It's banana-mania!
I'm so excited! I received my copy of Sonya Kanelstrand's new book,
Banana Beauty today and can't wait to try some of these crazy recipes.
I've tried a LOT of recipes in my time, but never heard of
using bananas in my hair or on my face.
Sonya decided to write this book when a recipe she shared went absolutely VIRAL! And it looks like the book is going viral, too, with hundreds of thousands of pins and LOTS of sales.
So the basic premise of the book is that the banana contains all you need to have soft hair and skin. We can stop throwing money away on possibly hazardous commercial products and reap more benefits than ever.
I've tried to find scientific proof to back these claims up, but have not had much success. There is a LOT of anecdotal evidence, though. The banana is a very popular item for hair and skin care!
I did manage to find some stuff.
Here's what's in a banana:
 |
| Bad banana |
Tryptophan: an amino acid that protects hair color
Potassium: softens course strands
Vitamins: increase hair strength, prevent split ends
Sucrose, fructose, glucose: natural sugars
Phosphorous
Vitamin A
Iron
Magnesium
thaumatin-like protein
Iodine: prevents gray hair
 |
| Banana slug |
Starch: acts as a natural hair spray
Oligosaccharides and Lectins:
provides protective barrier against bacteria, restores and protects keratinous fibers, prevents protein loss
All of these are supposed to be good for skin and hair, so I decided to give it a whirl.
My hair is on the mend, still, from having my son and from having millions of perms in the 80s and 90s. I lost a LOT of hair after having the baby, and what WAS there was just fried. So I went all organic (see my post here). It's getting better now, but it's still wicked thin and just kind of blah. I ALWAYS wear it in a ponytail.
Here's the before shot of my hair. It looks oily even though I just washed it the night before.
O my god, it looks HORRENDOUS!
I tried the recipe for the Banana Hair Conditioner on Page 17. Sonya said I could share this recipe with you, so here it is:
2 bananas, and 1/2 cup of honey. That's it!
I used 1 banana and 1/4 cup of honey, because my hair is so thin.
2 bananas, and 1/2 cup of honey. That's it!
I used 1 banana and 1/4 cup of honey, because my hair is so thin.
I squished it up and saturated my hair with it. The consistency was like a very thick conditioner. I put a plastic bag on my head and settled down to watch Scooby Doo with the boy. After a half hour I got into the shower to rinse it out.
Well, all I can say is: Not only did the instructions CLEARLY say to puree the stuff so there were absolutely no clumps in it, but SONYA HERSELF re-iterated that in her email to me when I received the book. Well, I did NOT blend it sufficiently.
A lesson for us all: when Sonya Kanelstrand tells you how to do something, you listen.
The result was a head full of squishy banana chunks. It was awful. It took me a long time to get it all out.
THAT BEING SAID:
O MY GOD IT WORKED SO WELL!
My hair was full and luscious and shiny. It looked so voluminous that I wore my hair down to a gig and wasn't even self conscious, probably for the first time in almost 4 years. It felt a tiny bit crunchy, like I had a little bit of hairspray in it, but I don't care. It's the next day now, and the volume is still there and it looks really clean, soft, and shiny still. Amazing stuff. I will definitely do this before every show. I'll squish the banana better next time, though. My son is really too young to hear such foul language.
Next time: a banana face scrub!
And I'll leave you with this little gem:
