I have my husband to thank for the lovely octopus looking aloe vera plants we have chilling in our living room. He’s done an amazing job at growing and taking care of our entire garden. I’m the kind of person that loves beautiful flowers and plants learning about their different uses and benefits… but for some reason I can never remember to water them, so that’s now his responsibility 😂 Have you ever seen that meme where a woman is holding a plant with a big warm smile and it says, “Hi! Wanna come to my place and die?”
Yeah, that’s pretty much me. lol I’ll get better at it, I promise.
So one day my husband walks into the kitchen with a big plate of cut aloe vera leaves…
and asks me if I want to keep them for anything. 🤔 I had seen a few videos on YouTube before about putting aloe vera gel on your hair because it’s a humectant and is supposed to add a lot of moisture to dry hair. I didn’t really research how much you’re supposed to use, so I kind of just experimented. My hair is pretty dry and resistant to moisture so I figured I might as well use a little extra! 🤷🏽♀️
First I did a co-wash on my hair with my favorite conditioner. Then divided it into four equal parts so that I could add my products in preparation for a good twist out. Twisted sista is the leave in conditioner I use, of course, followed by the aloe vera gel that I blended to get a smoother consistency. How much you use really depends on the dryness and thickness of your hair. I used just as much aloe as I did leave in, to put it simply.
The next step was to use my favorite sealant, sweet almond oil. I love this oil so so much because it’s very light weight, and has absolutely no smell. After working all of those products into my strands with my denman brush, I twisted my hair and placed a plastic bag over my head. This is called the greenhouse method, and it’s also a great way to basically force your hair to soak in all that moisture! I really suggest this for those of you who have low porosity hair, it can really make a huge difference. However, even though I’m no expert..I think that if you have finer hair or non afro textured hair, using aloe vera gel combined with your favorite oil as a hair mask could be a better option for you. OR mixing it with water to use as a leave in conditioner. I tried this method before a long time ago and it just didn’t seem to be adding enough moisture to my curls.
Once the bag was secured I put my scarf on and went to sleep. The next morning I removed both layers, and couldn’t believe how soft my hair was! 🤩 I have tried this method without the aloe vera gel, but it really seems to add even more moisture. My hair didn’t feel oily but it had a lot of shine and elasticity. I felt like my hair looked and felt so much healthier than it normally does. But the biggest surprise was that my hair didn’t have that weird smell, the leave in conditioner did an excellent job at covering it up!
Here we are a couple of days later and I haven’t even had to add any other products to remoisturize yet! This is probably the best method I have used so far, and I plan on using aloe vera in my hair routine twice a week. I’ll do another update next month to let you all know if it continues to go well 😊
Have you ever tried using aloe vera gel in your hair? Have you seen an improvement, and what method did you use? Feel free to share!
Chillin' in Catalunya 