Unlike most naturals who love the summer months and get the best hair during the summer, I hate the summer months when it comes to my natural hair. My hair always gets dried out, breaks, sheds and acts like a straight fool. Since going natural I always struggle during the summer to balance maintaining a low manipulation regimen and also providing my hair with enough moisture. This as you can imagine is hard due to having to constantly apply products or do co-washed to remoisturize my hair. I think...hope...pray...I have found the answer in the Indian herb, fenugreek.

I found out about fenugreek while reading about ayurvedic herbs on MopTopMaven which notes that Fenugreek Seed Powder - Prevents hair loss, promotes hair growth, helps strengthen hair shaft, light protein. Fenugreek is also called Methi. 


I had Fenugreek on hand so I got to mixing! [Which I purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs online]


My Fenugreek Treatment Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons Fenugreek (smells like maple syrup)
• 2 Tablespoons Honey (for moisture and shine)
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses (for strength)
• 1/2 Cup Yes To Tomatoes Conditioner (for moisture and to help make the paste smoother)

I mixed all these ingredients up as well as I could considering the fenugreek actually absorbs the liquids/oils and becomes like brownie dough. I literally had to mash it into my hair and smoothed it down. 

Before I tell you how well it worked, let me tell you what I learned.

• I shampooed my hair before applying the mix. While I still believe you should shampoo before applying deep conditoners, I also realized why MopTopMaven shampooed after. Ya'll after 2 rinses without shampoo, I had to do 2 rinses with shampoo to get all the paste out of my hair. I'm still not certain I got it all out, in fact I know I didn't.
• Don't apply the mix to twists. I always shampoo my hair while twisted to prevent tangles and decrease shedding. This made it very hard to get the paste shampooed off of the base of the twist. Next time I will apply the mix to loose hair and then twist it up and untwist each section to shampoo. 
• Take full advantage of my handheld showerhead. Full. Advantage.
• I kept this mix in entirely too long. I didn't just let it sit overnight but, I went 12+ hours. Don't judge me ya'll, I was busy.  Next time I'll rinse either after 1 hours or in the morning.

Final thoughts on Fenugreek:

I loved the results! My hair wasn't soft but, it wasn't dry, it was strong. I believe the fenugreek alos helped my hair absorb more moisture because since the treatment my hair has been staying moisturized longer. One unexpected change was with shrinkage. My hair is hanging longer and shrinking up less. Even with all this humidity my twistouts are defined and full! I have seen less breakage and less shed hair. The real test will be on wash day but, when I co-washed I saw very little shedding a less broken hairs.

I will be doing this treatment again only next time I plan to add hibiscus to the mix. Hibiscus Petal Powder - Conditions hair, promotes healthy hair growth, prevents hair loss, thickens hair. 

This is picture of my current hairstyle 1 week after using the Fenugreek, a 3 day old twistout:

As my hair gets longer as well as older, I find that using products/herbs that strengthen my strands is essential. although I am quite gentle and have a low manipulation regimen; the older my ends get the weaker they get as well and the summer heat is not helping. I got something for this 2011 summer though and it's this fenugreek! I love my results, even if the wash out process was horrible at best but, that was due moreso due to human error....or slowness.

I think I will try adding it to my next batch of shampoo bars and also to my rinse out conditioners along with hibiscus. 

Have you tried fenugreek? Did you like it?

For Your Body & Hair Butters Visit: DIY Hair Care Products

Deep conditioning is optional and the need for it varies depending on how often you manipulate and handle your natural hair. If you use heat frequently, deep conditioning your often may be the key to maintaining healthy hair without heat damage. Also, if you protective style often using styles that don't allow you to fully moisturize your hair. This is especially true for those that use synthetic hair or weaves in their protective styles.

Now, what exactly is deep conditioning? Deep conditioning is when you apply a rinse out product or products to your hair that will penetrate the hair shaft and give your hair a boost of moisture or much needed protein. Think of it as a "red bull" for your hair. These treatments give your hair extra minerals and nutrients to help your hair remain strong. These treatments as I said are especially important for those who put a lot of stress on their tresses.

Here is a DIY Natural Hair Deep Conditioner Recipe, I use and you can try it as well.

3 Tablespoons of conditioner

2 Tablespoons Molasses (benefits of molasses)

2 Tablespoons Honey (Using Honey)

1 Tablespoon Wheatgerm Oil

Mix well and apply to whole head. I use a plastic bag/cap and then a shirt as heat (body heat). You can sit under the dryer. I wouldn't advise sleeping with this mixture due to the dark brown color and it may stain your pillow.

After applied and then with plastic cap- t-shirt situation:

You can add more to this Deep Conditioner or use as is. Be sure not to use any ingredients that are sealants, you want as much of this treatment to penetrate the hair shaft as possible. To keep this mix from being too runny, you can always add more conditioner to thicken the mix up. I use this mix in the place of my rinse out conditioner, so after I rinse it out, I move on to detangling and styling. I rinse the conditioner out while my hair is still twisted.

After rinsing the Deep Conditioner Out:

This deep conditioner is the bomb.com I'm telling you! It leaves my hair soft, shiny and strong! I love it! Here are some pics of my shed hair for a comparison as well.

Left: Normal weekly detangling session. Hair was just detangled 7 days prior.
Right: Detangling session done AFTER deep conditioning on hair that had not been detangled in over 2 weeks! I loss more hair in the 1 week than the 2 weeks!

Try the deep conditioner out and let me know how it works for you! I love it and I hope you will too!

This is my hair after detangling (which was a breeze) and re-twisting for a twist out and placing the twists in a bun. Check the shine!

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back for the twist out results!

Do you deep condition? If so, how often and what do you use? Questions? Leave them in the comment box!

Thanks!

For Your Body & Hair Butters Visit: DIY Hair Care Products

Sometimes too much knowledge can get over whelming and confusing. This is something that seems to be occurring in the haircare community. As many of us learn how to take better care of our hair we look to forums, youtube, and blogs. There is a plethora of haircare knowledge sweeping the web and just recently, bookstores. There seems to be a lot of product junkies still struggling with their hair and a lot of women that think "natural hair is hard to take care of" not true at all.

Here is a great youtube video by "msvcharles" about how simple taking care of your hair can be. I agree with her completely, it doesn't take much at all to take are of your hair.

Checklist:

1. Shampoo- if you use an "all natural" soap to wash your body, try it on your hair and see how your hair reacts. I use Nubian Heritage soaps for my body and surprisingly they also work well for my hair.

2. Conditioner- I use the Giovanni line. I honestly think it you figure out what your hair needs this is a simple choice. Dry, itchy scalp? Get a conditioner with tea tree oil. Slow hair growth? Try one with peppermint. Read reviews and narrow it down to 2 or 3 companies.

3. Leave-In conditioner- You need your leave-in to moisturize so, you need to look for water as the first ingredient. If you feel like you can't find a leave-in you like, try a water and vegetable glycerin mix (50/50). Water and glycerin are usually the first 2 ingredients in most leave-ins.

4. Sealant/oil: Your options are endless here. You can use shea butter, mango butter, avocado oil,olive oil, coconut oil, vitamin e oil, the list is endless. Some oils are lighter than others and even penetrate the hair shaft to moisturize (coconut oil).

5. Gel- This is optional. You can even make your own gel with flax seeds or use aloe vera gel.

This is just a starter list. Of course you will need to do your research and find out what your hair likes.

One thing I will suggest is making sure you are not sending you hair on a PH roller coaster ride as Kimmaytube calls it. Here is her video on this: PH Balance. This is something I suggest being aware of when you start mixing ingredients and using "homemade" hair recipes. Just because it is natural doesn't mean it is great for our hair.

Also, the products found in the stores are usually already tested for PH, this is why most companies suggest you use their shampoo along with their conditioner.

Remember, women have been growing their hair since the beginning of time and they didn't have all these product lines, they kept it simple.

I just got back in town after being in dry Texas for a week and a half and my hair is so dry... I wore it in a ponytail the whole time I was there and didn't put a lick of conditioner in it. Sad right? I took my conditioner but the bees were so bad out there that I didn't even want to risk being stung (they were all over me when I wore lotion).

What I plan to do it is do a deep condition with honey, Castor oil, and a cheap conditioner (white rain tropical coconut), shampoo, condition and then do an oil rinse (more on that later).

I am not sure if I will detangle after the shampoo or after the deep condish...

Benefits of honey for hair: It is high in vitamins and minerals, and has wonderful benefits for the skin and hair. Honey is a good humectant and emollient, serving as a good moisturizer and conditioner.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/honey-hair-conditioner.html##ixzz11W9LmlMs

Benefits of Castor oil: Castor oil is a humectant as it draws moisture into the hair and skin. Applying castor oil on hair will keep it looking soft, shiny and strong.
Read more: http://skinverse.com/castor-oils-many-uses-for-beautiful-skin-and-hair.html











Of course do your own research to see if these products are great for you. I find that using Castor oil for my oil rinse and them putting a towel over my hair (kind of like a steam treatment) makes my hair really soft. In the morning all I do is add some coconut oil (because it is so light) and bun my hair.

Doing all of this from beginning to end (deep condition to bun) take about an 1 hr.; detangling included.

As you can see I like to Keep It Simple!