When your hair is dry, damaged, brittle, or you’re looking for a way to enhance hair growth, this Aloe Vera Hair Mask is perfect for you! Aloe Vera is well-known to promote healthy and shiny hair!
Loaded with minerals, amino acids, vitamins and phytonutrients (which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits), this hair mask prevents hair loss, promotes hair growth, repairs damaged hair, can help you fight dandruff, detangles and generally nourishes your (dry) hair!
Contents
Ingredients
- aloe vera gel
- optional ingredients:
- coconut oil (or other oils)
- esential oils (lavender and rosemary!)
Aloe vera gel
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I find that fresh aloe vera gel derived from the plant’s leaves is your best choice! If you don’t have an aloe vera plant at home (by the way, aloe vera is a very easy plant to have at home!), you can also get the leaves online.
Fresh aloe vera gel is free of any other ingredient and contains more nutrients (as it’s fresh)! You can freeze the gel in ice cubes to preserve it and have it ready whenever you need it.
You can also buy the gel online but be careful! Most aloe vera gels are loaded with preservatives and other nasties. You want to make sure to use a pure, 100% natural gel (like this one). They still have some sort of preservative or other ingredients in them, however, they are at least not chemical.
Yes, you can definitely use aloe vera gel on its own as well! But adding some extras can enhance this aloe vera hair mask. Plus, adding oil for example also stretches it a bit more (especially, if you have to buy your aloe vera gel) and makes it easier to apply.
Coconut oil
Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain fatty acids also called lauric acid. It is able to penetrate the hair shaft to nourish the hair deeply with vitamins E and K and minerals like iron.
How our hair benefits from coconut oil (lauric acid): it...
- protects the roots of our hair
- reduces protein loss in hair
- helps prevent the hair from breakage
- moisturises your hair
- adds a beautiful and healthy-looking shine
- repairs damaged and broken hair
- promotes hair growth
- protects your hair from heat damage as well as damage caused by sea water and chlorine (in pool water).
As coconut oil inhabits antibacterial and antifungal properties it also helps fighting dandruff and may even get rid off lice and other bugs on the scalp.
However, coconut oil is quite a controversial topic and people seem to be fighting about whether it is healthy for our hair or not… So, you might want to do your own research what you think is true or false!
Which hair types benefit from coconut oil
Coconut oil may benefit all hair types, particularly, dry, damaged, or colour-treated hair. However, there are some concerns that it may not be ideal for those with coarse hair—especially when used repeatedly. It apparently dries out coarse hair. For those with fine hair, it might be a bit too heavy.
Alternatives for coconut oil
If coconut oil is not your thing, or if you have any concerns you can absolutely use different oils instead! These ones are also great for our hair (just research them before using, if they are beneficial for your hair type!):
- argan oil
- sweet almond oil
- jojoba oil
- grapeseed oil
- olive oil
Essential Oils
I just love using essential oils! They simply add so much more value to our homemade products!
As essential oils are highly concentrated they might irritate your skin. To prevent this from happening, make sure you dilute them with a carrier oil first—particularly, if you’re only using an aloe vera hair mask (without oil).
I usually add a teaspoon carrier oil to the mask. Some oils like lavender and tea tree can be used without a carrier oil (just test it on a small part of your skin first though to see if that’s also true for you).
Another thing to consider is that essential oils are oils (duh! ;)). 1-2 drops are enough! If you use too much, they might leave your hair greasy!
What essential oils are great for our hair?
Help with dandruff and dry, itchy scalp: lemongrass, clary sage, rosemary, tea tree, roman chamomile (might lighten hair as well).
Hair growth and hair loss: lavender, lemongrass, clary sage, rosemary, peppermint, ylang-ylang, tea tree, thyme, sandalwood.
Aloe Vera – the benefits for your hair
We all know: Aloe Vera is great for our skin. Particularly, when we got a sunburn, it soothes our skin and nourishes it. But what about the hair? Aloe vera is packed with
- 12 vitamins
- 20 minerals
- 18 amino acids
- over 200 phytonutrients
- a high water content making it a great conditioner!
Moreover, its pH-level is very similar to our hair’s natural pH level so our scalp won’t need to try to balance it out (like it would with apple cider vinegar).
As a natural cleanser, it gently removes oils and debris on our scalp which can block our pores.
The aloe vera gel is rich in phytonutrients acting as antioxidants offering anti-inflammatory, soothing, moisturising, and protective benefits for our hair.
Proteolytic enzymes in aloe vera heal and repair damaged hair thus, improve the health of hair follicles and boost hair growth. They also stimulate dormant hair follicles, promoting regrowth.
Which hair types benefit from aloe vera?
Generally, it’s great for all hair types however, aloe vera does leave a film on your hair.
Which comes in handy when using it as a styling gel—but if you have fine hair, it might be harder to wash it out.
How to make an aloe vera hair mask?
If you choose to use fresh aloe vera gel and don’t know how to prepare the gel, here’s a great guide that tells you how to do this!
Once you’ve derived or bought the gel, you’re ready to go and you can apply it directly on to your scalp and massage it into your (damp) hair.
Of course, you can add more ingredients to it like coconut oil (there are other options too) and essential oils.
When & how to use this aloe vera hair mask
There are three different reasons for which this aloe vera hair mask will be very beneficial:
- regrowing hair after hair loss (for example, hormonal)
- grow hair faster
- moisturise dry hair
The awesome thing is, you can use all three of them in one simple application!
For example, every now and then I loose a lot of hair due to hormonal imbalances or lack of nutrients. So, I use this mask to promote the regrowth of my hair and to prevent further hair loss.
Also, I live in a very dry part of Australia, plus, in summer, I love to go down to the beach which means my hair is generally very dried out. It needs moisture!
And, most certainly, I want my hair to grow faster! Who doesn’t want to have long, beautiful hair like Rapunzel, right now?
Here’s what I do every single time before I wash my hair (which is about 1-2 per week):
- I apply little amounts of fresh aloe vera gel, part for part, onto my scalp and massage it in. It’s important to get it to the roots of your hair!
- Then, I carefully rub about a tablespoon of the gel into the tips (leave this out, if you’re only looking for faster hair growth and/or regrowing your hair. A simple scalp treatment should do the trick)
- Usually, I don’t wet my hair before applying the mask. But sometimes, I like spraying my homemade lavender and/or rosemary water on to my hair to wet it and prevent the gel to dry up too fast
- I leave it in for about 30 min, before I jump in the shower to wash it out
After a month of using this mask, check in with your hair. How does it feel? Has it changed? What do you notice?
The changes I noticed right away were: less hair was falling out and my baby hair around my face was getting denser. My hair grows a little faster than usual as well.
But I reckon, because my hair is still busy with recovering from a big hair loss I’ve experienced last year, the aloe vera hair mask is helping we with that first. I'll update this post in a few months to report how much faster my hair is growing!
Warnings & Safety
Some expert are stating that when your hair cries out for moisture, you should give it moisture, not oil. According to them, oils prevent water from getting into our hair which means our hair might look healthy and shiny on the outside (due to the oils), but on the inside it’s still lacking moisture.
In one article, they say that our hair actually needs amino acids when it’s dry or damaged.
Amino acids (which are in aloe vera and apparently also in coconut oil) are referred to the building blocks of protein and therefore promote hair growth and repair damaged hair.
In my opinion, a good and balanced use of a pure aloe vera hair mask and this recipe with coconut oil (or any other oil) is probably the go. I think coconut oil is great for my hair and I feel like it sometimes simply needs that extra nourishment that only the oil can provide.
But, as always of course, I leave it to you what to decide and what you think will work best on your hair.
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- might need a blender (for fresh aloe vera gel only)
Ingredients
- 1-3 tablespoon aloe vera gel fresh or pure, organic
- 1-2 tablespoon coconut oil optional, see notes
- 1-2 drops essential oils optional, see notes
Instructions
- Use store-bought aloe vera gel or fresh from a leaf (if you don't know how to extract it, here's a helpful guide).
- This mask may be applied every time before you wash your hair or 1-2 times per week.
Aloe Vera Hair Mask (pure)
- Apply little amounts of fresh aloe vera gel, part for part, onto the scalp and massage it in. It’s important to get it to the roots of your hair!
- Carefully rub about a tablespoon of the gel into the tips of your hair (leave this out, if you’re only looking for faster hair growth or regrowing your hair. A simple scalp treatment should do the trick for that)
- I like spraying lavender and/ or rosemary tea on to my hair to wet it and prevent the gel from drying up too fast. You could also wet your hair completely before applying the gel.
- Leave the aloe vera gel in for about 1-30min. Then, wash your hair with a mild shampoo and style as usual.
Aloe Vera Hair Mask with Coconut oil
- Mix aloe vera gel with melted coconut oil and essential oils, if using.
- Apply to your hair, starting at the roots and massaging it down all the way to the tips. The aloe vera gel and oils seperate easily as you see on the picture. Just stir it every time before applying it.
- Leave it in for 15-30min or up to an hour. Don't leave it in for too long though. Wash your hair as usual. You may need more shampoo to get the oil out of your hair.
Notes
- It's best to use fresh aloe vera gel extracted from its leaves. You can buy the leaves in some whole food and organic shops or online.
Store-bought gels (in bottles) often contain harmful chemicals and additives (preservatives). Just read through the ingredients list before buying! Your best choice are organic brands which use very little additives.
- I prefer coconut oil, but sweet almond, jojoba, argan, grapeseed or olive oil will work as well (as mentioned in this post).
- I love using lavender and rosemary essential oils. But there are many more you can use (as mentioned in this post).
Resources
- https://www.elle.com/beauty/hair/a25860228/aloe-vera-for-hair-benefits/
- https://wsimag.com/wellness/45892-can-coconut-oil-prevent-hair-fall
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12715094/
- https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/diet/coconut-oil-health-benefits-nutrition-facts-uses-more/
- https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/gallery/why-coconut-oil-is-bad-for-your-hair
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