DIY Hair oil

Probably the concoction I'm most proud of making. It kind of developed over time.
I started using Coconut oil as my sealer after reading all of the hype about it. Understandable hype as it turns out.

I, being the impatient person I was / am didn't wait the whole 10 seconds for the oil to melt in my hands before applying it to my hair, which meant I nearly always put too much or too little in, or rubbed the oil into my hair forcefully like a grizzly bear scratching it's back against a tree.

So I made a mixture with jojoba oil, then with jojoba and vitamin e, then with avocado, the list goes on. Eventually, when I started experimenting with body cream, I got my hands on some mango butter which is weirdly dry. When I mixed that into the sealer I knew I got it right. One of my biggest aims was that my hair still feel touchable, I have never been a fan of the greasy head feeling, especially as I have fine hair so too much just weighs me down. The mango butter took the worry out of it.

As time went by I found the right balance, I still experiment with the liquid oils and essential oil amounts and choices. But the core elements of Mango Butter, Coconut oil and Vitamin E have stayed the same.

Ingredients

• 15g Mango Butter
• 45g Coconut oil
• 5g Vitamin E
• 12g Olive oil
• 7g Jojoba oil
• 1g Cocoa butter - first time using this in the sealer, was Lanolin
• 3 x Rosemary EO
• 2 x Calendula
• 3 x Lavender
• 2 x Vetiver
• Whisk, tissue, baby wipes, pyrex

Put everything except the jojoba and essential oils in the pyrex and double boiler, heat and stir until the mango butter is completely melted. Wait for it to cool until it is murky like Vaseline.

Whisk and use the spatula to get any oil from the bottom. Add the essential oils until you get a nice smooth mix. It lasts me about 6 weeks or so.

Natural (mostly) body lotion

La body lotion. I have had words with and against this process. I started off with a strange aloe vera oil mix which was weirdly moisturising, but it was in the days when I had no idea about preservatives and emulsifiers.

Recently I got annoyed when I saw my lotion was running low (first world problems). I then thought well I'll just go online and buy myself an emergency bottle for these such times. I was somewhat dismayed when I realised just how expensive natural lotion was - around £20 for roughly 200ml.

I make about 400ml worth and it lasts me for 2 months and costs around £2.50 exc time, so even if I price myself at £20 per hour I'm still in the green not to mention the obvious perks of being able to adjust the recipe accordingly. Thinking about it now I probably should have added some cocoa butter to thicken it a bit but it the texture isn't my primary goal at the moment.

This particular recipe is actually designed for a pump bottle but I didn't finish my hand wash in time - a like to reuse the bottle - go recycling! So I've put them in tubs, it's lotion rather than cream, but I'm hoping I adjusted the recipe enough so that the lotion still stays on the skin happily for a good 15 hours or so.

I try to think of it like baking, sorting out your dry mix and wet mix separately, so in this case, sort your water mix (water, rose water, glycerin) and then your oil butter wax mix.

Ingredients (interchangeable with mls)

• 15g Beeswax - Binds the oil to the water
• 40g Coconut oil - moisturising
• 11g Lanolin - sealing
• 18g Mango Butter - anti greasy feeling
• 27g Aloe Butter - moisturising and anti greasy feeling
• 90g Sunflower oil - moisturising

Put these ingredients into the pyrex and double boiler (pan on stove with water). Melt and stir until you can't see any wax. While this is melting, boil and measure your water, don't add the rose water and glycerin to the water mixture until the oil is ready for it to be blended in.

Cool down the oil until it starts to look murky, then add these ingredients

• 20g Cyclomethicone - sheen and anti greasy feeling
• 3/4 tsp Neem oil - antibacterial/preservative
• 5ml Vitamin E - antioxidant / stops oils from smelling funny

Give it a quick whisk. Use the spatula to grab any leftover oils at the bottom

• 120ml filtered and boiled water - moisturising
• 20ml Rose water - moisturising
• 5ml Glycerin - humectant, moisturising

Add the rose water and glycerin to your water mix. SLOWLY add mixed water to the mixed oil whilst whisking on low. Should take minimum 10 minutes or you're going to fast. Every now and then stop the whisk and run the spatula along the sides and the bottom. When you have about 20 ml of water left, add the essential oils. Whisk until the water is fully incorporated and then whisk for a further 1 or 2 minutes.

• 7 drops Geranium essential oil - preservative and nice to skin
• 4 drop Patchouli - this and all others have great properties but were added for fragrance
• 4 drop Jasmine
• 1 x Tea tree
• 3 x Rosewood
• 3 x Bergamot
• 2 x Calendula - moisturising
• Electric whisk
• Mixing utensils, tissue and baby wipes

Clean up with tissues and then baby wipes and then wash as normal, put the tubs you're not using right now in the fridge and write the date on top. Use within 3 months. Put any extra fresh on your skin though waste not want not.😁

Second Diy relaxer

Not going to lie to you, I was not paying my hair the proper attention I should have been. Don't worry nothing went wrong but I did experience more breakage than acceptable. Simply because in my efforts to not touch my hair 24 hours before a relaxer due to it's fragility and general curliness, I didn't give it the moisture and oil it needed. So my hair was dry going in, and needed a lot of water love to get back to normal. I basically got scared to touch my hair rather than redouble my efforts to make heal it.

It feels fine and looks quite stunning actually, I have a lot of natural shine and I didn't use any Cyclomethicone either.

I left on for a little longer this time to ensure I relaxed to at least 90%, that's good enough for me.
Also made use of an Apple cider vinegar rinse and will be doing so again at my next wash (co wash) which will either be tomorrow or Wednesday. It depends how dry my hair and scalp feels but at this point, I imagine it will be left to Wednesday though as everything feels pretty ok today.

I am however getting frustrated at protective styles. I feel like single twists would be easier for my hair with a quick touch up in the morning, but I read that flat twists or big canerows are better because all the ends are hidden. I think rather than being religious about it I'll just have to listen to my hair at the time. I can't even see the evidence of new growth yet but that will show itself in time.

My next relaxer will be about a week before I go on holiday in July. Hopefully I will have learned even more about my hair. I'm still getting through the science of black hair book and am relearning a lot of things, have changed my hair oil (sealer mix) slightly as a result.

Need to remember though, my hair does not like being untouched, it sounds counter intuitive but it behaves like a child that needs to be picked up all the time. When I haven't run my hands through it twice a day it doesn't behave well, it's only marginally better at the beginning of the relaxer stretch. One of the primary reasons why consistent smaller canerows or weaves won't be in harmony with my hair.