Thursday, May 22, 2014

Trying something new

In spite of the pictures in the last post, I now have thinning hair.  You can see the curve of my head under my hair from the front and according to my son, you can see my scalp quite well from the top.

This is most discouraging.  I don't mind the wrinkles or gravity-laden skin nearly as much as losing my hair.  I have been tempted to just cut it all off in a buzz cut and wear a wig, but wigs are HOT and ITCHY and I'm already hot and itchy enough, thank you.

Last week, I was up unusually late and caught a 10pm airing of the Dr. Oz show.  I wasn't paying much attention to it until he got to his home remedies section and said "thinning hair".  A woman came up and explained that she was concerned because her hair was thinning (it looked fine to me) and was there anything she could do about it.  He said that olive oil, blended with fresh rosemary, warmed and dabbed on the thinning spots and then massaged and left on for 10 minutes to an hour would help with hair regrowth.  REALLY????  

Apparently the rosemary is key to the regrowth part, so I put out the call on FaceBook for local friends who grow rosemary.  As it turns out, a fair number of my friends have tons of it in their yard.  I went to see one of them and brought home several branches of the stuff.  Today, I pureed olive oil and rosemary (it took a while - the rosemary didn't want to chop up very small at first), poured it into an old honey jar and put a bit on my head.


Um... yeah.  Not only is it oh-so-attractive, as the oil warmed on my head, it dripped everywhere.  If you try this, wear grubbies, a towel around your shoulders and don't be trying to get anything done because a little trail of rosemary-scented olive oil will follow you around.  I left it on for about 45 minutes, then showered and washed my hair. 

I don't know if this will work (but what can it hurt?) - but I will tell you that my hair is wonderfully soft!

This was also something I was interested in from the show.  The following was copied from Dr. Oz's website:

The Dr. Oz Show hosted its very own version of Shark Tank for its home-made remedies to various health issues. In the challenge judged by Dr. Oz,  self-made millionaires Lori Greiner and Daymond John (the latter two’s photo in this recap), the all-natural concoction of deodorant cream won based on its practical application.

Mary’s All-Natural Deodorant Cream was highlighted by lemon and vinegar, two ingredients which Dr. Oz noted to be effective in lowering the body’s PH level and incidence of body odor. Mary estimated that a batch of cream can last for a week; this entails 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 5 drops of essential oil, 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and the juice of half a piece of lemon. The ingredients, bought in full packaging, can yield a big batch that can up to about 6 months.

I'm trying to eliminate some of the chemicals in my life.  I figure every little bit helps!

4 comments:

Pamela said...

Let us all know. I thought my thinning hair was due to low thyroid

karisma said...

I would just infuse the oil with rosemary first (this pulls out all the medicinal benefits of the rosemary) and then use the oil as a massage/stimulant on the scalp. Would be way less messy. Absolutely marvellous remedy for stress headaches too. :-) I always keep a bottle of home made rosemary oil on hand around here. Even goes into our first aid box when we go away. To make the infusion you use 1/2 the amount of rosemary to the amount of oil you want to make and then put it in a crock pot on low heat over night. Strain and cool before using. I usually only make a small amount at a time as it lasts for ages. Although we have not tried it on hair so you might need a little more. :-) Keep us posted. I am interested to see if it works. My mum is looking for something similar too.

Anonymous said...

What Karisma said because she is wonderfully knowledgeable about this stiff.

flutter said...

Mine is thinning as well, I'll have to try this!