Friday, January 23, 2009

The Beauty of Olive Oil


Happy Friday! Today I felt like exploring a topic I seem to be covering a bit more here on PPT: beauty. But, I specifically want to share a hair secret I discovered a few weeks ago courtesy of my hair stylist, Vikki of the Styles Salon in NYC. Vikki is superb with short, relaxed cuts and can really work a flat iron. She also doesn't try to slap a relaxer in my hair every 3 weeks which I can really appreciate.

Well, since my hair/scalp can get dry and I now have a relaxer again for the first time in 8 years, I decided it might be a good idea to get a hot oil treatment. I don't want my hair to break for lack of proper maintenance. (Remember ladies, a hair stylist can only do so much.) So I asked Vikki if I should get one during my next visit. She instucted me to saturate my hair with oilve oil the night before my next visit and keeping my hair covered (I use a scarf and then a head wrap) until I arrive to the salon for a shampoo the next day. Since I only use extra virgin olive oil for cooking, this is what I use in my hair as well. Now, call me a sucker but I thought this was genuis. While I've used olive oil in my hair before, especially when it was natural, I'd never thought of it as an overnight remedy for my parched strands. And best of all, it is cost effective as hot oil treatments can run upwards of $25 bucks in most salons. How many stylists pass up money nowadays??? The ones who really care about their clients and their hair do I guess...

And before I go, I must confess that I was a shampoo girl one summer while in college. What an experience that was. Between listening to man drama and getting the scoop on sales (the salon was located in a mall), I picked up a few handy hair care tips that I still use today. One nifty one being that you can apply an oil (again, I say use EVOO) to your scalp and roots for a hot oil treatment AND add a creamy conditioner to your hair stimutaneously. The trick is to add the oil first and try not to let the creamy conditioner overlap with the oil until the end of the process. Cover with a shower cap (aluminum foil or saran wrap work too) for a deep penetrating treatment (about 30 minutes or so depending on the length and thickness of your tresses) and then rinse. The combination will leave your strands ultra-moisturized and super soft!

P.S. - Vikki has no idea I'm bigging her up. I only did so because I think she shared a jewel with me and I wanted to pass on the love.

P.P.S. - I know some folks also use avocados and mayo, even beer to condition their hair. I can't co-sign on those though, sorry. However, if you have a DIY hair tip that invloves a kitchen staple like EVOO to share, please do so in the comments section. I will use them for a later post!

2 comments:

Rhine Family Blog said...

Not to long ago I was battling severe, I mean SEVERE dry scalp; so much so that I took a trip to the dermatologist. He gave me a prescription, but I just didn't want to spend money on the treatment, so I found something online -- brown sugar scalp scrub. After two weekly treatments of this stuff, all was definitely well. Here's the recipe, it's simple: take turbinado or raw sugar, about 1/4 cup and your regular conditioner. Before shampooing divide your hair into four parts, mix the raw sugar and conditioner and scrub it into each section of your scalp well. I usually let it sit for about 10 minutes and then wash out, shampoo and condition as usual. This definitely worked like a charm!

Unknown said...

It’s really informative post. I like the way you describe this. Thanks for sharing. . .
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