Using Indian Herbs and Oils to grow, Grow, GROW!

**ItsMyHair** · January 16th, 2009, 03:13 PM

This thread has encouraged me to place an order. My hair is very excited. Thanks for all the info!

**Aisha25** · January 16th, 2009, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by almudena

I love herbal washes

My recipe is very simple: 2 tbsps of shikakai, 3 tbsps of amla, hot water, let sit the paste for a few minutes, put the bowl in the tub, bend over, apply the paste in my scalp and mix the leftovers with conditioner, applying them in my length. Let sit in my head for about 15-30 minutes, jump into the shower and rinse. Sometimes I do an ACV rinse, sometimes no.
The thing I love the most about this method is, not only how great it leaves my hair

but its simplicity. And all the water I save in tthe rinsing process! Just one rinse (2 if I use ACV). No conditioner, wait, rinse, shampoo, rinse, conditioner, wait, rinse.

In my last wash, I only had 1 tbsp of amla and used cassia instead. Great results too.

Wow I like your method im going to try it sounds like my hairs will like it

thanks for sharing Almudena

**mellie** · January 16th, 2009, 04:43 PM

FYI if anyone else is interested (besides me, haha!), I did find one vendor for whole shikakai in North America, however they are in Ontario:

http://www.eastwestbazaar.com/produc...oducts_id=2098

Whole amla is available here:

http://www.indianblend.com/site/664954/product/SP-93

And here:

http://www.herbalhut.com/detail.aspx?ID=10176

I never have dealt with any of these vendors, so I can't vouch for them at all.

**MAO** · January 16th, 2009, 05:02 PM

I just washed my hair with a soapnut/amla/shikakai mix yesterday. I pre-oiled the night before with some Amla oil. Then I put one tablespoon each of amla and shikakai in two cups of distilled water. Boiled until it it started to foam up. I let it cool down and then I dumped in the bag of soapnuts I happened to find at the local indian grocery store. Let it sit overnight and then strained the next morning. I got a little application bottle and squirted it all over my head and made sure it was really saturated cuz I didn't want any left over oil in my hair. I left it on for about 10-15 minutes I'd say. My hair came out AWESOME. There were NO tangles!!!!! I washed my hair before with only the Amla/Shikakai and my hair wasn't this tangle free. Not sure if it was the soapnuts or the oil cuz it was my first time with both of those. My hair came out really nice and smooth and holy cow, no frizz! My horns have been tamed! Of course I have to give thanks to Mellie for posting about the soapnuts. I wonder if she has been keeping track of how many people have thanked her about this? Anyway, my hair ROCKS after using indian herbs. I wish I had known about these a long time ago......

**mellie** · January 16th, 2009, 05:04 PM

Oh that's very nice of you Mao!

I'm so glad that you are so happy with it! I'd love to see some pics if you have any!

**eaglefeather71** · January 16th, 2009, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by ItsMyHair

This thread has encouraged me to place an order. My hair is very excited. Thanks for all the info!

Your very welcome. I am a littlw worried about the place I bought the whole soapnuts from. I haven't received them yet

:. It hasen't been an unreasonable amount of time, but it's starting to get worrisom.

Originally Posted by mellie

Oh that's very nice of you Mao!

I'm so glad that you are so happy with it! I'd love to see some pics if you have any!

Oh! Me too, Me too!

We need pics of more results for sure!

**eaglefeather71** · January 16th, 2009, 06:10 PM

I'm finding it difficult to wait a few days between washing for a couple reasons. One, I just love this washing technique and want to wash all the time (it's kinda fun in a weird way, putting muddy stuff in my hair and having it come out so nice), and two, I'm not used to such soft, smooth hair and I don't know what to do with it. My hair is at that length that it isn't short any more, but isn't long yet either and I'm used to having more "body" for lack of a better term. I LOVE it but don't really know how to wear it down comfortably yet... the health is so much better though so I'll deal with it until I get used to the different texture.

**mellie** · January 16th, 2009, 06:36 PM

Haha, you're like me! I love washing with the foam, I feel kind of like a kid again, it's so fun!

And like you said, the softness and shine - so nice!!

I think you will see some quicker growth too, I have sure noticed a difference for myself when I went to exclusively soapnuts!

**MAO** · January 16th, 2009, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by eaglefeather71

Your very welcome. I am a littlw worried about the place I bought the whole soapnuts from. I haven't received them yet

:. It hasen't been an unreasonable amount of time, but it's starting to get worrisom.

Oh! Me too, Me too!

We need pics of more results for sure!

LOL I know, I need to take some pictures. I am not very good at taking pictures of my own hair. I tried and they didn't come out very well. I also tried to get my daughter to take pictures and those didn't come out very well either

. I wanna ask my husband to take some but he will probably look at me as if I've grown a second head. Oh well, practice makes perfect! I will try again this weekend. Actually, I tried to post those pictures that I took before but for some reason it didn't work.

**eaglefeather71** · January 16th, 2009, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by mellie

I think you will see some quicker growth too, I have sure noticed a difference for myself when I went to exclusively soapnuts!

Thats what I'm hoping for. Especially for my 14yo DD. She's in a growth stall that is lasting months. Researching for her is what led me to the indian herbs iand oils in the first place. I think my growth goals in my siggy are pretty agressive, but maybe with the help of soapnuts and herbs, I'll be able to reach then without using things like monistat