Neem for hair

I used neem and shikakai on my hair last week. Reflecting on the experience, a realization came to me.

I'm more enamoured with the idea of herbal hair washing products than I am of the actual washing of the hair with the herbs themselves. The powdered herbs are grainy. They require advance preparation. Mixing them with yogurt smoothes them out, but I find it still doesn't rinse as easily as store bought shampoos. Both times that I used herbs, my ends were dry all week long. My hair tangled more easily, more often. At 46 going on 47 I have to keep things moisturized because wrinkles and rumples and dryness and dullness look extra frightening at at this time of life, a time when I'm not used to my ever changing self yet.

Once a week I wash my hair so I can't add oils daily or as you can imagine, I'll have quite an unpleasant concoction of nearly three feet of hair, oil, dirt, and smell by week's end. I oil once, after washing and air drying my hair, using a blend of jojoba and sandalwook essential oil. That's got to do it. That's got to work. I need quick. I need convenient. I need soft and pretty and shiny. If it comes in pre-packaged 16 fl. oz. bottle - I'm taking it.

So my leftover herbs went into the trash today. It was fun but I'm back to my Body Shop Honey Moisturizing Shampoo and coordinating conditioner. I still have about ten different herbal teas leftover from my tea rinse experiment days. My ends were dry with the tea rinsing back then as well, but I can't bear to part with my little bags of herbs. They smell good and some of them are pretty. Maybe I'll drink them. Perhaps I'll double check with Google just to ensure I don't poison myself.