If you’ve ever paid close attention to all of the natural and organic hair products you use, you may have noticed that they contain marshmallow – like the infamous knot today. The first time I saw this and before I was into hair product ingredients as much as I am now, I was surprised. I eat marshmallows like candy, so I was thinking, I know they are not talking about the puffy, sugary stuff!
And that is right, marshmallow root is a herb that is mucilage rich. It’s the root of the marshmallow plant that provides the slip like conditioner which helps to detangle hair. As an added bonus, marshmallow root is anti inflammatory which helps to alleviate dry scalp and dandruff.
Combined together with burdock root which can help to strengthen hair, hold in moisture and add sheen to your hair on top of it’s claimed hair growth promotion and scalp calming effects, you can have a very good homemade detangler on your hands. Burdock root is also a mucilage plant so combining it with marshmallow will make your detangling much easier. Lots of other curly and kinky haired women love this stuff, so it’s about time we got on it too!
In a pot water of just starting to simmer/low boil add:
- 15- 20 dried organic hibiscus flowers
- simmer the flowers for about 5 minutes making sure your water does not boil
- remove from heat and remove flowers
- add 3 tablespoons organic dried marshmallow root
- and 3 tablespoons organic dried burdock root and stir them into the hot water
- cover your conditioner with plastic wrap and let the herbs infuse for 15 minutes.
- strain and pour the liquid into a squirt or squeeze bottle (i like to use an old water bottle with the pop out top)
Use this mixture on freshly washed and clean hair and do not rinse out. Comb through your hair and style as usual. (I like to add jojoba and extra virgin olive oil on top of my hair to seal)
Ladies…do an internet search on the wanted item(s) and you will see in the search a number of places that sell these herbs–one being www.texasnaturalsupply.com
try your local health food store to purchase the herbs. You can also try Whole Foods if you have one near you.
I'm not even sure where I would get the ingredients for this recipe… I have tried products that contained this items but I prefer a recipe that has ingredients that are not very expensive, easily accessible and can be used for other purposes such as honey, mango, avocado, EVOO, etc.
My mum has good skin. So I just briefly took one of her SKII (http://www.geocities.jp/hongkong_skii/index_e.htm) to use, which I assume is a moisturizer. It's good man I tell you! She gave me a small bottle of eye cream before but the effects weren't that great and I stopped using. But my mum's moisturizer is good! I can feel it reacting once I applied it
doing too much.
I'm itching to use these herbs!!! Once I'm done with the no buy challenge I'm getting my herbs 🙂
Where do u get the ingredients??
I have to try these mucilage plants. I used flaxseed and okra mucilage. But, I rinsed out the liquid obtained by boiling them. My hair grew more coarse and less thin.Still, my hair was a little stiff and a hairdesser specialised in natural hair made me notice that my hair seemed unable to absorb any products like if a shield was blocking them.
So, I have stopped flaxseed and okra for 2 weeks and my hair is now able back to absorb my castor oil and other homemade spritz.
Nonetheless, I think that from time to time I will try a mucilage, maybe hibiscus to keep my hair strong and alternate deep conditioning with mucilage and natural organic oils (so deliciously slippery) and just organic oils that my hair love.
Just as an FYI – the word "infamous" is used incorrectly in this article. I believe it should say, "like the famous knot today" instead of "like the infamous knot today".
The word "infamous" means: having an extremely bad reputation. For example, an infamous city.
I just thought I'd point that out.
To stretch or enhance my fav conditioner or leave in I add; a boiled mix of about 1 to 2cups of water, With 2 tbs slipery elm and marshmallow root each. Let boil until water consistence chances and appares a tiny bit thicker when bubbles form. Strain then Add this to 1oz of conditioner. This mix help stretch a very expensive bottle of conditioner plus adds much more need slip for detangling. Some times I top of with a lil of evoo. This mix can also be use as a spritz.
I never thought to use Hibiscus or burdock root, will be giving this a try…
I use hibiscus in my henna mix, it gives my hair a burgundy tint, its also helped my hair from shedding in the winter time…basically it has alot of the same benefits as henna so sometimes Sometimes I just boil the hibiscus and add it to my conditioner. It soaks in your hair and rinses out just like water. I use it when I don't feel like going through all the henna steps.
It doesn't say how much water to use…1 cup, 2 cups…???? Anyone have any idea??? But that sounds like something that will work well on my daughters. Their hair is SO thick and I need a really good detangler for them cuz I HATE combing their hair!!! lol
I have used all three plus slippery elm. I love them all for my detangling sprays. Its hard to pick which one was the best because I threw them all in the pot with other herbs I had on hand. Of the three, slippery elm was the most expensive per ounce at my healthfood store.
I love the "slip" that marshmallow gives and recently started adding it to my alma powder treatments.
http://www.naturalbecomesher.com
How about slippery elm? Is that as good as these two? Any additional properties? Easier to get hold of maybe?
I love all three in the tea I use for my henna mix! Very nourishing