Wild Beauty Care for Wildly Beautiful Hair
– by Heather Gardner
Our hair, like our shoes can speak volumes about who we are as a person. Do you choose to wear Crocs or Birkenstocks? platforms or Jimmy Choos? Nikes or Adidas? For those of us who rather ditch the footwear and dance barefoot by the beach or merrily skip through the May morning dew, in a flower kissed meadow – the natural choice for our hair and its care is to be found from foraging through the forest pharmacy rather than the pharmaceutical one.
In my previous blog post, I explored the properties of many plants we might find growing all around us in nature to enhance our inner Gorgeous Green Goddess. You can choose from those, as well as many herbs found in your garden and health store, to create concoctions that can turn those troublesome tresses into a crowning glory of flowing fragrant fantasy and cruise confidently and casually through the challenges of your day in an aura of floral delight.
How to Evaluate the Health of Your Hair
But before leaping out of your inertia and into wild beauty euphoria, take a moment to….
Stop…
Breathe….
Run your fingers through your hair…
How does it feel? Dry? Coarse? Smooth? Bouncy? Oily? Knotty?
Imagine you are a new lover caressing your hair for the first time. What story does your hair tell about you? Are you too busy to care for yourself? Preoccupied with your appearance? Or got something to hide?
Smell your hair…..does it smell like a freshly cut hay field under the summer sun? A meadow full of sexy scented flowers, or the inside of a chemical lab? Have a look in the mirror…not just the usual way, a quick glance and your done…really look. What shade and mixture of hues make up your unique colour? How is the texture?
Is your hair vibrantly glowing with health or in need of a little T.L.C? Take another quiet moment to write down all you have just discovered about yourself, even start your own beauty journal and potion recipe book. Then gift your tresses to the following treats!
Soapwort Shampoo for Naturally Lush & Healthy Hair
Ingredients:
Recipe makes one batch, multiply as needed.
- 1 Tbsp Soapwort root dried (or 3 Tbsp fresh)
- 1 Tbsp herbs for your hair type (e.g. southernwood, rosemary, nettle, sage, horsetail, chamomile, marigold, rosehip, hibiscus etc)
- 1 cup pure water
Directions:
Boil the water, add the herbs and water to a bowl and cover. Allow to infuse until cold. Alternatively simmer in a pot for 15 mins and allow to cool. When cool strain through a nut milk bag or sieve, use immediately to wash your hair or bottle and store for up to 1 week in the fridge. You can add 3-5 drops of your favourite essential oils. Don’t drink it!
Soapwort is a herb traditionally used as a shampoo and cleaning agent due to its high content of saponins and ability to form a light lather. You can grow it or buy it dry from your health store or online. You can also make Soapnut (Aritha) Powder Shampoo, use 2 tsp for short hair & 3 for long hair, mix it with a little water to make a runny paste, massage into the hair & scalp, leave on for up to 5 mins & rinse out.
Healthy Hair Conditioner Smoothie
Smoothies aren’t just for conditioning us from the inside we can condition our hair from the outside with them too!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of liquid such as a strongly infused herb tea (for your hair type), or floral water, coconut water or milk, fresh fruit or veg juice.
- 1-2 Tbsp of herb infused oil, jojoba oil, or melted coconut oil
- Banana, avocado, Irish moss paste, chia seeds, flax seed flour, slippery elm powder, aloe vera gel, yogurt, honey, vanilla pod or powder, kelp powder.
- 1 Tbsp green clay, rhassoul powder or other clay, lemon or lime juice (oily hair)
- a few drops of essential oil
Directions:
Choose any of the above and add it to your blender, vary the amounts depending on how much hair you have. Blend to create a thick paste, smooth onto freshly washed, warm hair and leave for as long as possible. (You can put a shower hat on your head to look a little more socially acceptable!)
When ready, rinse out thoroughly. For the final rinse add a few spoons of herb-infused cider vinegar (or plain cyder vinegar) into a jug of warm water and run it through your hair.
Now gently pat your hair dry with a towel, apply a little coconut oil & a few drops of essential oil to condition, tame & fragrance. Then confidently enjoy your lovely, lively & luscious locks!
About Heather Gardner:
Heather is a lifelong 3rd generation vegetarian, Raw Food and Kundalini Yoga Teacher. She began learning about herbs and wild foods at a young age from her herbalist mother while growing up on a remote mountainside in Ireland and delving into the world of foraging, potion making, nutrition, and raw & living foods as a teenager searching for answers to numerous health challenges.
At 20 she began learning and experimenting with the Raw Lifestyle and in 2005 she began to move onto a raw diet and has transitioned to a balanced high raw diet over time. She has studied Natural Nutrition and many other healing modalities and has over 10 years experience as a Natural Remedies, Health & Beauty manager and Brand manager within the UK Natural Products industry, and helping people to achieve better health naturally. Now she lives in the west of Ireland, teaching and running her business www.consciousearthcompany.com as well as running after her feisty little toddler!