great deep conditioner recipe

I cowashed and deep conditioned my hair yesterday. It had been  2 weeks since my last wash, but I took care of it between washes by moisturizing everyday with water in a spray bottle and twisting in shea butter every other day or three. So my hair didn’t feel like sandpaper, like it used to before my big chop when I’d get so swept away by work that I’d just wear a head wrap for weeks on end and starve my hair underneath. (Sorry, booboo.)

Anyhoodle, the day before the DC treatment, I was chatting with my sis, DK. I thought the honey from my last deep conditioner made my hair a little crunchy, but she suggested that it might have been the conditioners. Later on, I looked at the bottles again. The Aloe Jojoba Conditioning Rinse ingredients seemed fine (to my untrained eye), but the Profectiv Mega Growth Detangling Conditioner is a protein conditioner and has petrolatum AND mineral oil! (Lesson: Don’t buy conditioner when you’re tired and distracted. No offense to Profectiv lovers.) My hair isn’t a big fan of protein, so I shouldn’t have left it in for 3 hours, but the vaseline and mineral oil are not for my hair at all. DK also suggested using an egg to condition my hair from time to time. So based on her advised, I came up with a new deep conditioning treatment.

IT WAS MARVELOUS.

For me, this is a lot of shine. This is texture of the front, which has the loosest curl. (I'd already twisted most of my hair before remembering to take photos :-)

My hair was so soft and springy when I rinsed it out! I’d forgotten that my hair could be springy, LOL. A day later and it’s still soft and springy in the twists, probably because of the humectants in the mix: honey and glycerin. My hair also seems to like the protein in eggs. I plan to use this treatment once or twice a month.

What you’ll need for one sitting:

• Honey – the egg will make the mix watery, so add in as much honey as you like (honey’s a humectant, so it pulls moisture into your hair)
• Egg – 1 (the yolk has cholesterol and most of the egg’s nutrients and it softens your hair, while the white is packed with protein and strengthens your hair) 
• Extra virgin coconut oil – 2 tablespoons, melted (coconut oil is supposed to be one of the few things that penetrate the hair shaft for good)
• Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tablespoons (olive oil is great for shiny and softness)
• Vegetable glycerin – 1 tablespoon (a great humectant; a little goes a long way)
• Regular conditioner – this doesn’t go in the mix but is introduced in step 8 (for detangling)

What I did:

1. I use a wide-mouthed bottle for my conditioner mixes just because I hate messes and also because I find that squirting the mix from a bottle is easier than pouring it from a bowl.
2. Beat the egg first before adding it to the honey, then add in the EVOO, EVCO, and glycerin. (No conditioner till step 8.)
3. Afte co-washing/washing, soak up the excess water in your hair with an old T-shirt because the mix has lots of liquid in it already.
4. Work in the conditioner mix in sections, massaging it in well. Make sure you get it everywhere, including your ends and edges.
5. Cover with a tightly-fitted shower cap. You might need to tie a towel or plastic bag around that if the mixture is drippy.
6. Leave it in for 1-2 hours. How long you leave it in is really up to you. I’m trying to simplify my routine (and the egg smell was starting to get to me), so I left it about an hour and a half.
7. Take off the cap, massage in a little of your regular conditioner, and detangle gently with your fingers or a smooth, wide-toothed comb. The conditioner helped me minimize shedding and it loosened up the one or two tangles I hit.
8. Rinse and continue with your regimen.

What you should know:

– My hair tends to dry out a lot and this deep conditioning treatment really put the moisture back in, making it soft, springy, and shiny once I’d rinsed it. When I first took off the cap, it felt a little crunchy, but literally less than 2 minutes later, it was softer
– I had minimal shedding
– The mix was really drippy! I had to put a T-shirt around the shower cap edges AND a plastic bag over my whole head. That was the most annoying part, but I think the heat all that wrapping generated helped. So if you REALLY hate such messes, you might want to add more honey and less egg–maybe use half a beaten egg and save the rest for lunch?
– The smell of the egg bugged me. That’s why I had the mix in only an hour and a half, which turned out to be fine, as I discovered that I only need about an hour. So if you don’t like the smell of egg in your hair…
– As I mentioned, I plan to do this once or twice a month. My regular weekly deep condition will comprise everything but the egg and glycerin. More on that in my next post.
– My regimen after I was done deep conditioning helped preserve softness. I’m going to describe it in my next post

So there’s my deep conditioner mix! Try it and let me know your thoughts!

for me at this length, this is acceptable shedding during twisting. lost about the same amount during the cowash and DC