Homemade "fix my broken hair" Hair Mask....

So after 2.5years of dying my hair a vibrant red it is starting to really suffer. It is also long overdue a chop so a combination of bleaching, dying, split ends etc has left it somewhat straw like (hence my uber excitement at Aldi's recent release of a Morrocanoil Dupe). The colour washes out from the lengths much quicker than the roots so after about 2 weeks of washing I am left with two toned hair red at the roots and coppery in the lengths and generally just urgh! I decided before adding to the mess that it is with colour perhaps I should try an intensive moisture mask to help it along a little and bring it back to life. Impetuous as I am I decided this about 40 minutes ago and in the absence of anything special in the bathroom cabinet I decided to make a mask for my hair from the contents of my kitchen.... eeek!

The Detail:

So here's my "recipe" -

1 Mashed Banana

1 Egg

4 x Tsp of Olive Oil

1 x Tsp of Miracle Oil

4 x Tsp of Honey

 I threw them all into the blender and blitzed til smooth (very important as I later realised while letting it soak in and further researching my choices that many people seem to have had problems getting bits of banana out of their hair...started to freak out a bit around about then!). I donned plastic gloves and basically slathered the stuff all over my head making sure to cover all the lengths too. While I did this I had a turban hair towel heating on the radiator to wrap it all up in. Once it was all applied I got himself involved much to his amusement I should add. I made him wrap my head in clingfilm as seen in the preview pic! Then on with the hot towel and then I let it soak in... along with a somewhat impending sense of fear!!

The Images:

My manky hair... please judge not I've been super busy working and blogging and have neglected it terribly (sadface):

 

The *ahem* lovely mask:

 My clingfilmed head (himself was weeing himself he was laughing so hard at me!!):

And as I am actually typing this blog as I let it all soak in the end result is yet to be established!!

The Sciencey Bit:

Ok so there is no real science here as its a total spur of the moment DIY job based on what I had in the kitchen but below is my logic to the inclusion of each product -

Banana - I realise this sounds ick but they are full of tryptophan an amino acid which is great for hair and skin. They are also vitamin and mineral rich, I'm particularly liking the potassium which helps softening (here's hoping!)

Egg - my mum always told me if I wanted shiny hair to crack an egg over it. I can never say I tried it but have a shed load of eggs here that need using and figured since they are full of protein they can only but help!

Olive Oil - well its great on your face, good on your cuticles so I figured in the absence of almond or jojoba oil a bit of the old olive oil would do!! Hot oil treatments are amazing for smoothing hair and removing the frizz.

Miracle Oil - this has argan oil in it which is the oil used in Moroccanoil and is the hottest treatment oil for hair at the moment, its said to reduce frizz, eliminate brittleness and increase moisture. I used this in the hope that if everything else went wrong this teaspoon of wonder stuff may help!!

Honey - erm honestly? i threw this in to help with the smell! I always use honey in my banana smoothies and thought maybe it would help as it's full of good stuff and helps moisturise your body so why not your hair?!

Ok so right about now I am seriously freaking out as I need to remove this all (1 hour later) and I'm a bit scared - ha ha. My cockiness has subsided after typing out my logic it doesn't feel as sound now as it was but I'm off to wash it out and I'll be back with a conclusion ASAP!

The Conclusion:

Holy good god. Right well I pulled off the towel and cling film and lashed on a bit of hot water and lathered it all up. It felt lovely and smooth so I was feeling positive but then I started to shampoo it and a lot of red came pouring out... now this always happens so I'm not sure if the colour loss was related to the mask or not. A wee bit worried now I continue but as I rinse everything out my hair feels really hard and erm, straw like, literally. I am seriously panicking now but sure what can I do. Lashing lots of hot water through it to make sure I get rid of all the oil I contemplated throwing in some conditioner but had previously decided not to so I could show the masks true results. With images of me wearing a beanie hat' for the rest of the weekend I towel dried it and prayed for it to feel nicer but it didn't. I then went to brush it and was amazed as for the first time in a long long time my brush glided through it unlike the normal knot battle I have. This made me feel a little more hopeful. A nice speedy hair dry later (I know argan oil is supposed to speed up drying time but had no idea so little would really make such a difference) and my hair felt lovely and smooth and was completely frizz free which is very unusual for me after a blow dry even when I use conditioner so I am well impressed with that aspect of it. My hair is still dry but in all honesty not much was going to fix it in one go. I am surprisingly pleased with this though and think I'm going to try it again a few times with Miracle Oil treatments in between and hopefully save my locks from the only other solution - the big chop!! I really thought for a few minutes there this blog would suddenly be about the woes of DIY beauty treatments but actually it turned out great!! All's well that ends well and here's an image of the end result so you can see what you think....