Diy Product Experiments

[Sharpened]

Experiment #1

Oatmeal Wash and Coffee Rinse

After I read a post singing the praises of oat protein and another about oat and almond oil gel, my mind conjured an oatmeal hair mask with green tea and SAA. I decided to do some research. The Natural Haven had an article discussing cleansing methods and oat water cleansed the hair very well. Teayii Kah broke down why this is possible. LHC documented the results of use—more conditioning than cleansing was the consensus.

Early morning allowed for no “Why/what are you doing?” comments. The old oats relieved the wasting-food guilt, so I measure out 1¼ cups (4 oz). Into a pan filled with 2 qtrs of barely boiling distilled water they went. The saponin action appeared right away:

Fresh coffee cooling:

It boiled for 3 minutes, then the heat turned off and a stick blender applied. More foam appeared:

With a fine-mesh strainer, I tried to filter it into a pitcher older than my marriage. No bueno—too much meal, too slow:

Check out that mucilage:

I grabbed a torn-up, old T-shirt to strain out the rest into my rinse bowl with some extra distilled water to thin it out. (Mental note: cheesecloth) I strained it a second time with the strainer, which went much faster, to remove finer meal bits. It had the consistency of warm caramel sauce:

After reading about and feeling the slippage, pouring it in the shower was a no-go. I am not explaining to DH how I hurt myself, why does the bathroom smell like oatmeal and what is in the measuring cup. I hate doing my hair at the sink because I am so messy. A towel clipped over my clothes was only going to help so much:

The idea was to catch the oat water as I poured it and repour (yes, it is a word) until I felt clean. Everything was ready:

Yeah, it was messy, running down my elbows, thick liquid and shed hairs landing within a 2-foot radius of the sink. I got a nice facial as well. At least it was lukewarm:

I put the pitcher down after saturation to massage and realize to my horror that it was only half empty—I had made too much. Crap. I was not going to save it for future use and scratch repouring.

I had to keep rinsing the sheds off my hands; that surprised me. Finger-detangling was attempted—fail, a tiny knot formed and I had no oil handy to work it out. I forgot to get a pic of it in my hair; I just wanted to finish and not destroy my camera.

The second dump had goopy sediment, felt soothing on my scalp. Rinsed with with warm water, my hair started that striped feeling I only get from shampoo or soap. I squeezed out excess water and did the coffee rinse. Ahh… instant softness! Multiple repours happened until I ran out of liquid. Made a mess with that too:

Squeezing out the excess, I put a plastic cap over it so it could continue to do its thing for 30 minutes (ended up being an hour, hungry). See the coffee drips pooling at the bottom?

I did my normal water and oil shower routine, only caught three sheds. Damp hair:

Seven hour to dry and my hair feels OK and the coils are a touch tighter than usual. It will take a few watering for the frizz to decrease:

The coffee rinse will be repeated sometime this month. The oat water, maybe in December or January.

Hopefully I get better at documenting this stuff.

 

[MzSwift]

Oh wow! Your hair looks nice and moisturized.

Sounds like the oat tea provided more cleansing for you. I may have to add this to my list of natural cleansing methods. I've also been wanting to incorporate oatmeal facial scrubs so this'll be a good excuse to stock up on the oats.

 

[Sharpened]

Oh wow! Your hair looks nice and moisturized.

Sounds like the oat tea provided more cleansing for you. I may have to add this to my list of natural cleansing methods. I've also been wanting to incorporate oatmeal facial scrubs so this'll be a good excuse to stock up on the oats.

If you have a NutriBullet, you can make colloidal oatmeal, which would make the process much easier. I don't, so I did what I did.

 

[IDareT'sHair]

Thank you for sharing your DIY results.

Congrats!

I have absolutely ZERO interest in creating my own products. ZERO.

Henna/Indigo is about as far as I am willing to go.

@Sharpened

 

[Sharpened]

Thank you for sharing your DIY results.

Congrats!

I have absolutely ZERO interest in creating my own products. ZERO.

Henna/Indigo is about as far as I am willing to go.

@Sharpened

With these allergies, I don't have much choice. I still hold out hope that a conditioner free of fatty alcohols and coconut oil derivatives may turn up in a search once day. At least it forces me to keep things simple.

 

[IDareT'sHair]

@Sharpened
I Applaud Your Efforts.

There's a lot you can do with Molasses, Honey, Bananas, Yogurt, Oils etc....the possibilities are endless.

 

[bluenvy]

You have beautiful curls.
You said in December you will wash with oats.
How will you wash your hair in between?

Also do you notice your hair curls better doing this method or do you usually have defined curls?

 

[Sharpened]

You have beautiful curls.
You said in December you will wash with oats.
How will you wash your hair in between?

Also do you notice your hair curls better doing this method or do you usually have defined curls?

Thank you. Right now, simply using castor oil and warm water has kept my hair and scalp clean. Castor oil is the main oil used in the oil cleansing method for the face. The coils are a happy side-effect.

I am hoping I got some strengthening benefit. So far, the detangling did not cause any breakage. The coils did get a touch tighter, but my hair feels the same.

 

[Sharpened]

Experiment #2

Oatmeal, Coffee, and Blackstrap Molasses Treatment

I have been brewing about 12 oz of coffee into a glass measuring cup containing 1/4 cup of blackstrap molasses. After thoroughly stirring it while hot (molasses is so thick), I let it cool... and make a mess pour it on my hair. I thought, since I need to do a protein treatment, maybe I could mix the oats with the coffee/molasses to thicken it. I bought pre-measured colloidal oatmeal (oat flour) to make the process easier:

The envelope had 1.5 oz of flour:

After pouring in the coffee mix, I took the hand-blender to it. Kinda messy:

I chose not to strain it. Once it became lukewarm, I poured it on my hair, close to the scalp, trying to keep it from flinging everywhere. It was an improvement:

It had the consistency of thin pancake batter. I literally scooped it from the bowl, massaged onto my hair and a lot of it stayed:

Ugh, I was wiping the leakage for over an hour. Either I need to buy some cotton coil or cut up an old towel to make bands that will block most of this crap. Good thing everyone here was asleep seeing as I looked like I got a vicious beat-down:

See the brown bits? Yeah, I should have strained it:

I should have waited until I got in the shower to take off the cap, but I wanted that pic.

Upon rinsing, oh, the softness! I had done a WO with castor oil the day prior to decrease the number of tangles and sheds. It was not needed; I had slip. My strands felt clean, almost like they wanted to squeak, but couldn't.

Most of the lumps rinsed out, except that bit there; DH picked it out for me:

I still had like 4 oz left; look at those lumps. Maybe I should have blended it multiple times:

The result, fully dry with a tiny amount of Suncoat gel scrunched in. My hair loved this treatment:

 

[larry3344]

Experiment #2

Oatmeal, Coffee, and Blackstrap Molasses Treatment

I have been brewing about 12 oz of coffee into a glass measuring cup containing 1/4 cup of blackstrap molasses. After thoroughly stirring it while hot (molasses is so thick), I let it cool... and make a mess pour it on my hair. I thought, since I need to do a protein treatment, maybe I could mix the oats with the coffee/molasses to thicken it. I bought pre-measured colloidal oatmeal (oat flour) to make the process easier:

The envelope had 1.5 oz of flour:

After pouring in the coffee mix, I took the hand-blender to it. Kinda messy:

I chose not to strain it. Once it became lukewarm, I poured it on my hair, close to the scalp, trying to keep it from flinging everywhere. It was an improvement:

It had the consistency of thin pancake batter. I literally scooped it from the bowl, massaged onto my hair and a lot of it stayed:

Ugh, I was wiping the leakage for over an hour. Either I need to buy some cotton coil or cut up an old towel to make bands that will block most of this crap. Good thing everyone here was asleep seeing as I looked like I got a vicious beat-down:

See the brown bits? Yeah, I should have strained it:

I should have waited until I got in the shower to take off the cap, but I wanted that pic.

Upon rinsing, oh, the softness! I had done a WO with castor oil the day prior to decrease the number of tangles and sheds. It was not needed; I had slip. My strands felt clean, almost like they wanted to squeak, but couldn't.

Most of the lumps rinsed out, except that bit there; DH picked it out for me:

I still had like 4 oz left; look at those lumps. Maybe I should have blended it multiple times:

The result, fully dry with a tiny amount of Suncoat gel scrunched in. My hair loved this treatment:

love your coils so pretty.

 

[Sharpened]

love your coils so pretty.

Thank you!

 

[CodeRed]

Experiment #2

Oatmeal, Coffee, and Blackstrap Molasses Treatment

I have been brewing about 12 oz of coffee into a glass measuring cup containing 1/4 cup of blackstrap molasses. After thoroughly stirring it while hot (molasses is so thick), I let it cool... and make a mess pour it on my hair. I thought, since I need to do a protein treatment, maybe I could mix the oats with the coffee/molasses to thicken it. I bought pre-measured colloidal oatmeal (oat flour) to make the process easier:

The envelope had 1.5 oz of flour:

After pouring in the coffee mix, I took the hand-blender to it. Kinda messy:

I chose not to strain it. Once it became lukewarm, I poured it on my hair, close to the scalp, trying to keep it from flinging everywhere. It was an improvement:

It had the consistency of thin pancake batter. I literally scooped it from the bowl, massaged onto my hair and a lot of it stayed:

Ugh, I was wiping the leakage for over an hour. Either I need to buy some cotton coil or cut up an old towel to make bands that will block most of this crap. Good thing everyone here was asleep seeing as I looked like I got a vicious beat-down:

See the brown bits? Yeah, I should have strained it:

I should have waited until I got in the shower to take off the cap, but I wanted that pic.

Upon rinsing, oh, the softness! I had done a WO with castor oil the day prior to decrease the number of tangles and sheds. It was not needed; I had slip. My strands felt clean, almost like they wanted to squeak, but couldn't.

Most of the lumps rinsed out, except that bit there; DH picked it out for me:

I still had like 4 oz left; look at those lumps. Maybe I should have blended it multiple times:

The result, fully dry with a tiny amount of Suncoat gel scrunched in. My hair loved this treatment:

Wow you hair is super defined and looks so thick and juicy.

 

[Sharpened]

Wow you hair is super defined and looks so thick and juicy.

Thank you! It only took me 11 years to figure out my hair and another year to realize I had, LOL.

 

[CodeRed]

Thank you! It only took me 11 years to figure out my hair and another year to realize I had, LOL.

It's ok. Pretty much everyone who posts on this board still is. We're in it together lady

 

[victory777]

@Sharpened! Have you made anything new with coffee? Looking to infuse coffee grounds and oil.

 

[Sharpened]

@Sharpened! Have you made anything new with coffee? Looking to infuse coffee grounds and oil.

Other than add blackstrap molasses and use an applicator bottle, no. I am planning to mix it with clay this winter.

Are you going to use as a pre-poo or overnight treatment? Those are the only two methods I would use it for because of the smell. Infusing on the stove is easy, but it takes a few hours on a low temp. I prefer to use a fine-mesh strainer since they do not absorb the oil like paper filters would. Nylon works, too, best when cool to the touch so you can wring out the oil. There are so many techniques to do it. Which are you planning to use?

 

[Gr8ness83]

Experiment #1

Oatmeal Wash and Coffee Rinse

After I read a post singing the praises of oat protein and another about oat and almond oil gel, my mind conjured an oatmeal hair mask with green tea and SAA. I decided to do some research. The Natural Haven had an article discussing cleansing methods and oat water cleansed the hair very well. Teayii Kah broke down why this is possible. LHC documented the results of use—more conditioning than cleansing was the consensus.

Early morning allowed for no “Why/what are you doing?” comments. The old oats relieved the wasting-food guilt, so I measure out 1¼ cups (4 oz). Into a pan filled with 2 qtrs of barely boiling distilled water they went. The saponin action appeared right away:

Fresh coffee cooling:

It boiled for 3 minutes, then the heat turned off and a stick blender applied. More foam appeared:

With a fine-mesh strainer, I tried to filter it into a pitcher older than my marriage. No bueno—too much meal, too slow:

Check out that mucilage:

I grabbed a torn-up, old T-shirt to strain out the rest into my rinse bowl with some extra distilled water to thin it out. (Mental note: cheesecloth) I strained it a second time with the strainer, which went much faster, to remove finer meal bits. It had the consistency of warm caramel sauce:

After reading about and feeling the slippage, pouring it in the shower was a no-go. I am not explaining to DH how I hurt myself, why does the bathroom smell like oatmeal and what is in the measuring cup. I hate doing my hair at the sink because I am so messy. A towel clipped over my clothes was only going to help so much:

The idea was to catch the oat water as I poured it and repour (yes, it is a word) until I felt clean. Everything was ready:

Yeah, it was messy, running down my elbows, thick liquid and shed hairs landing within a 2-foot radius of the sink. I got a nice facial as well. At least it was lukewarm:

I put the pitcher down after saturation to massage and realize to my horror that it was only half empty—I had made too much. Crap. I was not going to save it for future use and scratch repouring.

I had to keep rinsing the sheds off my hands; that surprised me. Finger-detangling was attempted—fail, a tiny knot formed and I had no oil handy to work it out. I forgot to get a pic of it in my hair; I just wanted to finish and not destroy my camera.

The second dump had goopy sediment, felt soothing on my scalp. Rinsed with with warm water, my hair started that striped feeling I only get from shampoo or soap. I squeezed out excess water and did the coffee rinse. Ahh… instant softness! Multiple repours happened until I ran out of liquid. Made a mess with that too:

Squeezing out the excess, I put a plastic cap over it so it could continue to do its thing for 30 minutes (ended up being an hour, hungry). See the coffee drips pooling at the bottom?

I did my normal water and oil shower routine, only caught three sheds. Damp hair:

Seven hour to dry and my hair feels OK and the coils are a touch tighter than usual. It will take a few watering for the frizz to decrease:

The coffee rinse will be repeated sometime this month. The oat water, maybe in December or January.

Hopefully I get better at documenting this stuff.

The detail in this post is pretty spectacular!

 

[victory777]

Other than add blackstrap molasses and use an applicator bottle, no. I am planning to mix it with clay this winter.

Are you going to use as a pre-poo or overnight treatment? Those are the only two methods I would use it for because of the smell. Infusing on the stove is easy, but it takes a few hours on a low temp. I prefer to use a fine-mesh strainer since they do not absorb the oil like paper filters would. Nylon works, too, best when cool to the touch so you can wring out the oil. There are so many techniques to do it. Which are you planning to use?

Prepoo or using it with a deep conditioner after rinsing out my henna. I want to try something other than green tea..... I've been researching the older threads for it; but I think it was you who mentioned the coffee most recently. Hmmm, I may use grapeseed oil and pour the coffee in a strainer sort of like a double boiler method and bottle me up some and refrigerate the leftovers. But I wanted to come over your way and talk it out. Did you notice any hair growth or reduced shedding? I've infused some rosemary oil and then sulfur oil a while back Curly Proverbz style. What works better for you?

 

[Sharpened]

Prepoo or using it with a deep conditioner after rinsing out my henna. I want to try something other than green tea..... I've been researching the older threads for it; but I think it was you who mentioned the coffee most recently. Hmmm, I may use grapeseed oil and pour the coffee in a strainer sort of like a double boiler method and bottle me up some and refrigerate the leftovers. But I wanted to come over your way and talk it out. Did you notice any hair growth or reduced shedding? I've infused some rosemary oil and then sulfur oil a while back Curly Proverbz style. What works better for you?

Most growth aids work for me one month then quit; the only exception was Surge. I had a growth spurt the first month doing the coffee soak and shedding did go down. My hair never gets hard like it did with tea. I added the blackstrap molasses for moisture and color (trying to tint approaching greys). Long term use, get back to me in a few month because all I have seen is people quit using it after a while, no explanation.

Rosemary is my favorite herb, the scent, wakes up my scalp and conditions my hair. I used to make chilled rosemary tea as a final rinse years ago. It is the only EO that can be used directly on the skin and I still use it heavily in my castor oil mix. I should test other herbs, but they don't smell as nice.

 

[victory777]

Most growth aids work for me one month then quit; the only exception was Surge. I had a growth spurt the first month doing the coffee soak and shedding did go down. My hair never gets hard like it did with tea. I added the blackstrap molasses for moisture and color (trying to tint approaching greys). Long term use, get back to me in a few month because all I have seen is people quit using it after a while, no explanation.

Rosemary is my favorite herb, the scent, wakes up my scalp and conditions my hair. I used to make chilled rosemary tea as a final rinse years ago. It is the only EO that can be used directly on the skin and I still use it heavily in my castor oil mix. I should test other herbs, but they don't smell as nice.

Thank You!! I most definitely will. My concerns with green tea also was the hardness. I have some coffee oil infusing. I've also infused rosemary with distilled water for a refresher spray also

 

[Sharpened]

Fermented Rice Water
I have wanted to try this one since I heard about it this summer. Some were calling this a shampoo, others a conditioner.

I had a 1/2-cup of cheap rice no one wanted to eat and mixed it with 2 cups of distilled water. It got cloudy the first time I stirred it, but let it sit an hour. Bamboo chopsticks are useful tools:

I gave it another stir and strained it into a wide-mouth Mason jar:

Since I am cheap, I stuck the rice into a zip bag and froze it for future use:

It fermented for about 40 hours before it gave off a slightly sour baby barf scent. I poured it into another Mason jar, leaving the dregs behind. I did not feel like using it that morning (busy), so I let it sit until I returned home. More sediment had appeared, so I pour it into yet another jar, lidded it and stuck it in the frig:

Let me see... I started on the 24th but did not use it until the 28th. I strained it again and put 5 fl oz into an applicator bottle, making a mess as usual. DH stole all my funnels for car fluids:

The good thing about using an applicator bottle is you can use it to suck up the liquid in the bowl and reapply it. I used most of that liquid, massaging it into dry hair and scalp until my curl pattern had relaxed. There was no stripped feeling, like with the oat water, so it is not a cleanser. The scent, very mild.

Plastic cap and towel went on for 30 minutes and I inverted for 4 of those minutes (yeah, I know, I am weird, kill two birds with one stone). Every so often, I felt a slight pinprick sting on my scalp (less than 10). Was that follicle/pores opening up? No idea:

I rinsed it out with warm water only and skipped using oil or anything else so I could better gauge the results. I finger-detangled a little, no slip, no lingering smell.

Hair coiled up without issue, it was like a light conditioning treatment without that trace of waxiness from normal conditioners. My scalp loved it, like I had used a moisturizing toner, light and refreshing. Oh yeah, I will be using this again. I have some black rice I can play with as well. My scalp became oily overnight; that was odd but I will take all the sebum I can get.

It also felt good on my forehead, so I will use the rest as a skin toner and make a fresh batch in a few days. I will have to figure out the timing of making this so I can use it for skin and hair. As you can see, my hair don't care:

Edit: Photobucket sucks.

 

[MileHighDiva]

 

[Sharpened]

@MileHighDiva I just watched that tonight!

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

@Sharpened, I adore you and your adventurous spirit!

You inspire me!

Next month I'm going to dip my toe into the DIY hair product pool and try to make something that can eventually replace the Soultanicals Hair Glide that I've come to find almost indispensable to my regimen. (I do not like the weird availability issues and the cost and shipping, however.)

I think I'm going to try LavishlyNatural's Fenugreek Smoothie and see how it does at detangling. I like the other reported benefits as well.



And I'm thinking about adding MSM and marshmallow root powder. I'm a little "scared" about trialing the MSM: I've been reading LHCF threads about it, and either folks rave about the shine and manageability it adds, or folks say it ruins the curl pattern.

You wouldn't now be tempted to try this before I can get to it, now would you? I kid, I kid!

Thank you again for sharing such detail about your DIY adventures.

 

[Sharpened]

And I'm thinking about adding MSM and marshmallow root powder. I'm a little "scared" about trialing the MSM: I've been reading LHCF threads about it, and either folks rave about the shine and manageability it adds, or folks say it ruins the curl pattern.

You wouldn't now be tempted to try this before I can get to it, now would you? I kid, I kid!

Thank you again for sharing such detail about your DIY adventures.

You're welcome! I take MSM for allergies and joints, so I never thought to try it on my hair and scalp, since there are so many other options. Oddly enough, trace amounts of MSM naturally occur in rainwater. With hi-po hair, you will have to be careful, less than a pinch for a start. You can always clarify if it dries you out.

I have thought about trying biotin on my scalp though.

 

[Saludable84]

I have rice water fermenting. I'll be using for my face during the week and the rest in my hair on wash day. See how this works out.

 

[Sharpened]

A slight update on the rice water: since I have rice sediment in the bottom of my jar, I am going to try refilling it with water equal to the amount I remove. That way I can use it more often without having to wait for it to ferment.

 

[Ajna]

@Sharpened I love your coils!

I actually have been playing with molasses in place of honey and I find I like it better. I tend to use it mainly in my clay wash, so it is like 4 tbsp of clay usually pink or rhassoul with 2 tbsp of jbco and 2 tbsp of molasses then I add hot water. So far this has been a great addition.

 

[Sharpened]

@Sharpened I love your coils!

I actually have been playing with molasses in place of honey and I find I like it better. I tend to use it mainly in my clay wash, so it is like 4 tbsp of clay usually pink or rhassoul with 2 tbsp of jbco and 2 tbsp of molasses then I add hot water. So far this has been a great addition.

Thank you! I love molasses as well. I need to make a coffee clay wash, but I still have half a bottle of TE Left Coast Lemon to use up.

 

[Sharpened]

Sweet herbal coffee rinse/soak #1
1 tb coffee
14 oz distilled water
¼ cup blackstrap molasses
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp catnip
1 tsp nettle
1 tsp sage

Put the herbs and BSM into the decanter for the coffee, brewing it over the other ingredients. After brewing, stir to dissolve the BSM and let it sit for a few hours, minimum two. Strain and place into an applicator bottle. Apply slowly to scalp, massaging it in, dampening hair. Place a plastic cap and towel over hair and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Refrigerate leftovers (I have used coffee mixes weeks old with no problem since caffeine does not evaporate). Rinse out and continue with normal wash routine. This can also be used as either a rinse between shampoo and conditioner, or a final rinse. The shed reduction should be noticed by the second wash.