When making your own natural hair products, (e.g. avocado, banana and honey hair masks, etc) or when altering or mixing commercial products, (e.g. mixing protein and moisture conditioners or adding water, oils or glycerin to your leave in products) it is always best to make very small batches that will be used on the day or for only a few days.
Why?
Because the lack of preservatives or alterations in the levels of preservatives may allow bacteria and fungi to grow in the product.
Fresh Aloe Vera is often used for homemade hair and skin products such as hair gels or face masks
In all natural homemade products there are usually no preservatives added so the chances of bacteria and fungi growing quickly in them is high. If you do make a natural hair product and have more than enough for one use, put it in a container, store it in the fridge and use within a week.
Preservatives are added to commercial products to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi until the use-by or expiry date of the product. Mixing two commercial products together or adding other ingredients to them will alter the preservative levels in a way that may allow bacteria and fungi to grow.
If altering commercial products, makes small batches that you can either use on the day or be used up within a week. These should be okay if kept on the shelf because there is some preservative left in them but if you want to be extra careful you can store it in the fridge.
I hope you’ve found this Quick Tip post helpful. The next blog post will be a bun of the month post.
Happy hair journey
x
Lade
Learn | Change | Grow
Thanks for the tip Lade. I try to make my mix in small batches. Although, I’ve never stored any of my products in a refrigerator before. Do you have any tips on how and why we should do that? Also don’t you think storing in the refrigerator will alter the products?
Author
Hello Hilda
Thanks for the comments. Great question.
You simply put the product in a closed container and put it in the fridge. This is done for the same reasons we put our food in the fridge, it helps to slow down ( not stop) the growth of bacteria or fungi because of the cooler temperature. Putting it in the fridge does not alter the products.
Thanks for sharing.
I personally do not like to mix more than what I can use at once, because I end up throwing it out.
Author
I know, I used to do that too.
And I’d feel so bad wasting products
I am very grateful to you for this post. I truly have some stuff to throw away.
Author
Lol….oh dear
well at least now you know
Hi Lade, I discovered your blog few months ago and its very useful I must say. I started texlaxing my hair and the breakage is bad.when am sealing and moisturising my hair it just fails off. Is this normal?
Thank you
Author
Hello Talikhi
No that certainly isn’t normal. I don’t know if your hair is breaking or shedding.
I don’t know if you know the difference between breakage and shedding. If it is breakage, regular deep conditioning , protein and moisture balancing and being gentle with your hair should help.
If it is shedding, the high shedding rates may be caused by a poor diet, not drinking water, high stress level, medication, hormonal imbalances. Some of these you can address yourself and some may require medical checks.
I suggest you first research breakage versus shedding to find out what kind of hair loss you are experiencing and then you will know how best to tackle it.
All the best
x
Lade
Thank you
Thanks for your advice sista!!