D.I.Y Moisturiser: The Joys of Fluid Dynamics in Hair Care

Ok, I think I have found a new thing to make me giggle when it comes to hair care. I decided yesterday to finally use the unrefined Shea butter that I had purchased months ago and make something fun!

I will let you in on  a few fun facts of Shea butter (1,2,3):

• Source: Fat of the nut from the Karite tree (African Shea  tree).
• Healing powers: blemishes, burns, eczema, scars (stretch marks say bye-bye!) and even wrinkles :O
• Anti-ageing: Contains vitamins A and E
• Moisturiser and Anti-Inflammatory agent: Contains a large amount of essential fatty acids that aid in the moisturising of both dry hair and skin.

Ok, so now onto the fun part. I decided to make my very own shea butter based moisturiser :D!! This is obviously not anew thing. Many hair gurus and all-natural-ingredients-enthusiasts have been playing around with this "whipped shea butter" moisturiser for some time but I thought I'd share my experience for the benefit of those who don't know about it :)

Ingredients I used:

I decided on adding Jamaican Black Castor oil and coconut oil to my shea butter because of the luscious goodness they each bring to my hair.  The carrier oil of your choice (in my case, coconut oil ) will prevent the  shea butter from turning back to its cold hard state grrr! lol.

Steps I took:

1. I placed my shea butter into an old takeaway container as I'm a student and can't afford for separate cooking utensils for hair experiments :)
2. I melted my shea butter using the double- boiler method i.e. I heated up some water in a pot and brought it to boil, took it off the heat source and placed the shea butter filled container into the boiled water.
3. Once all the big lumps melted away I added some coconut oil. I eyeballed it tbh. Again, I'm the type of student who doesn't have measuring devises in her kitchen. The ratio of SB: CO was about 4:1- the chem eng'r in me creeping out ;-)
4. I poured JBCO into the cap of its bottle and poured that amount into the mixture.
5. I then began to whisk the concoction....with a plastic fork LOL. Again, I'm a student...Have I overused that excuse yet? :)
6. And then 40 minutes and an arm workout later, I had my finished product!

 It was so cool seeing something that was once a rock...ok, slight exaggeration...but something that was once a solid turn into a nice, smooth viscous substance once shear forces were applied. See, if my fluid dynamics module was taught to me using examples like this I might have done better than I did hehe.

So, after placing the moisturiser into an old tub I then proceeded to moisturise my freshly washed soft hair (I shall post an updated wash day routine). Omd peeps! My hair was sooo lush. It felt...alive! It was that good. I thought the consistency of the moisturiser won't agree with my hair but once I applied more shear force (i.e. rubbing it in between my hands lol) it was easy to apply to my hair and it didn't weigh my hair down at all.

Hope you have all had a great weekend guys! I know I had a slightly lazy one hehe.

Till next time!

Luv, Mo xx