What are your hair woes? Mine is a smelly scalp. I tend to sweat a bit on my head when I go for walks or exercise. So my personal nightmare is repulsing someone with scalp odor. Of course I could wash my hair several times a week to avoid this. But when you shampoo too often, you're cleaning the dirt at the expense of stripping your scalp of sebum, the natural oils that protect it from overly drying and keeps hair healthy. Read this article for a description of how shampoo works. 
My hair care routine is as follows:

• Oil scalp and hair every single time I wash my hair
• Apply a pH balancing hair mask. This is essential for scalp odor. 
• Shampoo hair - no conditioner
• Apply a light hair serum if necessary when hair is slightly damp

Oiling the scalp increases blood circulation to it and is important for healthy hair. A good hair mask must provide nourishing ingredients without stripping the scalp of the oils. You can customize hair masks for different purposes example, dandruff, hair fall etc. Some stellar ingredients suggested by Ayurveda are aloe vera gel (fresh from the plant), brahmi and bhringraj for hair fall, neem for dandruff, hibiscus for conditioning etc. Shikakai and aritha powders gently cleanse and restore pH balance to the scalp. 

A note on conditioning: modern day conditioners are made of oils, waxes and silicones. While they can make your hair shine and are great for detangling, the waxes just draw more dirt and if you put the product on your scalp, can block the pores and interfere with sebum production. Unfortunately, most commercial shampoos are so harsh that shampooing without conditioning is almost impossible. This is why it is important to pick a gentle, naturally conditioning shampoo. Saroya's Coconut Eucalyptus powder shampoo has conditioning coconut milk and is gentle enough that you don't need conditioner. 

For modern day bathing in showers, shampoos work best to remove the oil. 
This is what I advise my clients to do to achieve healthy hair that doesn't smell bad if you go a few days without washing. 

1. On hair washing day, oil scalp thoroughly. Suggestion: try Saroya's Hibiscus Hair oil. The proper way to oil hair is to pay particular attention to the scalp. The scalp needs to be massaged thoroughly to encourage blood circulation to the head. Then work your way down the hair length. 
2. After oiling, take one heaping tablespoon of your hair mask of choice  in a bowl and make a paste with the consistency of baby food with either coconut milk, aloe vera juice, or water. Suggestion: try Saroya's FenuGreek Goddess hair mask available for dandruff and hair fall. 
3. Let the oil  sit for at least two hours before washing. 
4. 30 minutes before wash time, get into the shower and apply the hair mask all over the scalp. It is more important to cover the scalp than the hair. 
5. Leave on for 30 mins. You can cover the head with a shower cap but it's not necessary. 
6. Wash off the mask thoroughly. Then apply a shampoo to wash off the oil. If using a conditioner, make sure that the conditioner is ONLY applied to the hair and not the scalp. 
7. Frequency of hair washing: With use of the hair mask, once every 5-7 days is good without your scalp getting too oily and stinky. 
8. If you suffer from dry and frizzy hair, apply a light hair serum when hair is still damp. Suggestion: try the Saroya FenuGreek Goddess Hair serum with fenugreek, rosemary, and yang yang extract. 

If you'd like to know more about the Ayurvedic perspective of hair, I recommend this article. 

Do you have a hair care routine? Comment below!

Several years ago, I fell for it too. Browsing the hair color section in Whole Food, I saw these green packages of hair color boldly claiming "NO AMMONIA", "NO PARABENS", "With ingredients of NATURAL origin". Without a second thought, I picked up a box and colored my hair. It was cheap, quick, and fast. The color didn't stay very long but hey, I could keep doing this every 3 weeks and no harm, right? WRONG!!! So here are five things you most probably do not know (but should) about hair color.

One: It does not matter what the brand is, the fact is almost all dark hair dyes contain a monstrous chemical called para phenlylenediamine (or PPD). This chemical can also be found in "black henna" - also used to color hair or in instant temporary tattoos. Read more about PPD on the EWG database.
​So why is this chemical so terrible? According to this paper, exposure to PPD can cause "primary sensitization, resulting in subsequent allergic contact dermatitis. Skin and mucosal manifestations may differ, but they are usually characterized by pruritus, erythema, and vesicular or even bullous dermatitis in severely affected patients". To translate - symptoms of allergic reaction to PPD include itching, reddening or rashes on skin, or in the extreme cases, inflammation of skin accompanied by pus.

​The scary part is that sensitization of the skin to PPD is cumulative - meaning the more you're exposed, the more sensitized your skin becomes. So even though the green box with the leaf logo says "Contains natural ingredients" run away from dark hair dyes.

​Two: what is in a developer? Most semi or permanent hair dyes come with a developer. This cream contains hydrogen peroxide - a bleaching agent that penetrates the hair cuticle to enable the color to bind with hair. Hydrogen peroxide is a very reactive molecule - all the antioxidants that are the rage of the day are intended to quench this molecule that is produced as part of a chemical reaction when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet rays of the sun for example. So treating your hair with hydrogen peroxide is going to damage your hair eventually.

Three: "With ingredients of natural origin" is a marketing phrase intended to cheat you.
You see the green color packaging, the two leaves on the box, a stamp "With ingredients of natural origin" and you pick up the box with a smile thinking "here at last is a product that is safe for my hair. It has no ammonia, no parabens, no sulfates, no cyande". Here's the thing - if you make a dish of meat with some vegetables thrown in and present it to a vegetarian as "Gourmet dish containing fresh, locally, grown organic vegetables" that is not the same as "This dish is vegetarian". So next time you see a line like this, tell yourself that the brand is not to be trusted.

Four: A product that advertises what it does NOT have is also not to be trusted. "No parabens", "no sulfates", "no ammonia", "no artificial fragrance" ... can mean NOTHING. In the case of the Naturtint dyes, "NO AMMONIA" but "YES PPD". What good is that? "NO SULFATES" in a shampoo but "YES DMDM hydantoin" (a preservative). How is a consumer expected to make choices when factually a product advertises it does not have one ingredient that is bad but does not advertise two that are terrible???

​And finally, Five: There is a gene that has been linked to going grey. While genetics is not the only reason why hair becomes deficient in melanin (the pigment giving it its color), it can be one reason why some people grey faster than others. And if that happens to be a predominant reason, there is not a thing you can do to stop it! So the healthy options to deal with dark hair going grey are:
​1) Use plant based dyes - a mixture of henna and indigo works well. However this is time consuming and messy
2) Let it go grey!

Leave a comment with your thoughts!