Lip Balm is fabulous hair conditioner
Natural Hair Care
Ithaca Beeswax Lip Balm works amazingly well as a hair conditioner.
Good lip balm has simple ingredients and is versatile. Read your lip balm ingredients label. If it has a natural ingredient called "Limonene", you may want to consider replacing it with a lip balm that does not contain that.
Have you ever accidentally bitten into the rind while eating an orange? The immediate astringent ,drying and irritating feeling on your lips and inside your mouth is limonene. Limonene is a natural skin irritant and a common ingredient in most natural and artificial lip balms.
When talking about lip balm being versatile, it's best to start with one that's limonene free.
A little bit goes a very long way
It's simple
How does any of this relate to haircare?
Take a little bit of lip balm, about as much as you would apply to your lips, and rub it on your fingertips. Then rub your fingertips on and through your hair. It's that simple.
The timing for applying lip balm to your hair is not fixed.
You can do this a day or 2 before you wash your hair. This is the slow absorption method, allwong time to let your hair slowly soak up the lip balm. Then, when you wash your hair, any remaining lip balm that did not soap in, will get washed off, leaving your hair soft and silky.
Another method is to apply the lip balm in the shower, while your hair is freshly washed and the hot water is running over it. The steam will help spread the lip balm evenly through your hair.
A third option is to apply the lip balm on your freshly washed hair after your it has dried and leav it to slowly soak in until the next time you wash your hair.
Let's start at the beginning
Wash your hair
To be clear, my hair has a lot of wave, and a few unruly banana curls. I usually brush them out the day after I wash my hair. For the most part my hair looks straight-ish with a slight wave.
I do not have curly hair, but would definitely like to keep the wave and banana curls longer than a few hours.
Since 2003 I have exclusively washed my hair with our Olive Oil Shampoo, (which has been in Bar form since 2013).
natural ingredients work best
The Best Hair Conditioner
The best long hair conditioner? After many experiments, Ithaca Soap and Beeswax Lip Balm works the best for me.
I went to the Ithaca Farmers Market one day, and a friend had new hair. It was curly! Normally her hair is very straight. She did a long hair conditioning method that is specific and best for long curly hair.
This will work on short hair also. Now that I've actually had short hair a few times in recent years, I know how much easier, and more difficult, it is than long hair. What takes an hour for long hair will take 5 minutes or less with short hair.
Of course I asked how she achieved her beautiful curls. She gave me step by step instructions about how to get your hair to display it's curls, while not getting the frizz. She put great emphasis on the styling gel. I consider these styling gels to be toxic, so that was out of the question for me and my hair. I know someone else, who has been using our lip balm as styling mousse. for quite a few years. Hmmm...
I applied the lip balm to my hair It worked ! A day later my natural wave was still there, but to get the curl/wave freshly washed look back, I lightly wet my hair, and crimp it to get the curl and wave to bounce back.
Are you new to natural hair care
Make the switch
Shampoo means soap formulated for hair.
It is highly recommended that you start with cleansing your hair of the synthetic shampoo you've been using. Do an apple cider vinegar before your 1st Ithaca Soap Olive Oil Shampoo Bar washing. After the initial ACV cleanse, we recommend you do an ACV rinse once approximately every 6 months.
This ACV cleanse is a gentle, non toxic way to remove synthetic hair conditioners from your hair.
Best hair conditioner
What is hair conditioner
Conventional hair conditioner, is a combination of artificial greases and alcohols to mimic natural oils and waxes. The concept is that oils and waxes coat each individual hair to give it body, volume, bounce, and shine.
Body and bounce are way more fun and what you are looking for. Compared to all of those products, it is so simple to wash your hair with a solid Olive Oil Shampoo Bar and then apply a small amount of Beeswax Lip Balm.
This photo to the left is my half dry, conditioned hair.
My biggest concern was a sticky texture. My hair is always very soft after an Ithaca Beeswax Lip Balm application. There is no waxy feeling, or residue. Plus there is a little weight to my hair, making the bounce more pronounced. I'm very pleased. This is the best long hair conditioner.
extra steps
For more crimp and wave or curl
These steps are optional:
- Take an old tee shirt or very thin towel and crimp clumps of hair up and squeeze out any excess water. Repeat this process a few times to crimp all of your hair several times.
- You can also use a hair dryer blowing on the outside of the tee shirt, while squeezing out the excess water.
- Wrap hair in the tee shirt for a couple of hours, while it is wet.
- Remove the tee shirt and let it air dry for another hour or two.
- Wait a little while to brush, comb, or pick your hair it. The photo above is before I brushed my hair. The photo to the right is after my hair has been brushed. There is still a little bit of wave.
- On my hair, the wave will last all day.
- For better wave on non hair wash days, fluff and crimp your hair with wet hands.