Tea and Hair: Day 1

What's this? I'm mixing tea and hair? Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!

So, my plan is to make a daily, after shampooing spray for my hair, using a tea mixture. I've been doing some reading, and many people find a tea rinse helpful, and some people use them as a spray. And, because it is tea related I am bringing you along for the ride.

My goal of this is to 1) see the prospective uses for tea, and 2) help my hair using something I'm passionate about. I also need some sort of hobby to make sure I stay motivated.

I'll post updates once a week, on Wednesdays, ending March 5th (or 12th, I'm unsure)!

If you don't want any information on my hair type or regular routine, then skip to under my selfie.

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I have a 3a hair-type, my hair has a low-porosity when it is not being negatively affected by the weather, and medium when it gets too dry, mostly from winter dryness. Even my skin is drier during the winter. Medium width and a little longer than shoulder length. I have a little over a medium density hair during the summer, in the winter, it drops to a medium. If I'm stressed, I shed much, much more.

I am blessed with the genetics for having dandruff on both sides. So using Head & Shoulders as a shampoo is basically a need. Otherwise I get an itchy, dry, flaky scalp. Seriously. If I shampoo with a different one, my scalp is like NO. and gets itchy. So, to combat it's drying effect, I make sure to use their 2 in 1 shampoo, AND  conditioner for curly hair. I can't seem to find the PERFECT conditioner though, SO IF ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE. Currently, I use a Strictly Curls by Marc Anthony.

I wish I could wash my hair every other day, but because I'm a massage therapist, and my bangs are still growing out (thus at a very awkward length, and the curls make it so that not all of it is controlled by a bobby pin), I manage to get massage oil on it.

My selfie game is weak after
getting my hair all oiled up

So, the night before I did a major moisturizing treatment, like I do probably once every other week. Sometimes more like once a week, sometimes more than once a week if the weather gets cold and dry, but not less unless I can't help it. My hair gets straighter when I do, because, well, I'm stroking it a little and getting my quasi-treatment all over it. Also, I do it at the end of the day. Sadly, I do have to give my hair a comb out with a wider tooth comb to do it, otherwise my fingers get caught in the curls.

I use:

• A quarter size amount of a Macadamia Nourishing Leave-in Cream
• A dime sized amount of a extra-virgin cold pressed coconut oil/jojoba oil mixture
• Maybe a dime sized amount of Moroccan Oil
• One drop of peppermint oil
• One drop of lavender oil

My Mother-in-law-to-be found the coconut oil at Costco of all places! And let me tell you, it's in a huge ass tub and super high quality, yummy as well!

It smells nice and serves its purpose. But our horrible winter weather, and the fact I wash my hair every day (not good for hair and scalp care!), dries it out.






For the spray leave in I'm:

• 1 scoop chamomile tea
• 1 scoop Indonesian Green Tea
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1 pot of boiling water
• 1 drop tea tree oil
• one drop peppermint oil
• 1 spray bottle, washed and dried

I started by cutting and crushing the rosemary. Then boiled the rosemary, and its stem, and the tea for a minute at a rolling boil, then let it steep until cool. Then, obviously, I strained it. I actually did this twice, to make sure I didn't get any floaties.
Then I put it in the spray bottle, and lightly spritzed my hair (it was towel dried, but still wet). I tried to get all of it.
Then, I put that shit in the fridge, to make sure it keeps.

Look at this massive ringlet

It smelled fresh, kind of minty. Just light, and fresh is the only word I can think of! Not bad in the least
My hair felt pretty damn smooth and soft after it dried.
My hair looked shiney as fuuuuck after it dried.
The peppermint oil left a bit of a tingly cooking sensation. Because it's so watered down, it was only a small one.

Day one overall happiness level pretty damn happy. Smooth ringlets!

LOOK AT THE SHINE

By the end of the day my hair was frizzier, and my curls weren't as tight. I still have ringlets hanging out though. I did go for a walk today, and it was cold and dry out.

Hair raisingly yours,

Laura

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Benefits of rosemary for hair [1] [2] [3] [4]

Benefits of chamomile for hair [1] [2]

Benefits of green tea for hair [1] [2]

Benefits of tea tree oil for hair [1] [2] [3]

Benefits of peppermint for hair [1] [2]

Sleigh Ride

Okay so, let me preface by saying I wasn't feeling the best today, so this review is probably going to read as more short and sweet than anything else.








This tea tends to lean itself to the weaker side, so I had to double strength it at 2 tbsp for one pot of tea.
It smells fruity and a little creamy, and very pretty to look at.

I steeped it for like...10 minutes or something.

It looks how kanpe tea tastes.
Honestly, I thought that's what it would taste like.

In the end, it's more bland than anything, and kanpe tastes better and frankly tastes more Christmas-y.

Sleigh Ride LOOKS more festive, that's for sure though.

Good tea, won't buy again because bland.

Now excuse me while I go nap because I am not feeling up to snuff.

-Laura

Spiced Fig

I literally nearly forgot to type this up. It's 7:50 pm on Monday the 25th, and I'm starting now. Today has been a weird day.

At least Spiced Fig has no caffeine!

It smells amazing. Exactly like spiced figs! So, basically a very traditional Christmas smell, which I do not mind. It's uplifting and makes me feel happy.






As the picture shows, I used 1 tbsp per pot. I steeped it until the pot ran out. I honestly felt no need to set a time limit on it, since the longer it steeped the better it got.

It's quite a sweet tea, yet light at the same time. Fruity and clovey. I'm not 100% sure how to describe it...



This is taking a long time to write because I keep getting distracted!

I'm not going to restock this tea after this bag runs out. 1) It has nuts and when I move in with Zach it's going to basically be a nut-free house and this tea has almonds, and 2) even steeping it for 40 minutes it's not as strong as I'd like it to be.

If you like/love light and fruity teas, this tea you will ADORE, if you like stronger teas, you'll like this tea, but it won't have enough punch for you.

Lots of love,
L

Gingerbread

My backyard

Moghrey mie! ('Good morning' in Gaelg, which is Manx Gaelic. It's pronounced "more-a-my")

It's time to review DavidsTea gingerbread tea!

I steeped one tablespoon for five minutes, in my handly beige, four cup teapot.  It smells amazing, but it doesn't smell like gingerbread. More like a mix of molasses and vanilla, which is kinda weird for a tea which is called fucking GINGERBREAD.
Seriously, the site claims you can smell a whole bunch of spices, INCLUDING GINGER. But, maybe my nose is broken because I literally can ONLY smell the rooibos, vanilla, and the molasses. Nothing else.



I am honestly not the biggest fan on this tea (if that wasn't already fairly obvious). I mean, I like it, but I'm not getting GINGERBREAD from this tea. I'm getting molasses. I even tried adding vanilla agave, and then maple agave to different glasses (which are amazingly delicious by the way) to see if it would boost the ginger flavor in any way, it didn't.

It tastes like a rooibos with molasses. Not something that is supposed to make me think of gingerbread or fill that craving. I honestly can't even place this as a flavor that makes me think of the winter season. Sugar and Spice does a better job of making me think of Christmas, which is sad because it's a fall tea!

In summary, if you're expecting a gingerbread party with this tea, you will probably be disappointed. But, if you are wanting something more molasses-y than ginger-y, then you will love it. I for one, wanted the gingerbread experience. It tasted good, but not great. Kind of one noted and bland.

I think it may have a bit too much honeybush, and not enough ginger, cinnamon, or cardamom. But, not every tea can be a hit I guess.

Stay warm!

Laura

Updates!

As I'm sure everyone who has gone into any store, online or off, has realized is that we need to brace ourselves....

Because Christmas is coming!

Laura's backyard

And with Christmas comes the winter tea reviews. Which we are very, very excited for. We wanted to do the same thing we did for fall, and wait for the first day of winter. But that is December 21st, so that doesn't give as much time as we'd like to review teas before Christmas!
So we decided to start doing reviews after...

November 21, 2013!

**IF ANYONE HAS ANY WINTER SEASON TEAS FROM THEIR CULTURES AND/OR RELIGIONS, LET US KNOW ABOUT THEM AND WE'LL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO!**