I'm sure you've all read those articles about giving yourself a spa-quality facial at-home using normal household products and foods. Salt or sugar as an exfoliant. Avocado, sea salt, lemon or bananas as hair masks. Or sugar and peaches as a facial scrub. Well seeing that it costs around $305 at The Mandarin Oriental in NYC to get a 80 minute facial--I decided to take a little plunge into the do-it yourself world of beauty. And this is one at-home remedy you SHOULD NOT TRY AT HOME.....Read on for my horror story...
So I decided that I wanted shiny hair today. Hmmm, I saw the ladies on ABC's The View talking to an at-home remedy GURU...she was slathering yogurt and whole sliced peaches on her face, and sugar on her hands and saying that bananas and olive oil make a great hair mask....why not try that!
So I mushed up a ripe banana, added some olive oil and even a little soy milk (for protein, duh). Then I gooped it in my hands and slathered it all over my hair. I ground it into my scalp and smooshed it all around. Ahh smells like a Jamba Juice smoothie. I let it sit for about ten minutes, then off to the shower.
As I started to rinse out the mixture I was pleasantly surprised by the silky feel to my hair. However, one problem. The now mushy, marinated with water banana chunks were not coming out. Instead they were getting buried deep into my scalp, clinging to my hair shaft. And any chunks that did come off were splattered around my poor shower clogging the tub and making a mess. Ugh. This was not good.
So I scrubbed and scrubbed, but still there were these gooey slimy chunks of banana swimming in my silky brown locks. OK. I need my brush. I reached out for my brush and even though I hate brushing my hair when it is too wet and "more weak and susceptible to breakage" (I always see that quoted by someone who knows hair stuff...), I started yanking my brush-- pulling it through my hair-hard. Well that worked-sort've. OK, not really.....
Now my brush was clogged--really clogged-with slimy bits of banana slush. Yuck. I continued this process for at least ten minutes. And finally conditioned and gave up my rinse session. Lets just put it this way...two hours later--dry SUPER SHINY hair....and I still have banana chunks swimming around in there....
So yeah, my hair does feel shiny. But maybe that's just the banana sludge reflecting the light.....
A few at-home beauty tricks I DO recommend:
*Using sugar or sea salt at a body exfoliant (both dissolve easily away in the shower.)
*Wiping/toning your face with warm damp tea bags--exfoliates the skin and adds healthy tea antioxidants to your skin.
*Using rose petals in a hot tub. Dying flowers can have a use here!
*Banana face mask--it does make your skin soft....but wash the banana off with a thick paper towel so it doesn't clog the sink!
*Pouring old/oxidized wine into your bath tub....super silky skin is the result. And don't worry you won't smell like the wine once you are out...
*Baking soda and sea salt in the tub.
*Coffee grounds face scrub.
*And the classic...cucumber eye masks. Stick the slices in the freezer and let them thaw on your eyes.
Happy At-Home Spa-ing!
Do you have any better ideas to share...or horror stories like mine????
