You all know, or should know by now, that a protein treatment should be a regular thing in your hair regimen. If you’re not doing it please know that you could be hindering your hair’s changes to be healthy. All hair needs protein! Our hair is essentially made of protein and manipulation, weather, styling, shampooing and so on all remove protein from your hair. Therefore, you need to give it back to your hair. How do you feel about making your own gelatine hair treatment moisturiser?
I’ve told you before that I like to use my henna dye sessions as my protein treatments as well, just because it is amazing and works so well for me. However, from time to time I do whip up a homemade recipe, like the protein hair treatment I posted here before. Today I won’t exactly be sharing a hair mask, but it does involve protein, it is a gelatine hair treatment moisturiser you can make to apply on your hair whenever you feel your hair needs a little kick.
What You’ll Need
Ingredients
1 3/4 tsp. of Colourless/Unflavoured Gelatine Powder or 1 – 2 sheets of gelatine
1 tbsp. Coconut Oil
8 tbsp./120ml of Distilled/Filtered Water
250/300 ml of your moisturiser
Instructions
If using gelatine powder, mix it with the water and stir to blend, then microwave the mixture for 30 seconds and stir again. Let it cool down. If using gelatine sheets, soak the sheets in water for 5 minutes and in the meanwhile warm the 120ml of distilled water. When it’s hot, squeeze the gelatine sheets to eliminate excess water and stir them into the hot water until completely blended and let it cool down.
When the mixture has cooled down a bit, blend it with your moisturiser and then add the vegetable oil. Your protein moisturiser is ready to use.
Application
To achieve good results, the best way to use this moisturiser is to section your hair into how many parts you want (4 is enough), take a small amount of hair from one section and work the moisturiser through. Once you finish one section move to the next one. Style your hair in whatever way you want and you’re finished.
This cream will be good to help reduce frizz, to give curl definition, to help reduce breakage and, because it has protein in it, it will also help with high porosity hair in maintaining moisture. I have, however, a few remarks for you.
1| Check your other hair products – protein is good for your hair, but excess protein is one of your worst nightmares, your hair can snap and break. Make sure that when you make this recipe and use it the other hair products in your hair regimen don’t contain protein. Read this post and this one to know what proteins may look like in your products.
2| Thickness – as a base for this recipe you’ll need to use one of your moisturisers (make sure it doesn’t have protein). Aim to use a light to medium consistency moisturiser as the gelatine in the recipe will thicken your final mixture. Alternatively, you can use less gelatine.
3| Frequency of use – I don’t advise you to use this every day or has your regular moisturiser, just because too much protein is a bad thing especially if your hair doesn’t need it. My suggestion, if you are experiencing breakage, is to use it in your weekly wash routine to style your hair and maybe, mid-week when you revive your curls. As you start to see any improvements on your hair breakage you should reduce its use and eventually stop.
However, if you’re experiencing breakage you should really address the issue and see where it is originating from. If you haven’t checked The Ultimate 5 Step Guide To Natural Hair Breakage Control I created for you, you should! In there I recreate the process I went through to identify, address and revert my problems with hair breakage in 5 little steps. Check the post to get your FREE worksheet guide.
4| Use by date – Because you’ll be using water in this recipe the possibility of bacteria growth is considerable. However, if you store it in the fridge when you’re not using it should hold for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.
The recipe is so easy to make that even a toddler can do it with supervision, of course. There are only a few ingredients, 4 actually if you count your moisturiser, and you should have them all at home. You can substitute the coconut oil with another vegetable oil you have such as EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and the gelatine is super affordable to buy if you don’t have any.
Let me know if you try this recipe and if you like it.
