Welcome friends! Today I want to walk you through this wonderful addition to your wash day routine. Having cleansed hair follicles is a part of maintaining healthy hair and promoting hair growth. Product build up and dead skin cells accumulate on the scalp leading to clogged follicles, dull greasy hair, and slowed hair growth. I recommend using this scrub once a week or once every two weeks, but once a month is certainly good as well. Something is better than nothing, am I right?
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbs Nourishing Oil
1 tsp Honey (optional)
1/2 tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
3-4 drops of each Essential Oil (optional) Rosemary is particularly good for hair growth.
There are a variety of sugar types that you can use for this recipe. I prefer to use the fine brown sugar, but you can use most of what you have on hand. Examples: natural cane sugar, coconut sugar, granulated sugar, etc. Anything with some grit to it.
Nourishing oils can include: Coconut, Olive, Avocado, Sweet Almond, Black Castor Oil, Jojoba, Apricot Kernel, etc. If you have fine oily hair, I suggest sticking with something lighter like the almond or jojoba oil. If you have thicker drier hair, something like the black castor oil or olive oil would would nicely. However, whatever you have on hand, will do the job.
When picking out apple cider vinegar, try to find one that is raw with 'the mother'.
If you decide to use honey, it is best to use raw honey.
Instructions:
1. Combine the sugar, oil, apple cider vinegar, and essential oils in a small glass dish or jar.
2. Mash the ingredients together until a scrub forms.
3. If you are going to add the optional honey, add it now, and mash in into your mixture.
Apply one to two quarter-size amounts of scalp scrub to damp hair. Using your fingertips, avoiding your fingernails, gently massage the scrub into your scalp in a circular motion. You can also use a scalp brush for this. Massaging the scalp increases circulation and exfoliates which helps stimulate hair growth. Allow the scrub to hang out on your scalp for several minutes (up to 20). After allowing the mask to set, rinse thoroughly and cleanse with shampoo. Make sure to rinse thoroughly. If you find that any oils or build up are being left behind, add baking soda to your shampoo to make a paste. Use this on the top part of your hair where you get the most oily.
Tips:
I like to use this in the shower. It is quite messy and this helps contain the mess. However, you can apply this lounging in the bath or spray down the top of your head and apply in a space where you don't mind cleaning it.
I like to use apple cider vinegar in this recipe because it is something I always have on hand, but you could also substitute with lemon juice.
If you have color-treated hair use apple cider vinegar over lemon juice since lemon juice can affect the color.
Adding baking soda to your shampoo will help get any excess build up left. Rinse your hair thoroughly.
Best essential oils for your hair: Rosemary, Peppermint, Lemongrass, Thyme, Tea Tree, Cedarwood, and Clary Sage.
If you have leftovers, pop a lid on your jar, and store in the fridge up to a month.
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How often should you do this for optimal results?
I've come back to this article multiple times and thought it was about time I left a comment. It's without doubt the best DIY scalp scrub I could find online, so thank you Lea! In response to the coconut oil comment, I think it just depends on your hair type. From my own anecdotal experience, it's only good for people who have dry, high porosity hair. If you want to nourish your scalp after the scrub, it's really worth looking into FoliPrime Drops Amazing stuff. It reduces inflammation / dryness & promotes hair follicle regeneration for stronger, healthier hair. Other than that, I just use a little bit of jojoba oil and always see really good results.
If you've never put coconut oil on your hair before, do a test strand before putting it on all of your hair.
Some hair reacts very, very horribly to coconut oil. icr the science of it, but for some of us, it will turn your hair into a wretched mess of straw. sauce: my hair
Many moons ago, I very excitedly used some delicious-smelling coconut oil on my hair, instead of my normal oil. I thought my tailbone length hair was /ruined/. It turned into literal straw. I didn't know if it would ever get better, but it did. Years later, I found out the science of how/why it happened, and that it wasn't just me. (sorry I can't recall…