It seems like the older I get, the more “scents-itive” I become. Fragrances that other people enjoy can make my eyes itch, my sinuses swell, and my head hurt. Some of them cause me to feel like I can’t get my breath. With that said, it should be understood that finding hair products that work for me is nigh onto impossible.
In this world we live in, change is inevitable. Just when I find a shampoo and conditioner that work for me, the company that makes them alters the formula. Lately, I have been having a terrible time locating ones that I can tolerate. If my nose is okay with them, my hair and scalp are not. If my hair and scalp are fine with the product I am using, my nose doesn’t like them at all. I stand in the store sniffing shampoos and conditioners, finally choosing ones I think will work. The trouble is, by the time I have inhaled so many fragrances, I am on sensory overload. When I get the products home, what seemed to be innocuous in the store is overwhelming to my sensitive nose. Sometimes I don’t realize how strong they are until I have used them in my hair.
Then there is another problem: I have developed a skin allergy to aloe vera. It makes me itch like crazy. Guess what is an ingredient in many of the fragrance-free or mildly-scented hair products? Aloe vera. I have done internet searches for products, but have as of yet to find any that fit what I am looking for and are not cost-prohibitive.
With all that said, I am sure no one will be surprised when I decided to search for “how to make your own shampoo” on Google. Many of the formulas contain aloe, so I skipped over them. I finally found one that seemed to be okay, so I ordered all the ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. The shampoo seemed to work okay, but I still needed to find a conditioner. I tried the same type of internet search, only to find that making conditioner is not as easy as shampoo. There were many ideas for deep-conditioning hair, but they were once-a-week or once-a-month processes. I needed something that I could use every time I wash my hair.
During the recent cold snap, I stayed home for several days in a row. Who wants to get out in sub-zero temperatures? I remembered reading several suggestions of using avocadoes to condition hair, and I had several avocadoes on hand. I wondered, “Should I try this?”
I had been leery of trying any hair treatment with oil due to a bad experience many years ago:
A lady told me that she used baby oil to condition her scalp. “Just rub it in and leave it for an hour or so, then wash it out,” she instructed. So one morning I tried it. The rubbing in part worked fine, but the washing out part was not that simple. It was not simple at all. I shampooed my hair, but the oil stayed in. I washed it again. The oil stayed in. In a panic, as I had somewhere to go that evening, I used dish detergent. The oil stayed in. It took several days and several washings before it finally came out of my hair.
Now back to the avocado idea. I thought that since I was going to be home another day or two, it would be a good time to try it. Some of the recipes called for an egg mixed with the green fruit; however, those instructions said to rinse the concoction out with cold water so as not to “cook” the egg and have it set up on the hair shafts. As cold as it has been, I had no desire to be rinsing my hair in cold water, so I looked for a different recipe. I found one with two ingredients – an avocado and a teaspoon of olive oil (which wasn’t very much). I was to peel and seed the avocado, mash it with a fork, add the oil, and blend the two together. The next step was to rub the mixture onto my scalp and then spread it throughout my hair (mine is about 3 inches below my shoulders). This procedure accomplished, I placed the suggested plastic shower cap over my hair, covered it with a warm, damp towel, and let it “soak in” for about an hour.
Hoping for spectacular results, I rinsed the avocado out of my hair. And rinsed. And rinsed. Homemade shampoo came next. It suds up as usual, so I felt pretty confident the goop was out of my hair. I rinsed out the soap but noticed that my hair felt clumpy. I thought I should use some conditioner, so I pulled out some fragrance-free stuff that was nearby. When I rinsed it out, my hair was still clumping together. I wrapped it in a towel and left it for a bit so I could complete another task.
Finally removing the towel, I began to comb out my hair. Or maybe I should say, trying to comb out my hair. I usually don’t have any trouble, but the clumps I noticed before were still there. It was a slow process, and bits of avocado fiber were falling all over my bathroom sink. I didn’t realize avocadoes had so many fibers until I saw them piling up like bits of thread. One would have thought I was sewing instead of trying to brush my hair!
After I finally managed to get out the tangles, I pulled out my blow dryer. I thought maybe it would help if I removed some of the moisture from my hair. Wrong again. Even after it was dry, my hair stuck together in clumps. It looked as if I hadn’t washed it for several weeks. I felt like I had used “greasy kid stuff” from back in the days when it was popular to goop up one’s hair (although that style was for guys).
By that time, I was tired of trying to deal with the disaster on my head. I twisted my hair together, pulled it up behind my head, and used a clip to hold it there. My plan was to take an early shower and shampoo my hair again. I wanted it to have plenty of time to dry before I went to bed. However, that idea was changed by a little boy that wanted to talk to his Grammie. I didn’t understand much of what 2-year-old Colton was telling me, but speaking with him and his 7-year-old brother Liam was more important to me than my bad hair day. By the time our conversation was ended, I felt like it was too late to wash my hair (although I did take a shower).
The next morning, I released the barrette from the back of my head (I switched from the clip before I went to bed the night before). I groaned when I looked in the mirror and saw the state of my hair . “Lord,” I prayed, “please don’t let this be a repeat of what happened with the baby oil!” I started with the “big guns” – I used my Dawn® Pure Essentials dishwashing liquid for the first wash. I rinsed it out, then used commercial shampoo followed by another rinse. After that came a healthy dose of conditioner (again, the commercial variety), and one more rinse. The blow dryer came next. As I was using it, I kept praying that all the goop was out of my hair. Thankfully, it was. My hair looks normal again. I am dealing with the scent left from the hair products as best I can.
Note to self: As relating to your hair, when in doubt, don’t.