Go Deep - That deep conditioner masque is so necessary

It is important to go deep – regularly.

Even if you look after your hair health really, really well, you still need to go deep every now and again.

If you are blessed enough to have silky locks that comb glides through with zero effort then you probably don’t see the point of deep conditioning, but be assured that it is still important to do.

Here’s why…..

You really need to take care of your scalp; it is skin after all, the same as the rest of your body, and it does need some TLC too.

Also, hair washing, hair styling, hair products, the weather, pollutants in the air, hats, pillows – all these things can damage your hair, yes – even the most healthy hair, the smoothest, shiniest, silkiest, best smelling hair gets damaged!

It is unavoidable just because of the world we are in, damage just happens. In an effort to combat those effects we can prevent the damage as much as possible, protect the hair where we can, and then do our best to repair the damage.

Now that my hair has been restored as much as I am able and chopped as much as I am willing (sometimes the extra damaged bits just need to be removed) I deep condition regularly to replenish the nutrients that my hair seems to crave. I believe it makes my hair stronger, my scalp healthier – which then grows better hair – and of course it looks, and feels, better as a result.

Which deep conditioner is best?

I have two: one is a quick easy shop bought product supplied in a plastic container and shipped from overseas. The other is homemade.

The shop bought deep conditioner I tend to use is  

Shea moistures (‘we love ridiculously long names’) Jamaican black castor oil Strengthen grow and restore hair masque 

This product works well if I need a curl boost just before heading out OR on freshly washed hair. It always works best when applied on wet hair; always.

Procedure…..

I apply the masque sparingly to my roots but quite generously to the rest of my hair. The ends of the hair are the oldest therefore the driest and most damaged so I concentrate the masque here.

I leave the masque on my hair for at least 15 minutes but I do think the longer the better. If you can manage an hour that’s fab.

For a good, well-done, deep condition treatment you need to wrap your hair in something non-absorbent ie a plastic shower cap or plastic bag (if you still have any).

To rinse, I bend my head over the bath tub and use the shower attachment with cold water.

I wrap my hair in my micro fibre towel and style as I want to.

The home made deep conditioner recipe is……

…..a work in progress

I literally found all of the ingredients that I have used independently on my hair and that made an improvement in some way. I put them all in a bowl together, mixed them together really well and applied it to my hair. It was disgusting!

I really wanted it to work, and to work well. But it didn’t. And I was sad.

I tried again the next week having tweaked things a little. And again the week after.

I think version 3 worked well and I am quite happy with the recipe, which I will share below, but I wanted to point out to you that it was a process for me to find the best recipe  that worked for me. It may or may not work for you exactly as it is written here, you probably will have to tweak it for the type of hair you have, the length of hair you have, the extent of damage your hair has and the length of time since your last deep conditioning treatment.

We are a quick-to-be-discouraged society so I just wanted to fore-warn you to have a try but be prepared to tweak if it doesn’t work perfectly for you. And a note on that – write down the recipe, the method you tried AND the results. It will really help you the following week if you do need to tweak.

Recipe and procedure……

I beat 1 egg in a mug and set aside. I heat up 2 tbsp coconut oil in a cereal bowl until just soft enough to mix with the other ingredients and then I simply mix in 1 tbsp honey and the beaten egg. That’s it.

Fyi….. my original experiment included a tbsp yogurt and a tbsp apple cider vinegar but I found it didn’t work well, it didn’t mix well and it gave the masque more of a tonic feel to it. But anyway, try it for yourself and see what you think

The method I use is to simply apply it to dry hair INCLUDING the roots and scalp. It is for this reason that I prefer the home made one to the Shea Moisture one because I really do think that looking after my scalp is the secret to healthy, thick, stylable hair. I leave it under the plastic for as long as I can, then I get in the shower and wash it out properly with shampoo and conditioner. Then, style as normal.

The hair is not as instantly soft on rinsing as with actual products but it did style beautifully and it always has done, every time I have used this home made masque.  

So I hope you have been inspired to go deep with your hair care. When you have a bit of time give it a try and see what you think.