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Hair Care Across the Ages

Most men and women today just want healthy, natural hair. Interestingly, this contrasts greatly with powerful and ancient customs that have to do with hair as a status symbol, sexual lure, and more.

• The ancient Assyrians, for example, wore masses of curls on their shoulders and sprinkled real gold dust on their heads to enhance their hair color. Not everyone in ancient Assyria had naturally curly hair, but the nobility used curling tongs, and men set their beards with tree gum.
• Egyptians of about 1200 B.C. shaved their heads and wore wigs for special occasions, stewed the leaves of the henna bush to get a red dye, or colored their hair with indigo.
• Many Indian women, known for their lustrous hair, still use natural hair products like herbal shampoos, soak their hair in olive or coconut oil, and avoid chemicals and dryers.

Can a person create beautiful hair? Consider the following do’s, don’ts, and old-fashioned hair treatments.

10 Common-Sense Hair Care Tips

Let’s start with the million-dollar answer on hair is: Eat well. Wash and brush hair often. Inherit the right genes.

1. A well balanced diet is necessary to healthy hair. Poor nutrition, especially protein deficiencies, can lead to thinning, dull, dry hair.
2. Ask your hairdresser what they recommend, and then dilute it 50/50 with water. When you shampoo, avoid very hot water.
3. Brush hair twice a day, and massage your scalp to help circulation.
4. Be careful not to brush excessively, as this can irritate the scalp and break off hairs.
5. Get a good haircut. The best haircut makes the most of your hair’s natural attributes.
6. Avoid styling aids, heat, and all chemical processes if possible. Permed hair is 30 percent weaker than untreated hair.
7. Teasing or back-combing hair tears the cuticles and can damage hair severely.
8. Rough treatment of hair (hot dryers and harsh shampoos) also damage the cuticles and can cause split ends, which can only be cut off.
9. Infrequent shampooing, insufficient rinsing, improper diet, and poor scalp circulation are thought to cause dandruff. Treatments include scalp massages, mild shampoos, and daily use of an antiseptic scalp lotion if needed.
10. Don’t brush wet hair. Comb it out gently with a wide-tooth comb (especially for long hair), and let it dry before brushing.

5 Old-Fashioned Hair Treatments

Here are five hair treatments that are tried and true. Sometimes simple remedies from simpler times are best.

1. Weekly Hair Treatment. This may sound simple, but use apple cider vinegar once a week after washing to give you hair a good cleaning and clear hair of greasy built-up.
2. Egg Shampoo: Steep 1 ounce fresh rosemary in 1 pint hot water for 20 minutes. Cool. Beat in 1 egg. Massage into wet hair and then rinse.
3. Herbal Rinses for Oily Hair: Steep a handful of lemon grass, nettle, peach leaves, rosemary, southernwood, or yarrow flowers in a quart of hot water. Cool and pour over wet hair after shampooing.
4. Shiny Hair: Blend 2 Tablespoons castor oil, 2 Tablespoons lard, and a few drops of rosemary oil. Or add several drops of rosemary oil or lemon oil to 1/4 cup almond or olive oil. Yes, mayonnaise really works, too. It contains soybean soil which has fatty acids that make hair shiny and smooth. Leave it on for an hour under Saran Wrap, and then wash it out.
5. To Enliven Hair Color: If you have blond hair, add lemon juice, chamomile tea, or white vinegar to the final rinse water to enhance color. If you have dark hair, use cider vinegar, rosemary, or sage in the rinse water. To add reddish highlights to blond or light-brown hair, use green pekoe tea as a rinse.

Tried these, loved them, and looking for more? Check out these natural remedies for hair care and skin health and these recipes for conditioners, facial scrubs, and skin lotion!