New hair products: Nightblooming Panacea, shampoo bar and tea

As I was saying in last post, I participated in this year's Winter swap in the Long Hair Community (LHC), and my gifter was the talented (and incredibly thoughtful) Nightshade (from Nightblooming on Etsy). Apart from the gorgeous LOTR handmade stick she gave me, and some beautiful druidic gifts, I got a lot of hair products!  

1. Some Chai black tea and a large tin of cranberry tea, for my rinses (see my post here for more info about my tea rinses). I've already tried the cranberry tea, and apart from smelling amazing (I think I'm going to drink it as well!), it seems to work great as a rinse!

2. A Cocoveda shampoo bar sample from Henna sooq. I can't wait to try it out, I've never experimented with shampoo bars. This one looks very promising, all natural ingredients, aryuvedic and henna-based, and claiming to strengthen hair:

"Ingredients: unrefined organic shea butter, organic cocoa butter, organic high oleic sunflower oil, organic coconut milk, organic henna, organic amla, shikakai, bhringraj, bhrahmi, nagarmotha, ginger essential oil"

http://www.hennasooq.com/cocoveda-shampoo-bar/

 I usually use sulphates, though, because my hair is very oily at the roots and I need to clarify often, so I don't know how this shampoo bar will react, greasies-wise.

-Update: I've tried it once, and although I don't have a lot of data yet (because I mixed it with my other SLS shampoo), it seems to have too many oils for my hair, unfortunately. But some Lush shampoo bars with SLS do work for me great!

3. Two jars of Nightblooming's Panacea hair salve (Winter blend and traditional blend), and a larg jar of a special hair salve Nightshade uses for her hair :) .

(I also purchased a sample of the Summer blend a year ago)

 I love Nightblooming's Panacea, especially the Summer and Winter blends (I love the herbal and slightly citrusy smell they have), it's light enough not to make my hair greasy (as long as I don't apply too much, of course), and it seems to work great at moisturizing and protecting my ends and length. This salve cannot 'heal' damaged hair and ends, but it can prevent more damage by protecting the hair and keeping it moisturized.

I usually use it as a 'post-shower end protection treatment', as Nightshade explains here. I gently pat my hair with a towel to get rid of the water excess, disentangle it with my fingers, and apply a pea-sized amount of Panacea to my ends and lower length. You can also apply it to all the hair as a pre-wash deep treatment (similar to an oil treatment).

Here are the ingredients. All of them are silicone and parabene-free, and they don't have any synthetic colours and fragances.

-Winter blend: 

"Ingredients: Certified Organic Shea Butter, Pure Refined Coconut Oil, Herbal infusion (Licorice Root, Coltsfoot Leaf, Yarrow, Willow, Pau díarco, Burdock Root, Mahonia, Calendula, Horsetail, Nettles), Cetearyl Alcohol, Jojoba Seed Oil, Aloe Gel, Vitamin B5, Evening Primrose, Neem, Macadamia Seed Oil, Essential Oils (Tea tree, Lemon tea tree, Lavender, Geranium, Rosemary), Rice extract, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Anisate, Vitamin C, Vitamin E)."

-Summer blend: 

"Ingredients: Certified Organic Shea Butter, Pure Refined Coconut Oil, Herbal infusion (Licorice Root, Coltsfoot Leaf, Yarrow, Willow, Pau díarco, Burdock Root, Mahonia, Calendula, Horsetail, Nettles), Cetearyl Alcohol, Jojoba Seed Oil, Aloe Gel, Vitamin B5, Evening Primrose, Neem, Macadamia Seed Oil, Essential Oils (Tea tree, Lemon tea tree, Lavender, Geranium, Rosemary), Rice extract, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Anisate, Vitamin C, Vitamin E)."

-Standard Panacea (this one has a stronger, more incense-like smell. I personally prefer the herbal/citrusy smells of the other blends): 

"Ingredients: Certified Organic Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Herbal infusion of Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis), Pure Refined Coconut Oil, African Wild Honey, Behentrimonium Methosulfate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol, Panthenol (pro-Vitamin B5), Vegetable Emulsifying Wax, Hydrolyzed Oat Protein, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid , and the Essential Oils of Frakensence, Myrrh, Sweet Orange, Ylang Ylang, and Limone."

More about these salves in Nightblooming's blog: 

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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New LOTR Nightblooming hairstick!

In the Long Hair Community we have this swap twice a year (Winter and Summer), and if we participate, we send a gift (mostly hair-related) to an assigned giftee and we receive another one from our secret gifter (like Secret Santa, but twice a year).

Well, I received my gift a couple of years ago, and it included this gorgeous LOTR-themed hairstick handmade by my very talented and lovely gifter, Nightshade (from Nightblooming in Etsy):

It's delightfully nerdy, really, really beautifully made, and it holds my hair great (curvy sticks a a huge yes when it comes to straight slippery fine hair such as mine).

Action shot :D!

This is my post-wash slippery hair in a flipped-up bun (one of my favourite updos), and the stick still holds wonderfully, not only with pre-wash dry-shampooed (and thus, more texturized and less slippery) hair! I only needed a couple of little claw clips to fully secure the bun, just to be safe, because it was holding pretty well on its own.

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Game of Thrones hairstyles: Catelyn's half-up crown braids analysis

In season 1 episode 1 Catelyn wears her hair in a naturally-messy half-up style, with some accent braids (they look like three strands to me) coiled on her hair like a crown-braid and the rest of her hair loose.

 I haven't attempted this one yet, but LaDollyVita did a lovely job, so I'm going to base my analysis on her tutorial:  

   The steps are based on her video:

   

Tea rinses

 Tea rinses are a main part of my current hair routine. I tea rinse once a week (although I sometimes skip the rinse, it usually depends on how much time I have on that shower-day, but ideally it's every other wash rinses). 

•   Why did I start tea rinsing?

 Initially, my main aim was to try to enhance my red highlights, so back in 2011 I started doing some research on rinses that could potentially redden hair with time. And tea seemed to be the herb that came most handy.  Tea rinsing also seemed to have a lot of pros for my kind of hair, apart from the reddening - like shine, softness and grease-control-, so I decided to try it out.

• My first rinse:

 I loved the results. My hair was shiny, soft, and it stayed post-wash-clean much longer. My length and ends are normal, but my roots start to get greasy the day after wash-day (which is a bother and has me resorting to dry-shampoo in between washes). Dry shampoo is still my best friend, but the tea rinse seemed to help a lot with that as well.

 My hair after my first tea rinse:

 A recent 2019 pic:

• How do I tea-rinse? 

 I use a ton of infusion, a full pot. Given my oily roots, the more astringency I pour in my hair, the better! I fill the pot with hot water from the shower and let the tea brew (I rinse with a tea that's as strong as possible, so I let it brew for quite a while). I wash my hair, shampooing twice (I don't use conditioner because of my fine texture, it weighs my hair down). Then I rinse my hair with the lukewarm tea and leave it in. Finally, I always apply some aloe vera gel on the length and ends.

•     Types of tea. Combining tea and other herbal infusions:

 -I started using black tea, but shortly after I switched to red tea, because black tea can darken hair and I didn't want that. The tea I normally use is of the standard teabag kinds that one can find in the supermarket (like Lipton, Pompadour or Hoornimans).  I haven't tried green tea yet.

 -Sometimes I add a bag of hibiscus, or a bag of hibiscus and rosehip, for more red highlights (the pic below is of a red tea + hibiscus and rosehip rinse, it's redder than just tea). I have a feeling the hibiscus might make my hair a bit greasier, though.

 -I've also tried a fancier loose Roiboos tea with aloe vera and pineapple, and the effects have been similar, apart from the different smell. I favour teabags rather than loose tea, though, I prefer not to have to hunt residue from loose tea leaves when drying my hair.

 -To boost the smell, I sometimes add a herbal+raspberry teabag to the red tea. I really like the smell of raspberry, that's the only reason :). Well, and the added red, too xD.

• Pros and benefits of tea rinsing (for my hair, at least):

 Practically everything! Well especifying:

-Adds shine.

-Adds softness, without making my hair less voluminous or weighing it down (this is the main con of conditioners for me, especially seeing as my hair is not very voluminous to start with).  It can also add some suppleness and volume.

-Tea is astringent, so it helps with my greasy roots. I've observed that sometimes my hair stays post-wash-clean for another full day, but that other times the tea seems to have less effect. I'm still not sure why (maybe it's better not to build up, or maybe it depends on other factors,...). Different brands also work different for me.

-Smells good (I like the smell of tea).

 -Adds red highlights. Not very noticeable, though, at least in my dark auburn hair. But there's some subtle tinges!

-I've also read that tea helps with dandruff, is anti-bacterial, stimulates hair-growth, and can protect hair from breakage, so it is a win/win for me :D

• Possible cons for other types of hair:

-Because tea is astringent, tea-rinses can dry out hair, especially if your hair doesn't get a a tendency to get greasy or if it's dry. Some people have reported dryness in their ends or their whole length when tea-rinsing. Personally, I'm lucky that this has never happened to me (I use tea rinses as leave-ins and my hair always remains soft), but it's important to point out that other hair types do experience this.

-Some people have also reported rough/stiff hair, and stickiness or residue when using tea rinses as a leave-in. I've personally never experienced this, I suppose it'll depend on each one's hair and the way it absorbs the rinse. In this case, rinsing out the tea rinse with water after leaving it in for 10-20 min would probably help :)

-If you have light hair and don't want any red tinges, or if you have darker hair but still don't want any potential red in your hair, maybe tea isn't the best option. There are other rinses that give golden highlights (like camomile), or brown/dark without any red (like sage). Black tea can also slightly darken hair, so I'd stay away from that one if that's not what you're looking for.

The dryness and/or stickiness/residue could be perhaps avoided by leaving the rinse on your hair for a while and then rinsing it off with water, (followed by some conditioning, perhaps). Or using a brew that's weaker, or mixing the tea with other herbs that might reduce the tea's astringency. I always use the tea-rinses as a leave-in because my scalp is oily and all astringency that I can give it is always well received xD. My length ot ends never seem to get dry as a result of the rinse, either, but like I said, that'll depend on each head of hair!

The good thing about herbal rinses, though, is that their effect only lasts until your next wash, so no harm in trying it out if you're not sure about how your hair will react to the tea! Happy rinsing :)

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

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Game of Thrones hairstyles: Catelyn's rope-braided half-up

   I loved all the hairstyles in HBO's Game of Thrones series. Hopefully, all those braids will inspire me to practise!

   This is Catelyn's first style in the series, as seen in the first episodes of season 1 (she also wears it in episode 9). It's an easy style, basically a couple of rope braids as a half-up. Here's my classification of Catelyn's hair (I'm still working in guessing hairtyping correctly, especially when it comes to strand type, so it's all open to changes and suggestions) and the analysis of the hairstyle.  All reference pictures are credited in the link shown in the slides: http://screencapped.net/tv/gameofthrones/

   This is my recreation of Catelyn's rope braided half-up. When it comes to recreation, I try to imitate the texture too, so I French-braided my post-shower damp hair with a paranda and kept it like that for a couple of days to get some braidwaves. I got some reasonably defined S-waves, but to get Catelyn's waves I think I should rather try bandanna waves or something that'd give bigger waves. My hair's doesn't get wavy/curly easily, so recreating wavy/curly hairstyles is going to be tricky, but I'll keep trying! 

The rest consisted of sectioning a front section of hair at each side of my face and rope-braiding them (if you don't know how to rope-braid, try this, for example: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Rope-Braid), trying to keep the style a bit messy and loose, especially when tying the braids back, as Catelyn seems to favour loose, windswept messy styles with face-framing layers, and half-ups that loop loosely over her ears (I had my side bangs framing my face, as Catelyn, but you can't see that in the pics). Fine straight hair won't look the same as Catelyn's coarser, more texturized wavy hair, of course, so it doesn't look nearly as windswept-messy as hers...Maybe I should use aloe-vera gel as a way to texturize my hair a bit more next time.

SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es

If you copy-and-paste this post and/or alter it without any permission, credit or link, you're stealing my content. In that case, please stop. Please ask before using my work, or at least share it properly, giving credit to me and my blog.