DIY : Khadi Shikakai Deep Conditioner with Henna and Sheabutter

Shikakai Sheabutter Henna - DIY natural hair care recipes - indian hair care - ayurvedic medicine plants
 

Hello Lovelies! 

I hope you all had a blessed week and enjoyed the snow, build a snow man or watched a lovely movie! We just had the most wonderful snowy weekend! Comes snow comes dry hair for me though haha. I have not incorporated Shikakai in my weekly deep conditioning treatments yet so I came up with this simple and wonderful recipe that I want to share with you guys! You can switch up the ingredients to your usual liking as always. 

About Shikakai:

• Acacia concinna is the name of the plant and grows in central and south india.
• the fruit is named shikakai and one of the ajurvedic plants.
• it does not lather but still cleanses, has a low ph which is great!
• it is a natural conditioner and detangler
• has anti-dandruff benefits

If you have never worked with Henna or Shikakai I want to give you a little heads up first : 

- this might get messy. Do it on your free weekend when you are not in a hurry and in nobodies way

-secondly you might want to do it when your significant other is not around ^^ Most men don't get it why we put a muddy mass on our hair. Of course they do not have to know that we do not wake up looking like we do. Let's keep the illusion and magic :o) 

So here we go,

Shikakai - Sheabutter and Henna Treatment

Note: I used colourless ''Henna" which is basically not Henna but Cassia. If you have black hair you can use ''black henna'' = indigo or simple red henna for a slight red colour tint. If you have super light hair you might want to skip the henna part altogether. 

• 3 tablespoons of shikakai powder
• 2 tablespoons of cassia powder
• 1 tablespoon of sheabutter
• 50 ml hot boiling water

Mix until it has a smooth texture just like yoghurt, let it cool down to room temperature and apply especially to your ends and dry spots on damp hair. Rinse after 15 min. 

Et voila - lots of volume, shine and thanks to sheabutter smoother hair!

Where to get shikakai? Have a look at Khadi's website. You can order sheabutter at behave, which is a great online resource for oils and butters and essential oils as well as herbal extracts. As for henna, indigo, cassia - check your local health food store or oriental shop for very affordable good quality henna (turkish, indian or arabic). Try to not buy anything with picramate in it.

Shikakai natural hair care recipe for very long hair! 

What do you think about alma and shikakai? Messy or worth the hassle? I love the indian cleaning herbs so much!

DIY: Herbal Hair Rinse Recipe

Hello Lovelies!

Herbal hair rinses are a fantastic way to take care of your scalp health and add beneficial shine and colour boosts. My favourite rinse is the mint rinse - it refreshes my scalp and leaves my hair very shiny. Creating your own hair rinse is super easy, affordable and a very nice and relaxing ritual that iIlike to do every sunday. Ladies - if you do not pamper yourself trust me - no one will ;) Plus you feel like a little gypsy witch working on your herbal secrets , haha. Preparing every rinse is easy and I use the same method all the time only the herbs I use differ depending on my mood.

How to Prepare your Rinse

- If possible try to use fresh herbs. Wash as needed and remove roots if necessary and boil with 1 l of hot water - cover the top so that the essential oils can not escape too easily.

- Let it sit and cool down to room temperature for a while.

- I like to add one tablespoon of raw organic honey to add shine to my hair.

- As well as 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar for increased shine and less knots. Balanced the ph of your scalp as well.

- Lately I have been adding 2/3 drops of my favourite essential oil (bloodorange at the moment!) as well for a nice smell! 

Just wash and condition your hair as you would do normally and then at the end pour your herbal hair rinse over your head and let it sit for 2 minutes. Rinsing the herbal hair rinse out is optional sometimes I do sometimes I don't :o) . 

Herbs you can use

• Hibiskus:  Red Heads like me anywhere? - use hibiskus tea for intensified red streaks! 
• Black Tea:  Great for brunettes and black haired beauties! Gives additional colour shine but might dry out hair of used for a very long time because black tea has like henna astringent effects. 
• Chamomile: Boosts up your blonde hair and is antiseptic if you have scalp issues or sensitive skin. 
• Cat Nip: Shine booster and makes your hair incredible soft and fluffy. I don't know how this works but it does work like a charm. Plus your cats will love your hair too ^^ 
• Mint: Refreshes and balances an oily scalp. You can combine Rosemary as well for a wonderful fresh and vitalising scent!
• Ginger: Adds shine and lets your scalp tingle in a wonderful fresh way! Helps with oily hair. 

These are my personal recommendations that I have used and liked so far. Your possibilities are endless I do think a lavender rinse would be a great idea as well - I still have to try this one out yet. I would love to hear your experience and recipes if you love herbal rinses like I do!

Flechtwerk: Throwback Thursday

Hello Lovelies!

Today's topic is Throwback Thursday! Oh so important and famous since Instagram and the Facebook age! A lot of people are very surprised that my hair was not always so very long. In fact in the past my hair was mostly a little past my shoulders. The shortest my hair has ever been was until my ears. I am glad I do not have photo proof of that! 

As a little kid my hair cut was a very short bob with a full fringe. Until primary school my hair was very thick, silky and golden blonde and pin straight! It started to become curly when I was in high school. During high (16 yrs) school I had my hair mostly layered and a little past my shoulders. My natural colour was always a coppery brown tone as seen above in the picture! The blond streaks are not natural but the start of my blonde period ^^ Like every other girl that time I would get blonde highlights once a month until my hair was all bleached blonde, super dry and damaged. But we learn these things just after we passed the high school period. When I look at the picture I do miss my big curly hair a lot! With the length I have now and no layeres my hair never curls as much now sadly.. 

From the blonde period (18 yrs) I only have very few and very bad quality pictures... But I think you get the picture of me with my strawy bleached hair! I am so glad I learned so much about hair care now! But even with the very bad quality pics I can tell how much the light blonde colour washed me out for sure! 

I am excited so check the girls blogspost, Heike, Nixenhaar, Wuscheline, Lenja and Nessa  ! 

Our next topic will be the french winless hair do and online at the 15th of February!

I would love to hear about your hair crimes! What did you do in the past? ^^

BTW - did read about my hair journey yet? Click here for a full overview! 

Review : Organic Rose Conditioner by URTEKRAM

Hello Lovelies!

As you know I am on a never ending quest to find the perfect conditioner and I love to try new brands and formulas out! My newest discovery is actual an old love - URTEKRAM! In the past I have used their Aloe-Vera line, Shampoo and Conditioner. As it happens I completely forgot about URTEKRAM until lately while I was standing at my local Whole-Foods store in search of a new conditioner. I would like to tell you a few things about the danish organic company URTEKRAM first.

''A little about Urtekram’s care products

Since the 1970’s, Urtekram has manufactured pure and natural body and hair care, and we have since the beginning been aware of the fact that the body absorbs everything we treat it with – as it absorbs everything we eat.

Thus, all Urtekram’s care products are:

• Certified organic with the COSMOS ORGANIC certification of Ecocert Greenlife
• Without endocrine disrupting parabens and synthetic preservatives
• Made with vegetable ingredients (however, our lip gloss contains beeswax)
• Without petrochemical ingredients
• Not tested on animals ''

source: www.URTEKRAM.com

The Rose Conditioner is certified by Ecocert and cruelty free as well as vegan. 

Incis: Aqua, aloe barbadensis leaf extract*, glycerin**, cetearyl alcohol, coco-caprylate, glyceryl caprylate, lecithin, olus, sodium cetearyl sulfate, cetyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate se, rosa damascena extract*, pelargonium graveolens oil*, citric acid, magnolia officinalis bark extract, citronellol, geraniol, limonene, linalool, tocopherol, beta-sitosterol, squalene.

The conditioner is based on Aloe Vera which is a big plus! It contains glycerine, rose extract and olus oil which is rapeseed oil. No proteins for those who do not like proteins in their conditioner! The conditioner is good for dry hair and I would say it is medium rich both suitable for very dry, dry and normal hair in my opinion. It does not weight your hair down and it defines my curls very nicely. A huge plus is the smell : it does smell like fresh wild roses. I absolutely love the scent! It does stay in my hair for a while though not very long. It helps detangling and the amount you need to use is average in my opinion, it is neither a very thick nor a very thin conditioner. 

To sum it up - a great conditioner with a heavenly smell which will moisturise your hair nicely. I am excited to try out the Rose Shampoo as well. Definitely a recommendation from me if you are looking for a safe uncomplicated conditioner with good ingredients. They have a fragrance free line as well that I am excited to try out especially the skin-care products. 

Empties : December

Empties December - still on the quest of perfect natural foundation

Hello Lovelies,

1.Balea Professional Brown Shampoo 1-2 Euro, 200 ml
A good solid shampoo that lathers up very well and smells heavenly like caramel. It is enriched with brown pigments and gives your hair an insanely shine boost! It was gentle on my scalp and did not cause dandruff or irritation. It cleans so thoroughly that I only needed to wash my hair every 5-6 days instead of 3 days. It contains no silicones but some peg derivates that smooth your hair and might dry out your hair if used for a long time. I like to switch it up every now and then.
Repurchase? At the moment no but in a while sure!

2.Alverde Glanz Spuelung 2-3 Euro 200 ml
The Alverde Shine Conditioner is a staple in my hair care as well as in many other natural beauty bloggers, Bobby uses it forever now and especially to shave her legs! It smells very nice and sweet like oranges and banana and gives my hair a nice shine. It is not too good in detangling but that is normal for a silicone free conditioner.
Repurchase? Yes. 

3.Isana Med Urea 5% 2 Euro 250 ml
This is a new shower gel that I tried out. I recently got psoriasis after a very very stressful exam period. Happily my elbow patches are gone now and that is due to the Isana Urea Series. I am using their body lotion with 10% Urea as well and also their face cream duo. It you have cracked dry itchy atopic skin I can highly recommend this brand. If you live in a corner of the world where Isana med is not available you can buy the Eucerin product series - Isana is just a low budget version of these. I have used Eucerin in the past and the priciest are very good - available at most pharmacies and well a little pricier of course. By the way a similar series does exist at DM - but I have to say their products are not rich enough for my dry skin.
Repurchase? Yes

4. Alverde Cream to Powder Make Up in 01 3-4 Euro
This version got discontinued! It was my favourite foundation because it was rich enough for my skin and light enough for my skin tone! I am a NC05 measured by MAC and this means most foundations don't work for me because of the colour. My alternative is just at the left corner :
Repurchase? Discontinued :(

5. Alverde Mineral illuminating Foundation Stick in 01 Naturelle
This foundation stick is my new substitute. It covers up nicely, is very creamy and oily which is great for my skin. The coverage is really good and I get a wear of 6 hours with it. The only downside is the funky fragrance they used - really weird and sweet. At first I thought my product might have gone bad! The second downside is the colour it does not match my skin tone and is a little too dark for me sadly. Also I have to say that I used it up pretty quickly I think it did not last more than 3 weeks which is a bit quick in my opinion!
Repurchase? Yes If I don't find a lighter coloured product.

Since I am still on the quest of a good foundation for very fair and dry skin I would be very happy to hear your recommendations!

Morning Glory: Ayurvedic hot Lemon Water

Hello Lovelies!

Hot lemon water has been in my morning routine for some time now. I like to wake up a little earlier than I have to and take my time during the morning in order not to rush. It is better for your body and soul believe me :) It might sound weird to drink hot lemon water on an empty stomach every morning but it is really beneficial for your health for sure! 

The hot water will get your digestive system really going and helps to eliminate toxins. It gently flushes your kidneys and the acid might help in preventing bladder infections because it will lower the ph of your urine. The Vitamin C is an important Vitamin that plays a huge role in fighting colds and helping your immune system. I think this is very important during the cold flu season. Everyone is coughing and sneezing including me of course :o) .  And if you drink tab water like me to avoid buying plastic bottles and trying to help the environment it will neutralise any hard water you might have. Also it tastes really yummy in my opinion - I love everything with a slight sour edge. 

All you have to do is mix a hot glass of water with the juice of half a lemon. To be extra kind to yourself and your body please use organic lemons. I feel always very energetic and active after my lemon water!

In ayurvedic medicine the hot lemon water is supposed to eliminate ama which is basically part of the bacterial muzine and well digestive 'slime' that is produced by the colon cells in your digestive system.

I am so excited about ayurvedic medicine and have been researching a lot and incorporating into my daily life. I will share the progress with you guys and together we might make a small step into a better healthier future :)

Note - How about heat and Vit. C ?

Don't worry about Vitamin C and heat! Vitamin C gets damaged at 190 degrees, so even boiling water (100 degrees) will not harm Vitamin C which is basically an ascorbic acid molecule.