Week 2: Replace Leave-in Conditioners

As part of my Small & Simple Make-over Challenge, for Mother's Day I decided to make some homemade beauty products for my mothers. I thought they turned out pretty great. I made deep conditioner creme, hair protector, face moisturizer, bath salts and mascara. I basically spent two solid days in the kitchen making all the different recipes. It was really fun and I think that the finished products turned out awesome, with the exception of the mascara which still needs some tweaking.

I started off collecting all the trial sized bottles in my house that I could find, removing labels and cleaning them out.

Then I scoured the internet for recipes. Many of the recipes required tweaking to get the perfect consistency. One of my favorite sources for recipes is Wellness Mama. One of the recipes I included came from Week 1 of the challenge, Face Moisturizer. Overall, I was very pleased with the end results.

Because this is a weekly challenge, I will share only one of my favorite recipes and share the rest as weeks follow.

This week's is a lovely Leave-in Conditioner/Heat Protectant. I use this and I love it. It leaves your hair feeling like silk. The jojoba in it conditions your hair and the grape seed oil protects it from high heat and sun damage. This stuff is amazing. You can throw all your other similar products away, this stuff works better! And it has no harmful chemicals or damaging alcohol. Read your heat protectant's label, it's amazing the chemicals we put on our hair! One note of caution, this stuff goes a long way. Only a few sprays is needed at the ends of your hair. Too much, and you'll look like a grease-head. I made the mistake of using too much the first time, as I am used to dousing my hair with product when I was using the chemical-laden varieties. So good news, even a small bottle will last you forever!

So you can get an idea of what it can do for your hair, I did a before and after shot. The before is my hair drying with no product so you can see my natural texture is frizzy and wavy. The after shot is after curling my hair with ONLY the hair conditioner I made on it. It makes your hair so soft and shiny. If you want extra volume and texture, you can add Epsom salt to the mix (it will give your hair the beachy look, so don't use it if you don't want that result.)

Leave-in Conditioner/Heat Protectant 

For Dry/Thick Hair

Fill bottle 3/4 full of distilled water
1/8 part Grapeseed oil
1/8 part Jojoba oil
Essential oils for fragrance (optional)
Directions: Spray on ends of wet hair. Start sparingly, add more as needed. Style as you wish.

For Fine/Thin Hair:
Fill bottle 7/8 full of distilled water
1/8 part Grapeseed oil
Essential oils for fragrance (optional)

For Salon Grade Styling Tools (425 to 510 degrees):
Substitute Avocado oil in place of grape seed oil.

Have you seen my other super simple recipes? Click here for more.