Tag: hair growth

Sage To Darken Gray Hair And Promote Hair Growth

Natural Remedies

Culpeper says of Sage that it ’causes the hair to become black’.

Garden sage has many therapeutic uses.

In the garden, its flowers provide medicine and nectar for the bees, as well as a herbal tonic to the neighbouring plants.

It is well-known as an aid to oral hygiene.  It has strong antiseptic qualities and is supposed to whiten tooth enamel.

Sage is still used today in some tooth-pastes.  It is reputedly one effective remedy for bleeding gums,  and improving gum health:  The crushed fresh leaves are massaged several times a day onto the gums and teeth.

The tea is gargled to relieve sore throats, colds and flu,  and ulcers in the mouth.

It can be effective to reduce fevers, and has been used in the past for thyphoid fever. (see ‘Herbal Remedies  and Homeopathy’ published by Geddes and Grosset.)

It is a valuable nerve medicine, and is a useful stomach remedy for improving a weak appetite.

Natural Herbal Hair Dye and Tonic:  Sage can help restore healthy hair and improve the colour.

Strong sage tea encourages hair growth and darkens the hair, if it is used on a regular basis. Many herbalists describe it in their writings:  see John Heinerman’s ‘Encyclopedia of Fruits Vegetables and Herbs’.

Rosemary is another wonderful herb which can help hair growth, but it does not have such a darkening effect on the hair, as sage does.

Recipe For Sage Hair Dye:  Here is a simple, natural hair dye and tonic which you can try.  It is perfectly safe to use, as it does not contain any harmful additives such as you might find in commercial dyes for darkening the hair.

Take two cups of fresh sage leaves and put into a stainless steel saucepan.

Add one cup of dry black tea leaves

Add half a cup of cider vinegar and eight cups of water.

Simmer very gently, with no lid, for one hour on a very low heat.  You should have around half the original quantity of liquid left at the end of an hour.  If you need to add a little more water, make sure you do so well before you finish simmering the brew.  If you add more water at the end of the simmering, then your mixture will not keep so well.

Take off the heat after an hour of simmering.  Set aside to cool.

Once your sage mixture has cooled properly, strain it off.

To the liquid remaining add the same amount of vodka.

Put into a bottle with a screw-top lid and store in a cool place.

Massage around a tablespoonful of the sage infusion into the hair each day.  Use more or less, depending on how much hair you need to cover.

Massage the sage tonic well into the roots of the hair as well, so that it feeds the scalp and hair follicles.  Massaging the scalp with the sage tonic will help the hair to grow again.

The oils in the sage leaves will put a natural shine to the hair.

Once the hair is sufficiently darkened, which may take several weeks, you can reduce the amount of applications each week.  Once or twice a week may be enough to maintain the darker colour.

Sage is really very good for the hair in so many ways.

Alternative Sage Tonic Without Alcohol:  You could make up your sage tea without the alcohol if you wish.  Only, remember that your mixture will not keep for longer than a week, and it must be kept in the fridge.  You could make up a lesser amount, enough to last a week, and then make up a fresh brew of tea for the following week.

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Birch Tree Leaves And Apple Cider Vinegar For Hair Growth

Natural Remedies

Herbal Hair Treatment: Birch And Cider Vinegar Hair Tonic

The medicinal qualities of the Birch Tree are well known.  For rheumatism, arthritis, gout and dropsy, the birch remedy has been much used in the past, according to the old herbalists of yesteryear.

Nelson Coon wrote in his book ‘Using Herbs For Healing’ that salicylic acid is obtained from the Sweet Birch  herb when it is distilled.  Salicylic acid is a component of aspirin, which is often prescribed for rheumatic complaints.  So there is an explanation for why Birch tree remedies have been so much used in the past for treating this and related conditions.

Note:  Salicylic acid is also found in the bark of the White Willow Tree.  This remedy was commonly used to treat headaches, rheumatism, and all sorts of aches and pains before the synthetic form was discovered, namely aspirin.

Read my earlier post on how Birch Tree leaves have been used to treat kidney stones, insomnia, rheumatism, arthritis, dropsy and gout:

Birch Tree Leaves for Kidney Stones

Birch For Hair Growth:  Oil extracted from Birch bark is similar to oil of Wintergreen, which is well-known as a stimulant to encourage hair growth.

Several modern herbalists have written of the value of Birch Tree Leaves in treating baldness.  We find references to its use in treating baldness in the writings of John Lust, who recommended pounding up fresh leaves with your mortar and pestle, and then massaging the juice into the scalp.

Birch Leaf Tea is also a good stimulant for hair growth, and to give the hair a nice shine.

But here is my own method for making a hair tonic which combines cider vinegar and Birch Tree leaves.

Simply pick a good handful of fresh Birch Tree leaves.

Chop the leaves up a little, or bruise them in your mortar and pestle.

Then put them into a jar and cover the leaves with apple cider vinegar of a good quality.

Screw on the lid and leave to infuse in a warm place for two weeks.

Shake the Birch Leaf mixture each day to bring out the nutrients.

After two weeks, strain off the liquid into a bottle which has an air-tight lid.

Use as a tonic on the hair after washing it with your regular shampoo or soap.

Simply massage around two tablespoonsful of the Birch Leaf Tonic into the hair, straight after towelling the hair semi-dry.  Leave the tonic on the hair while it is drying.

The cider vinegar neutralizes the alkaline effect of shampoo or soap, which makes for a healthy scalp.  Cider vinegar also has a helpful effect in that it encourages good circulation to the roots of the hair.

The other benefit to the hair is that the nutrients in the apple cider vinegar, combined with the Birch Tree nutrients will nourish the scalp and help to stimulate new hair growth.

Sage is another wonderful herb for the hair.  See my earlier post on how to use sage as a hair tonic.

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Two Week Cleansing Detox Herbal Recipe

Natural Herbal Remedy And Cleansing Tonic

Simple to make, and simple to use, here is a two-week cleansing formula to help start the spring with more vitality.

This is a silica-rich herbal tonic which uses  comfrey, dandelion, birch leaves, nettles and rose hips.  These herbs, in combination,  can improve the digestive system and improve the hair.

This herbal remedy works as a cleanser by encouraging the elimination of harmful toxins from the liver and intestines.  It can also be effective in helping to reduce fat deposits.

This formula can help constipation. It can help to purify the blood.  It can also help  reduce the pain of arthritic and rheumatoid conditions.

This herbal tonic will also help to improve the digestion by removing mucous from the bowel and toning up the liver, so that nutrients from food can be absorbed more easily.

The herbs used in this recipe are rich in iron, potassium, silica, enzymes, vitamins, serotonin and other nutrients which will help build good blood and nourish the body cells, bones, hair and nails.

Nettles and Comfrey are famous for their silica content which builds strong bones, helps encourage hair growth, and to form strong healthy nails.

Recipe For Herbal Cleansing Tonic:

Mix together equal quantities of dried birch leaves, comfrey leaves, dandelion leaves, nettle leaves and dried rosehips. Use around 2 tablespoons of each dried herb.  Mix, and store in an air-tight container.

To Use The Herbal Cleansing Tonic;

Take one rounded teaspoon of the herbal mixture  and pour over a cup of boiling water.  Let the tea infuse for 10 minutes before drinking.

Take the tea twice a day for two weeks only.

Cease taking the cleansing tea after two weeks.  Wait for at least a month before you use the two-week herbal cleanse again.

Enema or Colonic Cleansing: It is helpful, though not imperative,  to take an enema or two during this period of cleansing.  Washing out the bowel of toxic residues lessens the chance of getting headaches or other unpleasant symptoms which sometimes arise when toxins are released through fasting and cleansing.

Avoid Wheat Bread, Cakes, Sugar and Dairy Milk :  If you can, for best results, avoid these foods whilst you are on your two-week herbal detox.

Breakfast: Have a large bowl of oatmeal porridge in the mornings with a grated apple and olive oil or a little butter,

Lunch or Dinner: Eat plenty of cooked and raw greens,  rice or potatoes, and good quality protein in the dinner meal, such as free-range chicken, free-range eggs,  and fish.

Snack on fruit, nuts, seeds, and soya milk, if it is tolerated. Almonds, sunflower seeds and ground sesame seed are very nutritious, rich in calcium and iron, and make good snacks or accompaniments to healthy desserts.

Home Made Lavender Lotion Insecticide

Lavender Natural Flea Repellant, Head Lice Repellant, Hair Conditioner.

Grow some lovely lavender.  It has many uses, apart from being a valuable natural insecticide.

Lavender is beneficial for the bees and for the health of your garden.  It will help to discourage pests, whilst attracting the bees.

Attracting bees into your garden will benefit the pollination of your other plants.

Lavender is good for the hair, making it shine and encouraging new growth.

Purple lavender is beautiful to behold, and its sight will have a calming influence on all who visit you and your garden.

Making Home Made Lavender Lotion is a very satisfying process.  Nothing like getting into your garden, picking a few handfuls of fresh lavender blossoms, and setting them down to ferment into something so lovely and as useful as your own brew of lavender lotion.

Home Made Lavender Lotion or Essence can be used neat, or as an addition to shampoos for the purpose of lice and flea prevention, and as a natural conditioner for the hair.

How To Make Homeopathic Lavender Solution: Lavender solution can also be used homeopathically as an insect repellant spray, for fleas or ants or vermin.  To use the lavender lotion homeopathically in this way,you use just one part of the home made lavender lotion to nine parts of water.  Then you succuss the mixture by shaking it vigorously around 100 times.  Sounds a lot, but really, it isn’t.  It takes just a minute or two of shaking, and – voila – you have a very potent but harmless insecticide spray.

This mixture needs to be used up within three days, or kept in the fridge, or, alternatively, use third vodka, two thirds water as your base solution.

Remember not to spray the homeopathic mixture  onto any blossoms which bees might visit, as it could harm the bees.

How To Make Home Made Lavender Lotion

Now is a good time to start your lotion. Pick the blooms in the spring,around September October in New Zealand,  when the blooms have begun to open out. It is best to pick your blooms early in the morning,  before the sun has dried off the aromatic oils on the flowers.

Fill a jar with the flowers. Any size jar can be used, depending on the quantity you wish to make. A jam jar with a screw-top lid is a good size to use for a start.

Once you have your jar filled with lavender blooms, squeeze the juice of one lemon over the lavender.

Add one tablespoon of brown sugar or honey to your jar of lavender blooms.

Top up with warm water to within an inch of the top, to allow for expansion with the fermentation process.

Loosely put on the lid.

Leave in a sunny spot such as a window-sill, but away from working areas and bedrooms. This is because it has a potent effect, even while it is fermenting, and you may not want to be dosing yourself with its energy all through the night or day.

Shake every day for 14 days. Remember to screw down the lid tightly before you shake the jar.  Then release the pressure on the cap again after the shaking.

After 14 days drain off the liquid and discard the flower material.  Pick some fresh blossoms, fill your jar again, and pour over the liquid which you have saved from the previous ferment.

You may need to top up the jar with a little more water.

Repeat the process, shaking each day for 14 days.

Repeat the procedure one more time after the 14 days are up, using  fresh flowers. Again let the mixture ferment for 14 days.

By the third time of fermentation, your lotion will have taken on a rich purple colour from the lavender blossoms.

All you have to do now is to drain the liquid lavender off and bottle it safely in a clean, dry jar or bottle.  Use a vessel which has a tightly fitting lid.  Keep your home made lavender lotion out of the sun in a cool place such as a bathroom cabinet or a dark cupboard, and high up on a shelf so that children cannot get hold of it.

Lavender lotion is highly concentrated, and would be very toxic if it were ingested, so it must be kept safe in a high place, well away from youngsters.

This lotion keeps indefinitely, so long as the storage is done as described.

Treatment Or Prevention of Fleas and Head Lice:

To help discourage fleas in your dog’s kennel, or to prevent head lice, use one part lavender lotion to 9 parts water and shake vigorously.  Spray a few squirts of the resulting homeopathic dilution onto the hair. You do not need to use very much, and repeat the application of a few squirts each day for about three days.  You do not have to cover the whole head, or spray over the whole area in a kennel.  Just a few squirts in one or two areas in a kennel should be enough to make a difference.

If necessary, repeat the application after a week, of just two or three squirts each day for another three days or so.

Repeat as described until the fleas or lice have gone.

Note:  The effect of homeopathic lavender solution is quite long-lasting.  So don’t use for long periods at a time, as this could have a weakening effect on the immune system.

Another Option For Treating Pets:   Alternatively, add the lavender lotion to your shampoo, using roughly one  lavender lotion to nine parts shampoo.

Shampoo which has been fortified with your home made lavender lotion will work as a flea and lice preventative, and it also works as a conditioner for the hair which is also helpful in maintaining good hair growth.

A bought conditioner, or hand or body lotion,  can be spiced up in the same way for use as a flea preventor. This can be a simple method of applying the lavender insecticide to your pets.

Simply add a portion of your home made lavender lotion to a portion of your good quality body lotion and shake it into the mixture.  Just make sure that you are using a GOOD commercial product to start with – one which does not contain parabens or any other harmful petro-chemicals or other bad stuff.

You need use just a smear or two under the chin and belly to repel those fleas from your pet.

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Castor Oil and Protein Treatment To Stimulate Hair Growth

This is a conditioner which uses castor oil, olive oil,  eggs, herbs, and other riches to help stimulate hair growth, and give lustre to the hair.  It is also a good recipe to use if the hair is damaged. The original recipe comes from the book ‘Herbs for Health and Beauty’ by Margaret Roberts, which is a great little herbal recipe book, published by Lowry Publishers, Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1986.  I give you here a rewrite of the ingredients she uses.

This conditioning treatment could be used regularly once or twice a week if your hair is thinning or is poorly nourished.  Once your hair has regained its health, with the help of good dietary measures as well, then it could be used less often.

Ingredients:

6 tbsps castor oil,

6 tbsps lanolin,

4 tbsps olive oil,

8 tbsp glycerine,

4 whole eggs,

4  egg yolks,

4 teaspoons of cider vinegar,

Two and a 1/2 cups warm water,

2 tbsps  shampoo.

Few drops of rosemary, neroli,  or lavender essential oil.

Put the castor oil into the top of a double boiler.  Add the lanolin and the olive oil to the castor oil.  Mix the ingredients together as they warm.  Take off the heat and let the mixture cool for five minutes only.

Then using an egg whisk, slowly whip in the glycerine, the water and the shampoo.  Lastly, add the cider vinegar, the egg yolks, and a few drops of essential oil.  Put into a jar with a screw-top lid and put into the fridge. Margaret warns that the mixture must be labelled ‘Hair Conditioner’ so that it is not mistaken for mayonaisse by any of the family.   The next day, beat up the remaining whole eggs, and add to the conditioner.

You apply the conditioner after washing the hair and leave it on for at least an hour with a shower cap on.  Use sunlight soap or shampoo to wash out.  Use a rosemary infusion, or a comfrey tea, or nettle tea,  as a final hair rinse.  The silica in comfrey, rosemary and nettles gives a great shine to the hair, and also helps to stimulate the growth of healthy hair.

Keep any remainder in the fridge to use next time.   It should last for at least a  week if it is kept in the fridge.