Natural hair care- what you need to know

Natural hair care options:

There are many different options for hair care.  Make sure you choose the one that works best for your schedule and your hair.  Everyone is built differently, so what works for one person may not work well for another. Here are some options:

1.)     The easiest and most common is an apple cider vinegar rinse.  It is antibacterial, anti fungal, pH balancing, and by nature vinegar is an amazing cleaner. To do this you literally just pour apple cider vinegar down your hair, let rest for three minutes, and rinse with water. 

2.)    If the apple cider vinegar just didn’t cut it for you there is a second option- castile soap. Castile soap is the most gentle soap available.  Real handmade castile soap only requires three ingredients: water, olive oil, and lye (lye traditionally was created by pouring water over wood ashes and collecting the liquid.  After this process the liquid becomes lye water and is ready for use).  I love this method!  It removed the build up, my hair felt healthier, and I wasn’t washing toxic chemicals down my drain- win-win-win! But I hated that it has no smell.  So, option three..

3.)    Natural shampoo.  Our natural shampoo is made with castile soap to clean, essential oils for scent and oil control, and jojoba oil to hydrate strands to prevent breakage.  If you need a little more conditioning then check out our natural detangler! (Its AMAZING!) Find our detangler at:  https://www.rustiqueessentials.com/body-care/honeysuckle-hair-detangler

Know the difference!

Traditional store bought shampoo:

 These shampoos are designed to strip out hair products, leave a strong smell on your hair so you can smell it all day, and last for years and years so that commercial buyers can store well for the commercial buyers. 

In order to accomplish these things they need:

·         emulsifiers to hold them together without separating

·         Stabilizers to ensure the consistency remains even

·         Loads of preservatives to ensure they will last through manufacturing, shipping across the country, storage in a warehouse, stocking the shelf phase, and consumer purchase phases (which can take years!)

·         Sodium laurel sulfate to ensure that it has a high lather/bubbling effect since there actually IS NOT ANY SOAP in store bought “soaps”.  They should be labeled as “detergents” which by definition the difference is

“Soaps are made of natural ingredients. Detergents are synthetic and much more versatile”.

     Don’t Believe me? Google it 

PROS: it is cheap and it will clean.

CONS: synthetic toxins build in you or your children’s body. When washed down the drain poison is distributed through the ground which washes into creeks. Then you, the cows, and the garden vegetables end up drinking it.  So we end up with chemicals in our food.

 Natural Shampoos:

These shampoos are designed to:

·         remove build up gently

·         wash out oil without stripping the scalp which actually causes an over production in sebum

·         be a quick process- no three minute waiting

·         be easy for the kids to use it so they aren’t fighting apple cider vinegar in their eyes.

How it is different than synthetic shampoos:

• NO stabilizers- you may have to shake your bottle every now an then.

• NO emulsifiers- quick shake will fix any separation.

• NO preservatives- this stuff lasts a long time, but not twenty years lol. It will eventually go rancid.

• NO sodium laurel sulfate- it will not produce an overly high lather like the synthetic shampoos- BUT that doesn’t mean that it isn’t cleaning your hair.

PROS: safe, non-toxic, great for all ages (not tear free though), will not poison ground water so you are helping keep the food we eat and water we drink pure plus you are keeping the synthetic build up out of your family’s bodies!

CONS: If used daily it will eventually weigh hair down as there are no strippers in it.  A good vinegar wash will help that.

The natural hair detangler we offer is AMAZING.  It is blended with glycerin (a natural super moisturizing bi-product of the soap making process), vitamin E, and of coarse essential oils.  It only takes a little bit though!  This is what we use in place of a conditioner.  We wash like normal, towel dry, spritz a couple of pumps of detangler on, and then brush it through.  No more goopy conditioners at my house!

If you need to do some split end damage control you can apply the detangler heavy on wet hair (focusing your sprays on the damgage), braid or wrap hair in a bun, and sleep on it. The next morning your hair will be so soft!!