I have been using this hair conditioner for years. During my teens I wanted to go blonder. I was born with butter blonde hair but by high school it was the dreaded (shiver) dirty blonde. A girl in class turned up after summer with her version of dirty blonde instantly transformed to rich buttery blonde. She told me it was “from the sun” and lots of “vinegar” rinses. Being a naive grade school girl, I bought it hook, line and sinker.

Of course I bugged my mom to buy me apple cider vinegar as well as white vinegar and I started experimenting with home hair recipes. Did this make me blonder? Heck no. And I later found out that the innocent Susie had transformed with the help of her mom’s hairdresser who applied professional blonde hair color to her strands.

DUH…how dumb could I be? No lemon juice, sun or vinegar was near that girls hair.

Her hair definitely could not have gotten that blonde in the sun. But that is one of those urban hair color myths we all hear from time to time. Right?

What I did discover, it tons of different uses for vinegar and it does really soften hair. It also repairs damaged hair. During my time experimenting I poured pretty much everything on my head that I didn’t think would burn my hair off.

No, don’t worry, I am only sharing recipes that I found helpful.

Hair Vinegar Conditioner For Softening & Conditioning

This recipe was helpful for my hair when it was all dry and brittle from trying (and failing) to sit out in the sun with lemon juice plastered all over my head. No, it didn’t lighten my hair, the lemon dried it out and made it brittle feeling. This conditioner helped but it is messy and takes time. So if you are in a hurry, grab a commercial protein conditioner instead.

Required Ingredients

-apple cider vinegar - 1 1/8 teaspoons
-2 fresh eggs - (organic when available)
-organic (if available) jojoba oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
-glycerine - 1 tablespoon
-egg timer
-plastic shower cap
-old towel
Note: Since you are putting this on your scalp, I recommend using the best quality ingredients possible since it is absorbed into your body.

Directions

Crack open the eggs and pour into a mixing bowl (non-breakable is preferred). Beat eggs with a wire whisk or fork. Add jojoba oil, glycerine and the apple cider vinegar. Continue to mix until all the ingredients are well blended.

Shampoo hair with lukewarm water. Rinse well with lukewarm water.

Towel blot hair so it is damp but not dripping.

Use a pastry brush or your fingers and apply the conditioner to your hair. (I like to think of this as similar to dipping bread into egg for French toast). Keep in mind this is very messy. I actually apply this in the shower so I don’t drip all over. I also am careful to catch any of the conditioner in the bowl as it drips off.

Once your hair is saturated with the vinegar mix you have two choices. You can set the egg timer for 15 minutes use the time to loofah your skin, apply a face mask or do other beauty treatments or you can apply a drip proof plastic cap and wrap an clean old towel over that to prevent drippage and get out of the shower for 15 minutes. Yes, you can leave it on longer but after a point, the conditioner reaches its capacity to soften.

After 15 minutes (or longer if you want to experiment) rinse the conditioner out of your hair with lukewarm water. Be careful to keep your eyes and mouth closed to prevent the eggs or vinegar from being swallowed or getting into your eyes.

Finish with a cool/cold water rinse (not everyone agrees that this works but I swear by it).

Towel blot and apply your favorite leave-in conditioner if your hair is badly damaged. If not, you may want to either let your hair aid-dry or apply a light leave-in and sit under a hood dryer set to cool. Yes, you can use a blow dryer but after taking the time to mix the treatment and leave it on your hair…do you want to undo the good works by adding heat? That has to be a personal choice.

If your hair is badly damaged, go ahead and add a good leave-in and blow dry if you must. But if you must…consider using a slow setting or a cool setting.

Don’t get me wrong…I am not against blow drying. I do it myself…on special occasions…but I have learned that it helps to air dry whenever you can to give your hair a break.

If you try this I would love to know what you think.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Hair Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.