Hair Herbs & Essential Oils for your hair!

Ida at chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com has supplied us with some useful information about the benefits of various herbs and essential oils for hair! Enjoy!

Useful HAIR Herbs Burdock: great for thinning hair, dry, irritated scalp, dandruff, and seborrhea Calendula: conditions Catnip: Promotes healthy hair growth Chamomile: a healing and soothing herb to soften hair, soothe the scalp, lighten, condition, and stimulate growth Horsetail: Helps brittle hair due to its high silica content Lavender: useful for all hair types it stimulates hair growth, and degreases

Marigold: lightens hair color Nettle: conditions, improves color and texture, helps with dandruff, irritated scalp, and dry scalp Parsley: enriches hair color and gives a nice luster Plantain: great for dry, irritated scalp, dandruff, and seborrhea Peppermint: stimulates the scalp Red Clover: Rosemary: excellent for all hair types and problems it acts as a tonic and conditioner, one of the best herbs to use, gives luster and body, stimulates growth, helps with dandruff, and brings out dark highlights in the hair

Sage: traditionally used to restore color to graying hair, excellent for week hair Saw Palmetto: good for hair thinning and hair loss Thyme: good for oily hair, dandruff, and mild hair loss Witch Hazel: leaves and bark are astringent and cleanse oily hair Yarrow: for oily hair Yucca: Navajos swear by yucca root to prevent hair loss and to cure dandruff.

Essential Oils: You may add essential oils to the recipe above (I would suggest adding up to 10 drops of lavender or 5 drops of rosemary essential oil) or use the essential oil hair rinse recipe below. Some words of CAUTION:

• There are many wonderful essential oils that could be used but you MUST do some research.
• Essential oils are very strong and many can be skin irritants if not used correctly. Lavender is one of a very few essential oils that can be used directly on skin. Others like clove or thyme essential oil WILL irritate your skin if used full strength. Even though the oils are diluted in this recipe–you must be knowledgeable about the amount of essential oil to use in your dilution.
• Essential oils are expensive. But do NOT use the cheaper fragrance oils or “nature identical” oils. These are synthetic, can cause skin irritation and provide none of the benefits of natural botanical essential oils.