diy clove and henna hair mask for brunettes

brunettes, take notice!

DIY this nourishing, moisturizing clove and seaweed hair mask for your brown hair. 

flower crowns are back!

flower crowns are back for the season.

pick a style that is unique, one-of-a-kind, and spectacularly beautiful. 

just like you.

rosewater and aloe vera mist for dry hair diy

give your dry, damaged hair the moisture it craves.

try this easy DIY hair mist to keep your tresses shiny and soft all summer long.

Hemp Oil Treatment for Seborrheic Dermatitis (Cradle Cap)

Hemp Oil Shampoo from Aquarian Bath on Etsy

In conjunction with vigorous brushing of the scalp, hemp oil successfully dissolves cradle cap and seborrheic dermatitis in general.

Cocoa and Honey Hair Gel

Hello, lovelies! Here's a 3-ingredient recipe for a hair gel that increases volume and shine completely naturally.

Hair Treatment: Hot Hemp Oil

Hot hemp! Sounds therapeutic, doesn't it?

I thought I'd try a little experiment with hemp oil last night, based on the hot oil treatments we used to do on our hair in the 80s. Do they still do those? I've seen them at Sally's, but you don't hear as much about them anymore.

Hair Regrowth Journey: My Solution (Minoxidil 5%), Part II

How minoxidil gave me my hair back!!!

Okay, so in my last post I talked about biting the bullet and going for the Minoxidil 5% to try to grow my hair back. It worked. Here's what happened:

First, BE WARNED!
For the first 6 weeks or so, I shed TONS of hair. They say this is normal and even that it's a good sign, because it means that the stuff is having some kind of effect. If you don't lose any hair, it's a sign that the product is not working. So I expected/hoped for this, but o my god, it was very disturbing! I lost clumps of hair daily. I probably lost close to a third of my hair during this period. And I had no hair to start off with! Awful disheartening blah.

Hair Regrowth Journey: My Solution

About a year after having my baby, I noticed, to my extreme SHOCK AND HORROR that my hair was coming out in clumps. Apparently, this is normal for new mothers. Something ELSE they don't mention before you get pregnant (like the fact that a baby is supposed to in there for 10 months, NOT NINE but that's a whole different story). 

I tried just about everything I could think of including salicylic acid (to unclog hair follicles), hemp oil (to make my sebum more fluid and thereby unclog follicles), polysorbate 80 (to kill DHT), and etc. (hair tonics, stem cells, vitamins, sea kelp, etc. etc. etc.).

For your head!

Amy

There is something mesmerizing about a woman in a head scarf or turban. There's an evocation of mystery, secret knowledge, worldliness, exoticism. 

From a practical standpoint, head scarves and turbans are beautiful, usually with eye-catching prints or colors that jazz up an outfit, hide bad hair, frame the face, protect the top of the head (a vulnerable spot!) from the sun, etc. etc. etc. They're pretty awesome.

They're also ubiquitous. Cloth on the head in some form or another is an ancient practice found all over the globe.

Can this be a sharing of textiles? I think often about cultural appropriation, especially as a merchant of traditional fabrics. But can this be thought of as a cultural exchange instead of cultural appropriation?

Product Review: Kerafiber

Okay. I'm going to admit this: sometimes I use that spray-in hair stuff like in those horrible infomercials!!! It has come to this, people.

Baking Soda for Hair is No Good! Word from Kanelstrand!

My friend Sonya Kanelstrand just posted a tell-all about the use of baking soda in lieu of shampoo. This has been a widespread practice of the no-poo movement. I never liked it. And now Sonya doesn't like it!!!

Take a look!

From Sonya's blog.

Results after 1 Month: Polysorbate 80 and Sea Kelp Bioferment

Okay. So I've been doing the polysorbate 80/sea kelp bioferment thing for about 5 weeks now and I freakin LOVE it. My hair is very smooth and shiny and fluffy! I'm getting A LOT less hair fall. With the Salicylic Acid regimen, I was losing over 100 hairs per day, more on wash days. Now I'm losing less than 10, even on wash days. That alone makes this worth it. I'm not sure yet if anything is growing in on the hairline, but my hair looks much thicker now because it's so clean and fluffy. I no longer wear extensions when I wear my hair down.

Sea Kelp Bioferment

Beautiful Nereocystic luetkeana.

People over at the Skincaretalk forum are RAVING about how much it helps with hair growth.  A lot of people are saying that their hairlines filled in soon after starting with this stuff.

Homemade Lemon Hair Spray

Looking for an all-natural hair spray that you can make yourself for pennies??? Here it is!

It's pretty awesome! It gives your hair a nice, medium hold and adds volume if you use it before hair drying. I only use it once or twice a month, so I can't really speak to whether it lightens the hair after awhile. I would assume it does. I've seen recipes using oranges for brunettes and will try and report on that eventually!

Fix Those Extensions!

Beauties!!! My clip-in extensions look like they were scavenged from a dog-brush and scotch-taped to my head. NOT GOOD! 

They were dry, frazzled-looking, and the color was fading out. I only wear them for gigs, so they were getting swished around quite a bit from all that head-banging.

According to the box they came in, you're supposed to wash them after every couple of uses, which of course I never did. I've been using them for about 2 years now. Shameful, I know.

So I decided to treat them to some good diy care and color.

Conditioning Seaweed Hair Rinse

Vinegar and Bladderwrack! Doesn't that sound just scrumptious?
 
Another happy experiment!

I've been thinking a lot about bladderwrack* ever since I threw it in my latest hair mask on a whim and had such excellent results.  I got to wondering what else it could be used for... 

*Bladderwrack is a seaweed. I use it in powdered form for hair stuff!

Chamomile and honey hair mask for blondes

I don't want to leave out my blonde sisters!

Here's a hair mask for you. This will condition, moisturize, boost golden color and highlights, and color grays. People with darker hair can use this mask for golden highlights.

Product Review: Chagrin Valley Carrot Milk and Honey Shampoo Bar

Good day bohemian beauties!


I think I've stumbled onto something by accident that I'd like to share with you!

My son's hair is very fine and curly. It gets dry and frizzy in this climate, and the curls are not very well defined. It also feels kind of crunchy - not soft. I use hemp oil in it, to smooth it out, which works well, but it feels like a "fix" to me, rather than a solution to the underlying problem.

I myself have been struggling with thin, straggly, dry, and messed up hair since my son was born. I've gone all organic and natural, and it's helped. BUT I'm always on the lookout for something that will give me more glamorous hair.

Cradle cap

Does any baby really look like this when you're washing its hair? I think we all know the answer to that.

Cradle cap is a bohemian beauty issue for our little minions and for some of us grown folk, too!

Banana Beauty Recipe Review: Banana Hair Conditioner

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.