Hello! If you are like me, you can't take a shower without using conditioner on your hair. Since I have switched to making my own shampoo, I omitted conditioner all together because I wanted to stick to homemade bath products. So I went on a search for some homemade conditioner recipes. This was much more difficult and frustrating than trying shampoo recipes. I tried a few different ones where oils were the main ingredient, figuring that oil would be good for adding softness and shine. In reality this just made my hair EXTREMELY greasy no matter how much of it was used or where I used it (whole head, below the crown line, ends only) so I had to continue my search.
Apple cider vinegar was coming up a lot in my searches but I didn't trust that a vinegar could make my hair soft and shiny, but I was getting frustrated with the oil based ones so I figured why not give it a shot. I was very surprised at how well the vinegar worked. My hair was nice and soft and the more regularly I use it the more shinier and healthier my hair looked and felt. The recipe is super simple:
Apple Cider Vinegar Conditioner:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
optional: 10 drops essential oil
*Really it is just equal parts cider vinegar and water, but I find that a 1 cup total volume is enough to rinse all of my hair ( I have really thick and long hair).
The way you use this is to mix it together, shampoo your hair like normal (see my Homemade Shampoo Recipe if you want to complete the homemade hair care products!) Once all the shampoo is rinsed out, slowly pour the vinegar and water mixture over your scalp and massage well with your fingers. Leave it in for a couple minutes then rinse out thoroughly. You only need to do this 2-3 times a week, so it saves you money and time! Your hair will smell like vinegar while it is still wet so adding oils will make that a little less strong, but I don't mind the smell so I omit the oils.
I don't keep a bottle of this mixed and on hand, I make it as I need it.
*A really cool result of using my shampoo and conditioner recipe is it keeps my split ends at bay. I don't know how it does it, but when I noticed I was getting a lot of split ends, I dipped them in the vinegar mix before I massaged it into my scalp and when my hair dried, the split ends were mostly gone. There were still a few but not nearly as bad as before.
I hope you give this recipe a try, it feels really good to know exactly what you are using on your hair, you'll have the pride that you made it yourself AND it really works!
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