I’m not too keen on being a “mixtress” (it’s often too tedious) but sometimes I like to do a little concocting myself once in a while. I have been keeping my eyes on a certain yogurt and banana deep conditioner recipe that is supposed to make your hair feel like sun shine and rainbows. Let me tell you – it did just that. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Here is what I did (I modified the recipe based on the many different recipes I read on blogs/forums and watched on youtube).
You will need:
4 oz. plain greek yogurt
1 very ripe banana
1/2 of a ripe avocado (next time I’ll use a whole avocado. I really just wanted to eat the other half…)
4 tbsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp grape seed oil
2-3 tbsp vegetable glycerin
Instructions:
Combine all the ingredients into a blender (I used my Nutribullet). Blend until very smooth. Apply onto clean hair as if applying a virgin chemical relaxer. (I washed and conditioned my hair with commercial products two days before my diy conditioner application so my scalp and hair was clean enough at the time of application). Do not shampoo.
My application experience:
Application time for me was two hours. My hair was in eight corn rows prior to applying the mixture. I would loosen a corn row, finger-detangle, spritz lightly with water, generously and carefully apply the conditioner, and then twist the hair. I would then go on to the next row and do the same thing until my whole head was complete. After this process, I put on a disposable conditioning cap and let the mix sit in my hair for about five hours.
Looking at other naturalistas’ experiences with their home made conditioners, I found that many had to wash their hair several times (and sometimes with shampoo) because banana bits were still in their hair. Thankfully, my process went very smoothly. The consistency of my conditioner (although I think “mask” is a better term) took up the consistency of the yogurt. It went on smoothly and washed off smoothly. However, be careful not to get the mix on your scalp. It wont be terrible if you do, but having it there will make rinsing out a little more difficult. I got some of my mix into my scalp and so had to spend extra time rubbing my scalp to loosen up the build up.
When I finished rinsing the concoction out my hair, I gently wrapped a cotton shirt over it so that it would absorb as much excess water as possible. I (accidentally) went to sleep with the cotton shirt and finally removed it this morning (which made it roughly 8 hours of cotton shirt drying time).
My hair was about 90% dry after that – dryer than I intended, so I sectioned my hair into 8 parts and using a spray bottle of glycerin and aloe vera juice (water would have worked just as well), I spritz each section. I finger-detangled each section, braided, and then sealed each section with grape seed oil and Jamaican black castor oil.
What about the smell?
I was kind of paranoid about smelling like bananas and yogurt all day. I absolutely hate the taste of bananas and can’t even stand their smell. I’m not a fan of yogurt but greek yogurt (depending on the brand) is tolerable at times. After rinsing my hair of the mix, it still smelled like a produce stand (actually, it smelled totally of bananas but was faint). However, when I allowed it to dry completely after rinsing the conditioner out, the smell was gone.
Was it messy?
Nope. Hardly. I did get some of the conditioner on the back of my sweatshirt where my hair touched it, but that’s nothing a quick clean in the washing machine and dryer can’t fix.
The results?
My hair right now is still in the eight braids. Tomorrow I will attempt a braid out, and – if I remember – take pictures and upload them here.
I loved the way my hair felt after rinsing out the conditioner. It was unbelievably soft. Soooooo soft. And even when my hair dried it still felt great. Detangling was 50% easier and my curls really popped, though the front section of my hair was still stubborn in that there was still frizz and very little definition (boo!). I will definitely try this homemade conditioner again in the future.
The success and ease of this homemade conditioner has encouraged me to try other mixtress-y things. Next on my list are oil rinses and apple cider vinegar rinses.
Hair We Grow! 