My Hair Oils

These are the oils I'm using right now for my hair:

Khadi Balsam Hair Oil
"Ingredients: Brassica juncea (Mustard oil) • Citrus medica limonum oil (Lemon) • Sesamum indicum (Sesame oil) • Cinnamomum camphora (Camphor) • Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tee Tree oil) • Azadirachta indica (Neem)

Directions: Part your hair and apply oil all over the scalp. Massage the scalp gently with fingers in a circular motion so that the oil gradually gets absorbed into the scalp.

Leave for an hour or more before washing. Keeping it overnight is also very beneficial."

I don't use this very often. It smells horrible and I'm not sure if it actually does anything at all for my scalp. More info here.


Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
I oil the ponytail section of my dry hair with this in the morning, bun it and wash my hair in the evening. Love the smell!

Extra Virgin Jojoba Oil
I use this on the end of my sleeping braid, as a leave-in on damp hair to seal in moisture or as a de-frizz lotion on dry hair. A very good beginners oil since it's very light.

Argan Oil
I use this in the same way as I use the jojoba oil.

L'Oreal Professionnel Oilixier
Ingredients: Olea Europea Oil (Olive Fruit Oil), Isopropyl Palmitate, Argana Spinosa Oil (Argana Spinosa Kernel Oil), Lavandula Angustifola Oil (Lavender Oil), Linalool, Limonene

I love this stuff!! I use this as a pre-wash treatment on dry hair and a leave-in on damp hair. The lavender smell is SO soothing.

My Hair Care Routine

The Basics:

- I wash my hair every fourth day.
- I always wash my hair in the evening
- I never wash my hair under the shower because I love hot showers.

Note: Right now I don’t have any intention to extend the time between washings since I’m suffering from seborrheic dermatitis which still isn’t completely under control.


Coconut oil:
The day before my washing day I put a fingertip of coconut oil in the end of my sleeping braid. The next morning I oil the entire „ponytail section“ of my hair and put it up in a bun. This way my hair has the entire day to soak up as much of the oil as possible.

Note: With Coconut oil time matters. The longer you leave it on your hair the more your hair will benefit from it, especially if you’re using coney conditioners like I do!


Water Temperature:
I always wash my hair with rather cool water and finish with ice cold water. Brrrrr……!!!


Shampoo:
I shampoo twice with my sulfate-free, gentle, fragrance-free anti-dandruff shampoo which is a blessing for my lately super-sensitive scalp.


Conditioner:
After blotting out excess water with a towel I gently spread my conditioner all over my hair with my fingers (focusing of course on the ponytail section). I leave it on for a couple of minutes, then rinse it out carefully.
Cones please for this lady!


Drying my Hair:
I blot out most of the water with a towel then wrap my hair in an old cotten t-shirt. After 30 minutes or longer I put in my leave-in products for hair and scalp and let it air dry.
I NEVER blow dry my hair!!


Combing after washing:
Once my leave-in is in I gently finger comb my hair and leave it alone for as long as possible until I detangle it with a wide tooth comb.


Once a month:
I use my sulfate (SLES, anti-dandruff) shampoo and do my clarifying wash with apple cider vinegar to remove any product / hard water build-up I might have. Then I follow with a deep treatment.


In between washings:
I always braid my hair before I go to bed and put jojoba oil or one of my DIY leave-ins in the end of my braid to protect it from friction.
Sometimes, if my scalp is very itchy, I do a scalp massage with my anti-dandruff tonic.


Additional things:
- Sometimes I oil my scalp with my Khadi Oil (about 1-2 hours before washing)
- Sometimes I finish my routine with an ACV rinse (with cold, filtered water!)
- I sleep on a silk cloth which I wrap around my pillow
- I wear my hair up in buns 99 % of the time

Update: Scalp eczema

I've got good news! My husband just checked my scalp a couple of days ago and the brown/yellow covering which I had was completely gone. Just in case you don't remember, it looked like this:

Pretty gross, isn't it? lol

I still have a little bit of the regular dandruff (the little white flakes) but not as many as I used to have. My scalp sometimes does itch a little during the day but it's defintely at a level where I can say that I can live with it. All I did to get this problem under control was using a good anti-dandruff shampoo on a regular basis and to control the itching I used an anti-dandruff hair lotion about 3 times a week.

I hadn't oiled my hair with coconut oil before washing it for a couple of weeks after reading here that this might worsen the problem. Well, since this was the only site where I have read this while every other site seems to encourage the use of coconut oil when having scalp problems I have gone back to oil my hair. Today I have even oiled my scalp. Oh, how I have missed my coconut oil. We'll see how how my scalp reacts to it.

Kokosöl Projekt

Ich benutze mein natives Kokosöl ja schon lange als Pre-wash Treatment. Ich mixe es dazu 50:50 mit Olivenöl, erwärme es langsam auf meiner Duftlampe und gebe es mindestens eine Stunde vor dem Waschen in die trockenen Längen (ab dem Nacken) und Spitzen.

Gestern bin ich einen Schritt weiter gegangen und habe nach dem Waschen Kokosöl und meine Pantene Pro-V Repair & Care Spülung 50:50 gemischt, erwärmt und die Mischung dann in die Längen und Spitzen gegeben, Duschhaube drüber und etwa 5 Minuten einwirken lassen. Etwas Spülung (ohne Kokosöl) habe ich auch auf den Ansatz gegeben. Das ganze habe ich nicht über der Badewanne, sondern unter der Dusche gemacht, um zu vermeiden, dass ich das Öl auf den Ansatz bekomme. Das ist mir schonmal passiert mit dem Ergebnis, dass mein Ansatz dann natürlich gleich wieder fettig war.

Das Ergebnis ist super. Heute Morgen waren meine Haare super weich und zart, sogar meine sonst so furchtbar trockenen Spitzen!!

Das werde ich auf jeden Fall wiederholen und ich werde es auch einmal mit Olivenöl probieren.

Des Weiteren habe ich angefangen, mir abends Kokosöl in die trockenen Spitzen zu kneten. Ich hab jetzt endlich den Bogen raus wie viel (bzw. ‚wenig’) ich da nehmen darf. Am nächsten Morgen ist davon nichts mehr zu sehen.

Übrigens: Nach dem Waschen gebe ich, um die Feuchtigkeit in den Spitzen einzuschließen, 4 Tropfen Jojobaöl in die Spitzen.

Coconut oil project

I’ve been using my virgin coconut oil as a pre-wash treatment for quite a while now. I therefore mix it 50:50 with olive oil, warm it up slowly on my oil burner (?) and put it into my dry lengths (starting at the nape of my neck) and ends at least an hour before washing.

Yesterday I took another step and have mixed coconut oil and my Pantene Pro-V Repair & Care conditioner (50:50) after washing, warmed it up and put the mixture then into the lengths and ends, put a shower cap over my head and let it soak for about 5 minutes. I put a bit of conditioner (without coconut oil) on the roots as well. I didn’t do this over the bath tub but under the shower with my hair hanging down my back to avoid getting oil on top of my head. This happened to me once with the result that my roots of course immediately looked oily again afterwards.

The result was great. This morning my hair was super-soft and mellow, even my always horribly dry ends!!

I will definitely repeat this and I also want to try this using olive oil.

Apart from that I have started to put coconut oil into the ends every evening (on dry hair). I have finally figuered out how much (or ‘little’) I’m allowed to use. It’s completely gone the next morning.

By the way: After washing my hair I put 4 drops of jojoba oil into the ends to seal in moisture.