For those of you who live near a camellia bush

[Chiara]

Hi all,
I've been reading this great book about traditional skin and hair care in Japan (The Japanese Way of Beauty by Michelle Dominique Leigh)

According to it, one of the traditional ways to use camellia oil was to collect the fruit from camellia trees after they had flowered, remove the stone and dry. Then put some of the camellia fruit stones in a cotton or silk bag, and smash them against a hard surface until the stones shatter. Then use the bag of crushed nuts to gently stroke hair from the scalp down.

Where I live there are A LOT of camellia trees, so I think I might try this... I like the idea of finding my hair products literally growing on trees!

[|Xei]

This sounds really neat! I'd love to experiment with this, but I do not have any camellia trees in my area (not that I know of anyway). What does doing this accomplish though? Does it smooth out the hair, or condition it in some way?

If you do try this, please report back with your results! I think many other members would love to hear about it as well.

[Karmi]

This sounds very interesting to me, as well. Where abouts do you reside with all these camellia bush?

[RitaPG]

That sure seems interesting. I do not have a camellia bush nearby, but I thought of buying one at some point, because I love the look and smell of those flowers :)

[Chiara]

Well, here are some nice images of camellia flowers so that you know what you're looking for:http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/camelia
Camellias are evergreen, and flower in autumn/winter. Most grow well in climate zones 7, 8 and 9.
I went out and found some fruit on a bush yesterday, in a laneway. So now I just have to wait for them to dry (I think that will take a while...).

Xei, people use camellia oil to condition their hair, either on dry or damp hair. You can also use it for skincare.

[joiekimochi]

I just use pure camellia oil (tsubaki oil). It's not too pricey either!