, or were there other ingredients? I just use a small handful of the cut leaf in about a cup of hot water.