Luscious Healthy Ends Challenge 2026

[Angel of the North]

@Angel of the North

I am sorry for the loss and passing of your friend's precious father.

The cocoa butter is a solid stick. See it to the left of the photo.








"Do you mean that once you've cooled off the blend of melted butters it sets to a hard texture? There are so many types of shea butters out there, shea was the butter that I ordered 4 out of the 6 types that the retailer stocked when I was testing out all butters, none of them were like the one I like, they were all pretty solid but 1 was slightly softer than the others."

No. I let my Shea mix with cocoa butter cool to a solid like ALL my other Shea butter mixes do. Then, I blend it with a hand mixer. After it sets, my Shea butter mix with cocoa butter is HARD. All my other butters without cocoa butter set soft.

Thank you for the condolences, and the further explanation. I understand fully now

Are you using all of the cocoa butter stick or just a little? It doesn't look like it takes much to get your shea mix to set.

That's a lot of very useful information you have shared, and will be useful for when I get started.

Do you use any preservatives in any of your DIY products? This is something that's holding me back from getting started as well. I don't think it's an easy field to navigate, nor do I think it's as easy to get hold of they best type of preservatives for specific products.

One of the YTs I followed gave me some great pointers for getting more info on the types of preservatives available to me where I am, she's based in the states.

 

[Chicoro]

I was thinking about the hair of women with those Brazilian Keratin treatments.

Their hair looks super thin and fine when wet. But when it’s dry, there hair looks extremely full, fluffy and thick.

I think it is because the strip off anything that is heavy or oily on the final blowdry.

I know this sounds like water is wet, but their technique is not intuitive or simple.

I’m going back to watch more of those videos in Brazilian Portugués with these women.

There is something there.

Thank you for the condolences, and the further explanation. I understand fully now

Are you using all of the cocoa butter stick or just a little? It doesn't look like it takes much to get your shea mix to set.

That's a lot of very useful information you have shared, and will be useful for when I get started.

Do you use any preservatives in any of your DIY products? This is something that's holding me back from getting started as well. I don't think it's an easy field to navigate, nor do I think it's as easy to get hold of they best type of preservatives for specific products.

One of the YTs I followed gave me some great pointers for getting more info on the types of preservatives available to me where I am, she's based in the states.

i use the entire stick of cocoa butter to make my mix.

I do not use preservatives in my Shea butter mixes because there is no water in them.

For my mixes with water, I keep them in the fridge. I also use them very quickly. I try to use up the water based DIY in days.

If one is going to be selling products, preservatives are recommended.

Optiphan is a commercial preservative that many people use in the US.

Vitamin E and Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) are natural preservatives. But, they may not be considered good enough to preserve a product by certain governing bodies in the US.

 

[Angel of the North]

Hey!

@Angel of the North

Another AHA!

The hard Shea butter mix elongates and stretches my hair.

So, I use the hard butter to stretch my hair instead of using HEAT (blow dryer) to stretch my hair.

I never made that connection before!


My hair coated with the Hard Shea Butter Mix with Cocoa Butter





Hard Shea Butter Mix Elongates and Stretches my Hair Section



Hair Braided and Coated with Hard Shea Butter Mix



Pulling Braid coated and saturated with the Hard Shea Butter Mix

I missed this post! I cannot believe how well it stretches your braids. There's so much I want to ask

What gave you the idea to use the cocoa butter to harden the shea butter? It's cool the way that the cocoa butter affects the shea butter like that.

How did you learn that this mix could elongate your braids?

What length would your braids be if you didn't use the hard shea mix?