2019 Coffee Clay Chebe Onion Rice Tea Ayurv Acv Avj Challenge

[ElevatedEnergy]

Very cool, so you add citric acid as well as distilled water to your herbal mixes or do you just use one or the other?

I place 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid into a full gallon of distilled water. Whenever I make my tea rinses, I do a 1/1 ratio of tea to this citric acid/distilled water combo.
So say:
16 ounces herbal tea....
16 ounces of the CA/Distilled water combo

I hope thats not too confusing.
I'll come back and do a tea rinse tutorial once I wake up better & have my coffee. LOL I have a kettle full of it thats been steeping overnight, so it's nice and strong by now.

Citric Acid is a similar concept to ACV. It will balance the PH, close the cuticle leaving the hair with shine, and help remove soap scum from soapy cleansers. (black soap, or natural shampoo bars). So if you like ACV in your hair, you can use fhat instead. My scalp hates ACV no matter the concentration so this is a good alternative. Citric Acid can be found in Walmart near the canning/mason jars section. It's super cheap too.

 

[Ltown]

rice rinse today.

 

[IDareT'sHair]

@ElevatedEnergy
Loved the look of your Colorful Boquet of Flowers.

Good Stuff. I have some Malva Leaves I forgot about.

Can't wait to steep a pot and add some Rose Petals and some Hibiscus Flowers to my mix.

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

Conditioning Tea Rinse Tutorial:

To start, make a balancing solution:
Citric Acid/Distilled Water
1/4 tsp to 1 Gallon Ratio



Steep herbs (I like to boil distilled water, pour it over the herbs and allow them to steep overnight). Once steeped, I pour the tea in a measuring cup to see how many ounces I get then pour the CA/Distilled Water mixture in to match the amount in a 1/1 ratio.



Add a humectant. I prefer Sodium Lactate as it leaves a silky feel to the hair.



It also can pull way more moisture out the air than most humectants out there....like say glycerin. On my hair, glycerin attracts dirt and is super sticky/waxy....but if it works for your hair, by all means use it! I use 10 drops Sodium Lactate....you dont need much.

At this point, you can bottle it and use it as a moisturizer before sealing.



The Citric Acid will assist in preserving it while stored in the fridge. Another benefit of using Sodium Lactate is that it has tons of antioxidants so it can assist in preserving the spray as well. I would still use this up within 2 weeks though.

Or you can:
Get some reusable freezer safe containers.



Split the tea in half.


To each container, I add

1 tablespoon oil (any your hair likes)
EO's (5 drops each)



Then place in the freezer until ready to use.



I like the spouts on these containers. You can pop them open and pour the tea directly on your hair/scalp. They are $1 and some change at Walmart.

 

[IDareT'sHair]

@ElevatedEnergy
I may throw some Guava Leaves in with my Floral Blend.

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

@ElevatedEnergy
I may throw some Guava Leaves in with my Floral Blend.

Yummy! I have some Guava powder. I need some leaves in my life too!

 

[IDareT'sHair]

Yummy! I have some Guava powder. I need some leaves in my life too!

@ElevatedEnergy
Guava Leaves makes an excellent Tea Blend... (I am using Guava Leaf Tea.Bags btw)

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

@ElevatedEnergy
Guava Leaves makes an excellent Tea Blend... (I am using Guava Leaf Tea.Bags btw)

Tea bags would be even better since there is no straining involved.

Do you mind sharing where you purchased from, if you remember? I like the powder form, but its pretty sticky....tea bags would be awesome.

 

[IDareT'sHair]

@ElevatedEnergy
A/M/A/Z/O/N

 

[water_n_oil]

Nice tutorial @ElevatedEnergy . I haven't done a citric acid rinse in a while but I remember my hair being super soft afterward. Also nice to avoid the smell of acv though I've gotten used to it.

 

[BeautifulRoots]

I place 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid into a full gallon of distilled water. Whenever I make my tea rinses, I do a 1/1 ratio of tea to this citric acid/distilled water combo.
So say:
16 ounces herbal tea....
16 ounces of the CA/Distilled water combo

I hope thats not too confusing.
I'll come back and do a tea rinse tutorial once I wake up better & have my coffee. LOL I have a kettle full of it thats been steeping overnight, so it's nice and strong by now.

Citric Acid is a similar concept to ACV. It will balance the PH, close the cuticle leaving the hair with shine, and help remove soap scum from soapy cleansers. (black soap, or natural shampoo bars). So if you like ACV in your hair, you can use fhat instead. My scalp hates ACV no matter the concentration so this is a good alternative. Citric Acid can be found in Walmart near the canning/mason jars section. It's super cheap too.

Thanks for the explanation. I have some citric acid that I've never used mostly because I didnt know what to do with it, lol. I'll try your rinse method next wash day.

Would it work in leave ins or conditioners as well out of curiosity?

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

Nice tutorial @ElevatedEnergy . I haven't done a citric acid rinse in a while but I remember my hair being super soft afterward. Also nice to avoid the smell of acv though I've gotten used to it.

Yes, my hair is still super soft as well and I haven't moisturized since wash day. I will tonight though just out of habit. LOL

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

Thanks for the explanation. I have some citric acid that I've never used mostly because I didnt know what to do with it, lol. I'll try your rinse method next wash day.

Would it work in leave ins or conditioners as well out of curiosity?

I've seen both being sold with citric acid in them. I have a conditioner recipe in my head that I want to play around with soon too. LOL Just waiting on a few more raw ingredients to come in the mail.

 

[water_n_oil]

Feel like doing my hair again tonight so I'm gonna do Minimalist Beauty's green tea, acv & honey rinse followed by aloe juice and oil. My hair was in one of its best states when I was using these three things regularly.

 

[SunkissedLife]

I want a nice floral tea rinse so I threw every kind of dried flower I had in the house in my blend.

They are so colorful and pretty!

View attachment 445813

Passionflower, Hops, Rose Petals, Rose Hips, Rose Buds, Lavender & Calendula. I already know the shine from this will be crazy....flowers always give my hair so much shine....especially hops.

SideNote to myself mostly: LOL
Rinses always left my hair kind of rough feeling, but most hair friendly herbs/teas/powders are astringent so I usually expet that. However, I've been able to counteract that and make them more on the conditioning level by adding in a humectant and oil as well as diluting the tea with distilled water/citric acid combo. Mannnnn Tea rinses really can replace rinse out conditioners once you get your right groove going.

I'm super excited for my next rinse. Think I'mma use this combo for a conditioner too. MMMMMM!!!!

This blend looks amazing!!! It’s no small wonder your hair looks the way it does with all the great DIY mixes and blends you use.

I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind me asking lol

Do you use an equal ratio for all the herbs? If not how do you determine the ratio?

Do you Think you could leave it in? Instead of rinsing it out if you didn’t use the citric acid? Seems like it would be a good refresher spray maybe if I mixed with a little aloe Vera juice Hmmm....

What did it smell like? Was it all wonderful and floral or did it end up not having much of a scent? This is the type of floral mix I want to use for an oil infusion. I feel like it would be so moisturizing and smell so good.

Where is your favorite place to buy herbs? I’ve heard amazon but I always get stuck on what brand and mountain rose herbs but shipping smh.

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

This blend looks amazing!!! It’s no small wonder your hair looks the way it does with all the great DIY mixes and blends you use.

I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind me asking lol

Do you use an equal ratio for all the herbs? If not how do you determine the ratio?

Do you Think you could leave it in? Instead of rinsing it out if you didn’t use the citric acid? Seems like it would be a good refresher spray maybe if I mixed with a little aloe Vera juice Hmmm....

What did it smell like? Was it all wonderful and floral or did it end up not having much of a scent? This is the type of floral mix I want to use for an oil infusion. I feel like it would be so moisturizing and smell so good.

Where is your favorite place to buy herbs? I’ve heard amazon but I always get stuck on what brand and mountain rose herbs but shipping smh.

Hey, hey, hey Sis!!! Sure I don't mind answering & sharing! I'm going to copy and answer your questions in the next post so I can be sure not to miss one.

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

@SunkissedLife

Do you use an equal ratio for all the herbs? If not how do you determine the ratio?

For my loose leaf tea blends: I use equal amounts and I measure by weight. Some herbs are more leafy than others so they take up more space/volume, so this is the easiest way for me. For example: 1 ounce of hops look very different than 1 ounce of rosehips. If you are going to DIY, the first thing I would recommend to buy is a scale. They are pretty cheap and will take all the guessing out of your mixes. I know some people like to eyeball or grab/go or just throw stuff in. Not me! I like my mixes to be as consistent as possible, so I measure and record everything in a notepad.

It's a little different for powders so I'll explain that by PM if interested. Right now I'll just keep it focused on this particular blend.



Do you Think you could leave it in? Instead of rinsing it out if you didn’t use the citric acid? Seems like it would be a good refresher spray maybe if I mixed with a little aloe Vera juice Hmmm....

Yes you could leave it in bearing in mind that it is all liquid. You would definitly need to follow it up with a good sealant as it will evaporate off the hair as all water does if not captured and sealed in.

What did it smell like? Was it all wonderful and floral or did it end up not having much of a scent? This is the type of floral mix I want to use for an oil infusion. I feel like it would be so moisturizing and smell so good.

The hops take over the smell in this blend. If you don't know what hops smell like, sniff a bottle of beer. *Fun fact....if you steep & drink hops in tea you, will get the same feeling you get from drinking beer... minus the beer belly* The taste is very bitter though just like beer. You get the same boozy effect from smoking it too
Back to the smell: The lavender is the next flower whose smell comes through. I cant smell any of the others.

Where is your favorite place to buy herbs? I’ve heard amazon but I always get stuck on what brand and mountain rose herbs but shipping

I shop all over for herbs. I get most on the ground at a health food store that sells herbs in bulk. I also get some from a farm near me that grows, harvests and dries the herbs. Their lavender field is breathtaking.
Online: Etsy, Vitacost, Iherb, MountainRose, Bulk Apothecary, Brambleberry etc. Shipping for the last few are disrespectful, but if you do a big order....you wont have to repurchase for a while. I usually buy herbs every couple of years in bulk. They last forever! LOL

 

[Aggie]

Just sprayed my hair and scalp with my Fenugreek Tea rinse. I really love this rinse. My hair feels instantly stronger every time I use it.

I still have my Fenugreek/aloe/moringa oil infusing in my window sill. I think it's been 3 weeks so far so it's time to strain and use it.

 

[mzteaze]

Where is your favorite place to buy herbs? I’ve heard amazon but I always get stuck on what brand and mountain rose herbs but shipping smh.

If you don't mind me jumping in, I would recommend checking your local health food stores. When I made my homemade version of the Belle Bar Curly Proverbz tea, I found local sources and spent about $12 to make more than a years worth of tea.

It was far cheaper than Amazon or some of the other bulk herbs you can order online.

 

[water_n_oil]

If you don't mind me jumping in, I would recommend checking your local health food stores. When I made my homemade version of the Belle Bar Curly Proverbz tea, I found local sources and spent about $12 to make more than a years worth of tea.

It was far cheaper than Amazon or some of the other bulk herbs you can order online.

I second checking local stores. I was just browsing Sprouts website for their bulk goods and they had a lot of herbs. I don't expect my store to have them all (especially since they literally never had fenugreek) but it's worth a look anyway. My regular grocery store in my old neighborhood also carried dried hibiscus in the bulk/Mexican section (they were one in the same in this store).

 

[IDareT'sHair]

Curls & Potions Chebe and Mint Leave-In Curls Blueberry & Mint Scalp Tea and The Mane Choice's "Better Than Butter"

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

Will do a scalp massage today with my Ayurvedic Herbal Oil. It's almost finished, so I'll switch over to one of my other oils that's still marinating when it's all used up.

 

[mzteaze]

If you don't mind me jumping in, I would recommend checking your local health food stores. When I made my homemade version of the Belle Bar Curly Proverbz tea, I found local sources and spent about $12 to make more than a years worth of tea.

It was far cheaper than Amazon or some of the other bulk herbs you can order online.

I knew I had posted about this before so I found the post : https://longhaircareforum.com/threa...urveda-challenge.807889/page-25#post-24042875

I spent a total of $10.50 buying roughly an ounce of all herbs except for hops.

 

[IDareT'sHair]

@mzteaze
How many bars can you make with $10.50 worth of ingredients?

 

[IDareT'sHair]

Used: Chebe & Mint Leave-In

 

[SunkissedLife]

@SunkissedLife

Do you use an equal ratio for all the herbs? If not how do you determine the ratio?

For my loose leaf tea blends: I use equal amounts and I measure by weight. Some herbs are more leafy than others so they take up more space/volume, so this is the easiest way for me. For example: 1 ounce of hops look very different than 1 ounce of rosehips. If you are going to DIY, the first thing I would recommend to buy is a scale. They are pretty cheap and will take all the guessing out of your mixes. I know some people like to eyeball or grab/go or just throw stuff in. Not me! I like my mixes to be as consistent as possible, so I measure and record everything in a notepad.

It's a little different for powders so I'll explain that by PM if interested. Right now I'll just keep it focused on this particular blend.



Do you Think you could leave it in? Instead of rinsing it out if you didn’t use the citric acid? Seems like it would be a good refresher spray maybe if I mixed with a little aloe Vera juice Hmmm....

Yes you could leave it in bearing in mind that it is all liquid. You would definitly need to follow it up with a good sealant as it will evaporate off the hair as all water does if not captured and sealed in.

What did it smell like? Was it all wonderful and floral or did it end up not having much of a scent? This is the type of floral mix I want to use for an oil infusion. I feel like it would be so moisturizing and smell so good.

The hops take over the smell in this blend. If you don't know what hops smell like, sniff a bottle of beer. *Fun fact....if you steep & drink hops in tea you, will get the same feeling you get from drinking beer... minus the beer belly* The taste is very bitter though just like beer. You get the same boozy effect from smoking it too
Back to the smell: The lavender is the next flower whose smell comes through. I cant smell any of the others.

Where is your favorite place to buy herbs? I’ve heard amazon but I always get stuck on what brand and mountain rose herbs but shipping

I shop all over for herbs. I get most on the ground at a health food store that sells herbs in bulk. I also get some from a farm near me that grows, harvests and dries the herbs. Their lavender field is breathtaking.
Online: Etsy, Vitacost, Iherb, MountainRose, Bulk Apothecary, Brambleberry etc. Shipping for the last few are disrespectful, but if you do a big order....you wont have to repurchase for a while. I usually buy herbs every couple of years in bulk. They last forever! LOL

Thanks for always sharing!! I would love if you could DM me in reference to the powders. I plan to start an oil infusion this week (my HennaSooq herbs arrived!) and thinking to keep it simple since this will be my first batch:
1/2 cup EVOO
1/2 cup EVCO
2 tablespoon rose petal powders
2 tablespoon aloe vera powder
2 tablespoon bhringraj
1 tablespoon brahmi
1 tablespoon Amla
10 drops lavender essential oil

Can you mix powders and dried herbs in the same batch? If so I was going to add some lavender or hibiscus flowers. I’m going for a moisturizing floral mix. I think I’m going to recreate your floral blend (minus the hops) for a floral moisture spritz in the future

Also thanks for the input @mzteaze qnd @water_n_oil I will double check some local health stores I know we have a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and a Publix recently opened

 

[BeautifulRoots]

@SunkissedLife

Do you use an equal ratio for all the herbs? If not how do you determine the ratio?

For my loose leaf tea blends: I use equal amounts and I measure by weight. Some herbs are more leafy than others so they take up more space/volume, so this is the easiest way for me. For example: 1 ounce of hops look very different than 1 ounce of rosehips. If you are going to DIY, the first thing I would recommend to buy is a scale. They are pretty cheap and will take all the guessing out of your mixes. I know some people like to eyeball or grab/go or just throw stuff in. Not me! I like my mixes to be as consistent as possible, so I measure and record everything in a notepad.

It's a little different for powders so I'll explain that by PM if interested. Right now I'll just keep it focused on this particular blend.



Do you Think you could leave it in? Instead of rinsing it out if you didn’t use the citric acid? Seems like it would be a good refresher spray maybe if I mixed with a little aloe Vera juice Hmmm....

Yes you could leave it in bearing in mind that it is all liquid. You would definitly need to follow it up with a good sealant as it will evaporate off the hair as all water does if not captured and sealed in.

What did it smell like? Was it all wonderful and floral or did it end up not having much of a scent? This is the type of floral mix I want to use for an oil infusion. I feel like it would be so moisturizing and smell so good.

The hops take over the smell in this blend. If you don't know what hops smell like, sniff a bottle of beer. *Fun fact....if you steep & drink hops in tea you, will get the same feeling you get from drinking beer... minus the beer belly* The taste is very bitter though just like beer. You get the same boozy effect from smoking it too
Back to the smell: The lavender is the next flower whose smell comes through. I cant smell any of the others.

Where is your favorite place to buy herbs? I’ve heard amazon but I always get stuck on what brand and mountain rose herbs but shipping

I shop all over for herbs. I get most on the ground at a health food store that sells herbs in bulk. I also get some from a farm near me that grows, harvests and dries the herbs. Their lavender field is breathtaking.
Online: Etsy, Vitacost, Iherb, MountainRose, Bulk Apothecary, Brambleberry etc. Shipping for the last few are disrespectful, but if you do a big order....you wont have to repurchase for a while. I usually buy herbs every couple of years in bulk. They last forever! LOL

Great info! Thanks for sharing, do you mind PMing me about the powders too?

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

Thanks for always sharing!! I would love if you could DM me in reference to the powders. I plan to start an oil infusion this week (my HennaSooq herbs arrived!) and thinking to keep it simple since this will be my first batch:
1/2 cup EVOO
1/2 cup EVCO
2 tablespoon rose petal powders
2 tablespoon aloe vera powder
2 tablespoon bhringraj
1 tablespoon brahmi
1 tablespoon Amla
10 drops lavender essential oil

Can you mix powders and dried herbs in the same batch? If so I was going to add some lavender or hibiscus flowers. I’m going for a moisturizing floral mix. I think I’m going to recreate your floral blend (minus the hops) for a floral moisture spritz in the future

Also thanks for the input @mzteaze qnd @water_n_oil I will double check some local health stores I know we have a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and a Publix recently opened

Are you using this mix on just your scalp or both (scalp and hair length)?

If just the scalp....the type of oils and powders look fine....however scale the measurements of the powders to 1 teaspoon each. The mixture will be very potent if you leave as is and will probably need to be diluted with a ton of oil once you finish infusing. If any of the powders are new to you as well, I would only recommend using one at a time as if you have an allergic reaction, the itches or any other discomfort...it would be hard to pinpoint where its coming from. For example, you could do:
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon Bhringraj

Infuse then strain. After straining, then add your 10 drops of lavender. Use the mixture on your scalp at night as Bhringraj has a very relaxing effect so it tends to make you a bit sleepy. I would say test it out for 2 weeks before you try another blend. You can continue repeating that process with each powder.

Yes, you can definitely mix powders and herbs in the same batch. I do it all the time, but straining it takes a bit more work but not by much.

I'll PM you and @BeautifulRoots before the week is over about powders. Those jokers are potent and I now understand why they are sold in such small amounts. You really dont need much for them to be effective.

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

@SunkissedLife The testing of powders/herbs should always be performed on the scalp first. If your scalp is ok with it, then test it on your hair next. I forgot to mention that.

For example, my scalp was ok with Bhrami but it made my hair as hard as a brick. Almost like I did an aphoghee treatment and never washed it out. If I pair it with Bhringraj, feels like my hair wants to peel off my scalp and just walk away. I dont recommend using both in a mix for the hair unless you just really want to. I would just chose one or the other. The scalp, yes...the hair...no. But thats just the reaction on my hair...yours may be different. Hence the importance of testing one by one.

I've done so much research & personal trial and error with these Ayurvedic powders. LOL They are surely in a league of their own.

 

[NowIAmNappy]

Used this hair mask this weekend with Ashwagandha, Brahmi, Amla and Horsetail.
Video is here