Hello :o)
I am a lover of all things natural and that includes tea! I just love the ritual of drinking tea and the comfort it gives me. My absolute favorite tea is Peppermint tea, my mother put me on to it so it always reminds me of her :o)
So I was browsing vitacost.com for some teas and other things and I came across burdock root, horsetail, lemongrass and nettle teas and was like “heeeeeyyyy I know that stuff! I seen it on the labels in some of my favorite hair products!!” lol so I had an epiphany lol why don’t I try the teas and hope they do something for my hair and skin!!
*****DISCLAIMER!! I am no scientist or doctor and can’t make any health claims for anything I try so PLEASE do your own research before trying anything on yourself! ESPECIALLY if you are pregnant or nursing! Some herbal remedies are NOT meant for everyone so RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!
Now that that’s said…..here are the teas that I purchased from Vitacost. I am sure you can get them other places but I think Vitacost has the prices beat. I always drink tea with a spoonful of raw honey :o)
- Nettle Leaf — Alright tasting; its tolerable lol I can drink it alone with honey
- Horsetail Grass — Not the best tasting; I usually steep with peppermint to blend the flavor
- Burdock Root — see above lol
- Lemongrass (not pictured) — My fav of the bunch, tastes tart, lemony; really good with honey and lemon
Not sure how much of a difference these will make and I have to drink like 3-4 cups a day, so if there are any results, I probably won’t see them for awhile BUT I will keep drinking them. Tea in general has so many health benefits so if it’s not my hair and skin, hopefully something else in my body is benefiting :o)
I also noticed on vitacost that these herbs are also sold in pill supplement forms and extracts so perhaps I may try those after I drink up all my tea. If decide to not drink up all the tea, I can use them to make herbal rinses or mix with my ayurveda treatments so I’ll make use of these bad boys some how!
Hey, it’s just an experiment so I thought I would share :o)
— What are your experiences with these herbs?! Products, teas, supplements, extracts, etc. PLease share!
Hi there!
It’s my first time to your blog! Actually, I just commented on Shellie, from hairscapades blog regarding teas and then came over here and saw this post, so I thought I would comment here too! What a coincidence!
Anyway, I use burdock, rosemary, nettle and catnip teas in my hair spritz along with other ingredients. I have a small spritz bottle that only holds much less than 2 cups, but is perfect size for weekly refills, so I steep one of each tea bag (2 of the catnip because it is great for detangling and moisture which I learned from minimalist beauty’s wonderful blog) in 3/4 cup of boiled filtered water for 5 or so hours, squeeze out the tea bags and then add that 3/4 cup of water to my spritz. During my nightly rebraiding for my daily braid outs (3 French braids, one in front, two in back), I spritz and then seal with my fave, monoi de Tahiti oil.
I really like this regimen, so if you want something else to do with your teas besides drink them, maybe try this! I don’t drink the teas cuz I don’t really like them, plus I’m pregnant and some teas, like catnip, aren’t recommended when you’re pregnant, so to be safer rather than sorry, I just stick to spritzing!
I recommended Shellie might try the tea in her next bentonite clay mix! Guess we’ll see if she gives it a try!
All the best and God bless!
Aja
Hi Aja!! WOW I love you for this!! I was considering using the teas in my spritzer also but I wasn’t sure how well or how long it would keep and if I had to keep it refrigerated or what but this is definitely making me want to now! I may update this post with the results too. I’ve never tried catnip tea or heard of it benefits so I will definitely be researching that! And you are absolutely right about being pregnant and not using herbal remedies internally….CONGRATS on the baby also!!! THANK YOU so much for this tip! I am excited now lol
How long have you used the teas in your spritzer and have you noticed any changes in your hair?
Hi Lauren!
Actually, I’ve had the most successful spritz results with just 1 catnip tea bag, steeped in boiling water along with the rest of my ingredients. This past week was the first time I tried adding my other tea bags (the rosemary, burdock and nettle) but it doesn’t seem as soft and moisture retaining as it did with just the catnip
This could be because I have to use such a small amount of water to steep the tea in, maybe the amount of tea in relation to small amount of liquid my spritz can hold overall, makes it more drying, I’m going to try using more oil tonight when I seal and see how it progresses throughout the week. If it doesn’t improve, I may do more research and cut out one of the other teas. I want it to be nourishing to both my scalp and ends, but honestly, I use the spritz mostly on my ends and then seal, so moisturizing needs to be the main benefit of whatever teas I’m using,
I do highly recommend the catnip though! Check it out! The tea is the same brand you showed in the pics in your post, so they should have it where you got yours. I’m going to keep playing around with it and if anything changes I’ll try to remember to check back here in a few weeks!
Thanks for the congratulations! We just saw the clearest sonogram tonight and he looks just like his daddy, so it’s exciting! We have an 18 month old angel of a girl as well, so we are really blessed! But because of this, I need my hair to be as low maintenance as possible! I actually use terressentials for now. I only wash my hair monthly and don’t mind ordering in bulk, but maybe after researching and testing things out yourself, you can see if maybe some of the teas might be better for spritzing and some for your clay mix. That might be a good way to balance it out! I actually got the idea for the teas in my spritz from the Oyin juices and berries ingredients list I was checking out the other night. I figured, if it works for them, I might as well try concocting something up for myself and adding more along to the catnip, but for now, after only one time testing out the super tea spritz, so far, it’s not stacking up as well to the catnip alone.
And by the way, my spritz ingredients are the tea mix (or just the catnip tea), aloe juice, rose water and about a tspn. of camilia oil. It keeps for about a week. When it starts to go off, you will smell a difference. And I keep it in the fridge when I’m not using it.
All the best!
Aja
You have me so excited now! I will be making an herbal buy very soon! And I also had no idea about Minimalist Beauty! I just looked at her blog and I love her! I will be trying LOTS of her recipes!! Thanks girl for this helpful info! Feel free to share more!! Blessings and health to your family!
Hi!
Minimalist Beauty’s Dawn is the best! If you have a question she will get back to you super quick! We even emailed for a while and she is just a very nice, caring, down to earth person and VERY full of information! Her do it yourself homemade recipes and her henna information and encouragement have been the most helpful for me!
Other ones I like are Lola Zabeth and then all the major bloggers that you probably already know like curly Nikki, bglh, Hairscapades and so on and so forth… Urban bush babes, and yada yada yada!
If I find anything else helpful, I’ll let you know, but Dawn has probably been the most helpful to me in terms of recipes and I’m really into at home stuff and 100% natural/ organic haircare, so she’s pretty much the go-to for that stuff.
I’ve been keeping up with the spritz with all the teas and actually, the second time I used it, when I used more of my monoi oil to seal, I got a lot better results… Less dry. My hair just feels dry in itself, I should say, because I don’t like a real product-y feel. The things that have been helping me the most with shine and softness, which I just sort of fell into are henna (used along with a pre-oil treatment, oil in the henna and an over night deep condition after) and also my new product staple, monoi de Tahiti oil! Love that stuff! It’s the first oil I’ve found that I fell in love with and didn’t disappoint in the next few days… I have a weird thing where I really don’t like my hair to feel product-y and also I like all natural stuff like I said, which, when you look on the ingredients of most things is really hard to find, but the monoi has not let me down yet and I was able to find it certified and super cheap on one website, so if you are ever interested, I can pass that info along too!
Anyway, sorry to write a book again! Just to say, my hair didn’t feel dry the last time, or it did if you mean dry as in not product-laden, but it also feels very soft and smooth. I also need a trim, badly, because the last time I got one, in Novemeber, I made the mistake of letting my stylist do sort of a half trim instead of just getting all the crunchy hair off, so now I’ve got to dive back in for a little bit less than an inch more, so I’m toying with the idea of whether I’m going to endeavor to do it myself or whether I can wait til next week when he can come over and take care of it. That’s my current hair dilemma, along with discovering if this new spritz works for me!
Any experience with self-trimming?
Have a great day!
Aja
How funny, I was aaaaaalll over her site last night! She is pushing me to try henna finally! lol I don’t know why I haven’t already lol I love Lola Zabeth as well! I have a few of her recipes bookmarked :o) I eventually would love to get more into homemade products one day so I certainly will be referring back to these two ladies! I have never heard of monoi oil so I will be sure to research that, I’d love to check out the website you were talking about.
As far as self-trimming, I used to dust my ends while they were in twists but I stopped doing that because it made my hair extremely uneven so when I finally got a professional trim I ended up having to cut off a LOT of my hair to even it out lol so I just let the pros handle the scissors. Since I’ve been sealing my hair so wwell I haven’t really had to trim much which has been a HUGE blessing!
I just started using henna! My first henna was New Year’s Eve night (home with baby sleeping, watching a movie with the husband and henna’ing my hair… Excitement!!!
I was really happy with the results, especially after my second henna. I hear that you really start to see results after the third time, which will be my next time.
After some research, it seemed that the most sought after henna is red raj henna. Henna sooq sells it but it took me, literally, 6 months before I could get my hands on some because they were always selling out, so in the interim I bought some Jamila Henna from 2012 summer crop. I think both are good but I definitely preferred the red raj. I like the color (I have very porous hair, dark brown, but no greys,but because it is porous you can see the color in some places but only in the light).
I have very fine hair that breaks easily and is highly porous and that was my main reason for finally starting to henna. One thing I do recommend is making sure your hair is conditioned, detangled and oiled BEFORE you henna and do a hefty deep treatment right after! That is one thing I didn’t do the first time that I did do the second time and it made a world of difference! I also liked the red raj because the dye release time and the time I had to leave the henna on my hair was shorter compared to the Jamila.
Just FYI, my process was, I washed and detangled my hair with terressentials, then I put it in four sections and saturated each section with my monoi oil which is basically a specific type of coconut oil only found in Tahiti and the oil has gardenia flowers marinated in it, so it has a really nice, flowery smell. Lots of major product lines, like Carole’s daughter, have monoi lines, and I can see why because just the oil on its own has had a great effect on my hair!
Anyway, I put my hair in a plastic cap and silk scarf and sleep. Then, in the morning I mix my red raj henna with 1 can of coconut milk and let sit for four hours, until lunch. At lunch, after I put my daughter for a nap, I add 1/4 cup of monoi oil to the henna and then apply to my hair. I wrap my hair in plastic baggies and put tissues round the edges and then put on a scarf. After my daughter goes to bed, before 8, I wash the henna out in the sink, as best I can. I find the coconut milk doesn’t lead to any issues with the henna rinsing out of my hair. I then section my hair in 2 sections and apply my DC (Aubrey organics white camilia oil conditioner), plastic cap, silk scarf and sleep again. in the morning, I rinse my hair and it is SUPER easy to detangle! Very mangageable! I do my small twists with a center part, about 16 twists on each side, sealing each section of hair with monoi oil first, and then French braid each side of twists. I leave that in for the week, moisturizing the twists with my spritz and sealing with my oil as needed and then the second week, I take my twists out one day and the rest of the week my protective style is 3 French braids. On the days I want to wear my hair out, I put the braids back in at night or, lately, I just leave the braid across the front of my head out and leave the other two braids, in the back, in most days. Re-spritzing, moisturizing with oil and rebraiding the the three sections (after finger detangling) takes over an hour and I don’t have time for that every night, so just the front out is a nice compromise.
You didn’t ask for all that info, but I guess I felt like writing it! Haha
Anyway, can’t wait to hear how your henna journey goes! Research and try to get your hands on that red raj henna!
God bless!
Aja
I love tea. I love to drink it to detox my body. I love ayurvedic hair masks, deep conditioners and oils, but have not yet gotten into the teas as hair rinses. I really want to, but am uncertain of the exact results and am not excited about adding another step to my regimen. Please do keep us updated if you decide to use tea on your hair, and let us know your results!
Hey Ashley! Isn’t tea awesome!? I actually haven’t done just a plain tea rinse, I’ve only used tea to mix my ayurvedic pastes with but if/when I do try a tea rinse I will be sure to make a post about it! Thanks for your comment! :o)