@Chicoro Here is the information on how I clarified my hair:
I just had a successful wash day and now I have a clarifying recipe that has worked twice, for me. (The following pictures are all from today's wash. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of my hair before I washed it, but you couldn't see anything when my hair was dry.)
Over the past couple of weeks, I noticed that the ends of my hair had a white cast to it.
I wasn't sure if it was protein build up from my clay masks or sebum build up. Additional clay masks without protein did not work to remove this build up.
The build up was concentrated to the ends of the hair that grow along my nape. I didn't really notice any build up towards the ends of hair along the front of my head.
The build up was pretty thick and I could squeeze it out of my hair. (I was able to squeeze a lot more out of my hair last week.)
I started to get a little anxious and over the week started looking into finding a shampoo bar to use on my hair. Then, I remember that I had created a mask sometime last year that worked really well to clarify my hair.
I'm a big believer in journaling, but more than once, I've been saved by posting my wash day routines here. So, I searched for the post where I mentioned the ingredients that I was looking for which allowed me to find a date in my journals to the actual recipe.
RECIPE
1 fresh aloe (approx 250ml/ 1 cup)
1 raw egg
1 tbsp ACV
1 tbsp raw honey
2 tbsp hibiscus
So, the rational behind this mixture:
Egg masks have been used for some time because to cleanse hair. They're currently used by people with looser textures to remove excess sebum. This is because egg yokes are used as an emulsifier. (E.g. In mayonnaise) In this way, it can lift oil (sebum) and dirt from your hair. One old school recipe that I found mentioned using alcohol (vodka?) in the raw egg mixture.
Aloe vera, ACV, honey, and even hibiscus are also used in various capacities to cleans hair.
So, (last year) because I'd never tried an egg wash before I decided to go all in and create a mixture that used all of these things.
I kept the mixture on my hair for about 30 to 40 minutes before rinsing it out.
I personally love to wash my hair with warm/hot water, which is generally a no-no when it comes to washing your hair with eggs. However, with this particular mix, I believe that there is enough of other liquids to dilute the egg without compromizing it's ability to remove excess sebum from hair.
My hair looks soooo much better now! There was no build up no my strands after rinsing my hair.
The last time I used this mask was March 2023 which means it took around 1 year for my hair to achieve this kind of build up. I'm thinking that going forward, I'll do this mask every 6 months -- January/June -- so that my hair and scalp don't get gummy.