Hair Affair Part 2

Continuing from yesterdays post on skin and hair care for lovely brown skinned children...did you do your research? Are you convinced to never, ever put petrol on your darlings again? Good, then we can continue with our lesson :)

I have a confession, even though I KNOW all to well the information presented in yesterdays post...I am cheap frugal. I began looking for good products with healthy and safe ingredients long before we left for Uganda. In fact, I found it to be a useful way to pass those LONG drawn out days waiting to leave. Guess what I found out...the good stuff...EXPENSIVE. "You've got to be kidding me!" I said to my beloved. Who in their right mind would spend $18 for 8 ounces of conditioner. Not me that's for darn sure. So I would go to the store and peruse the "ethnic" hair section and read the labels. They made me cringe with disgust. I was afraid the chemicals might leach right through the bottle and contaminate me. I would quickly put them back on the self and would come home and search the net again. I repeated this process several times. Then it was the day before we were to leave for Africa...and I had nothing for their hair. Off to the store again, this time purchasing the cheapest stuff on the shelf, convincing myself it would only be until we got home. Once home, I found that the good stuff had not gotten any cheaper...and I was as cheap as ever. So I kept right on buying the yucky stuff, complaining every time. My beloved, who is the only person I know cheaper than me...finally got fed up and said buy the good stuff. So finally in October, I lost my mind and spent $18 EACH on 4 eight ounce containers of "good stuff" that came highly recommend by several other mommies. I could hardly wait for it to arrive...that is until it did.

Upon opening the package I found this was homemade product someone else had made, and every ingredient that it contained I already had in my house. Mildly irritated, I thought to myself...well if I like it...next time I will make.

The good stuff...LOVE IT.

I saw an immediate difference in Marissa's hair.

Is it worth $18 buck a bottle...no way.

We finally ran out of product the last time I fixed Marissa's hair, so I decided it was time to pony up and play armature chemist. This is me...this is just how I do things. Then I give my friends the chance to be my test subjects samples.

I didn't have to make shampoo, because we only use it about once a week. The rest of the time we just rinse and add conditioner. Shampoo that is Sulfate free is a must, but of course you know that because you read all about it in yesterday's post.

So I Noah pulled out my big buckets of herbs and I scavenged in the kitchen for all my good oils and began cookin' up the goods.

I started by pouring my oils in the pot. Coconut, Olive, Safflower, were my oils of choice. Jojba and avacado oils would be wonderful too, but I didn't have any...and they are expensive.

Then I added several different herbs. Each with it's own benefits. Far too many to list, but if your interested just shoot me an email and I will fill you in.

Isn't pretty...smelled great too. The kids kept asking what I was baking.

I let the oil and herbs steep on med-low heat for an hour, then strained out the herbs. Next I divided it up in to two different pots. This is what it looked like after I strained it.

To one I added just a smudge of bees wax and some coconut milk. Loverly it is. This will be our leave in conditioner. Looks and smells exactly like the expensive stuff...except I got 20 ounces for about $4.00 instead of 8 ounces for $18.

With the second pot I added a bunch of bees wax. This will be our goop for twists and braids. Love it! It too, looks and smells like the expensive stuff, except I got 40 ounces for about $4.00 instead of 8 ounces for $18.

Of course I was only able to do this, because I already had purchased the herbs in bulk and had them in my stash. If I had to buy the herbs from a store, this would have been much more expensive.

Oh, I almost forgot...I have to show you my bees wax.

Thanks to Yoder's Hardware in Michigan I got a great deal on this. 1 pound of bees wax at Sun Harvest $39.99. 1 pound of bees wax at Yoder's $8.99. I love a good bargain. I love the way this little gold bar of goodness looks. It smells like bee poop. When I told Noah that I thought it smelled like bee poop, he wanted to know how I knew what bee poop smells like. I told him that I have eaten it plenty of times (bee pollen.) He was totally grossed out, until I informed him that he eats bee vomit all the time (honey.) That shut him up real quick.

Here is a quick look at my finished product.

The stuff in the big mason jar will set up once it cools, that is our styling gel. The stuff in the little jelly jar is our leave in conditioner. I use it after a wash...or in our case mostly rinses. I also put a bit into a spray bottle and add water for a quick mist everyday. Works fabulous.

I loved doing this...just like I like mixing up herbs and such for medicinal purposes. I'm thinking maybe I should sell this. Seriously, I could sell this for less than half of what other people are selling it for and still make a profit. Yep, I just might. Maybe I could. Maybe it could fund adoptions.

Hmmm.