After months of struggling with DIY shampoo recipes and hair masks, trying to find a solution to cleanse and moisturize my hair in order to help me tame my curly locks, I came up empty-handed, finding that everything I tried left my hair greasy, dry or had ingredients that I was not willing to work with. I knew I would have to completely rethink the problem from the beginning.
What happens without cleaning my hair; why do I wash it at all? For starters, my hair is curly, and I play in the woods a lot, so I get lots of dirt and grime in my hair when I am frolicking outdoors. Besides that, an undernourished scalp is prone to dandruff, and that kind of dry scalp is much more susceptible to bacteria, which can lead to infection and typically leads to unpleasant odors.
How can I solve these problems from a different approach as traditional, detergent-based shampoos? Dirt can be rinsed away, but germs and bacteria hitching a ride with debris needs help to be neutralized. This could be done with tea tree oil, as I use in my beeswax bars, but tea tree oil has natural bleaching effects, which hinder hair growth. This is useful as a body treatment, but not for the scalp. I also considered orange oil, as I have had success in the past using peels to massage into my scalp and distribute the oil that way, but it was way too much work, and I got a heavily concentrated peel and wasn’t paying attention, I would get an itchy scalp. Tangerine oil has the same effect as orange and is more gentle, but it can be difficult to extract the oil at home without using a carrier or diminishing the quality.
After eating a couple tangerines, I took the peels into the shower with me to brainstorm. After warming the water, I noticed an empty jug that I had used to eat seeds from on the counter. I grabbed it to put the peels in and filled it with the warm shower water before squeezing the peels gently to soften them, releasing some of the oil and tainting the water orange.
I felt a cooling sensation as I poured the solution over me head and rubbed it into my scalp. I refilled the jug and repeated the process, pouring the mixture over all of my hair and rubbing it in, allowing it to sit while I went over my skin with a beeswax bar then rinsing to be sure all the debris had been removed. After my hair dried, I combed it and found that instead of poofing out in a frizzy mess as usual, it clung to and curled around itself in smooth seas of brunette waves. My eyes brightened and widened as I stared at it gliding across my comb and grinned, more satisfied than I could have imagined.
Mix ingredients together, squeezing peels
Drench and massage scalp and hair
Let sit for a few minutes then rinse hair
