HAIR PAMPERING TIME

I love concocting and abide by almost the same principles for cooking & skincare.

My hair needed serious pampering tonight so I gathered whatever I had at home to treat it and here is what I did. Some of the ingredients are from my garden to show you how fresh the ingredients are.

Please read through:

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE TEA

475g freshly boiled water 35g apple cider vinegar (acv) 15g fresh bay leaves from my garden

2g fresh rosemary sprigs from my garden

FOR THE “MAYONNAISE”

52g banana (without the skin)

20g unrefined palm kernel oil

20g shea oil

14g egg yolk

12g fresh root ginger (without the skin)

10g shine oil

9g moringa seed powder (or moringa leaf powder)

6g fresh garlic (without the skin)

1. Bruise the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs to release the aroma and put in a glass jug (this helps to retain the heat).

2. Pour the acv over the herbs.

3. Add the freshly boiled water and stir to incorporate. Cover the mixture with a cling film and set aside.

4. Wash your hair with authentic African black soap. Towel dry but leave the hair wrapped up whilst you mix up your “mayonnaise”.

5. Blend all the ingredients for the mayonnaise till smooth. Massage your scalp before applying the mixture – do not comb through. This mixture was thick enough for my rather thick Afro hair. Make sure you cover every strand.

6. Wear a shower cap and keep your hair warm preferably under a hooded hair dryer for 30 minutes. This method can be quite dehydrating so make sure you give yourself 3 x 10minutes intervals – drinking enough water in between.

7. Rinse your hair thoroughly with warm water. Strain the “tea” and use as the final rinse.

As it is too late now, I have decided to leave the hair to dry naturally and oil it in the morning.

GOURMET TREATMENT FOR THE HAIR

My hair is constantly in braids these days as I find it easier to manage. However, this can play havoc on your hair with the constant tugging and can lead to traction alopecia. With this in mind, I tend to feed my hair with nutrients both internally and externally to help combat this.

My intensive treatment tonight took about 2 hours in total.

These are the ingredients I used - please read through:

• 1 large avocado - I used fuerte as it is soft and very easy to puree
• 1 x 400ml coconut milk - the only listed ingredients were coconut + water
• 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp of micronized rhassoul clay
• 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

I pureed the avocado, coconut milk and olive oil together. I split the batch into 4 parts and froze the remaining 3 in little pouches for later use.

I added the rhassoul to the batch I was using tonight and massaged it in my hair - not forgetting the scalp. This was done after I had shampoed my hair with authentic African Black soap.

The rhassoul mixture was left on my hair for 1½hours under a shower cap and a heavy towel for insulation. Rinsed the whole concoction out of my hair. My final rinse was the apple cider vinegar diluted in enough water.

My rather kinky afro hair is now soft, shiny, healthy and ready for the next set of braids.