I remembered my old long forgotten blog and decided to write about following organicallyanna's 2021 summer hair growth challenge. She has a youtube channel where she shares about hair care. And she is worth following as she has gloriously beautiful long shiny healthy hair and a lot of good ideas which she shares generously and understandably.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmIhoqOnptBsjQGS3vCPYbA
The summer growth challenge consists of once a week doing a flaxseed gel hair and scalp mask and a tea rinse once a week. I don't know why but it seemed to take me a while to figure out how to incorporate it. I think she means it to be flexible and adaptable. There is more to it but I am only going to address these two items just now.
I am doing each of the treatments as a pre shampoo treatment. I followed her flaxseed gel recipe which is 1/4 cup flaxseed to 2 1/2 cups of water, bring to boil, simmer 8 to 10 min uncovered, stirring often until it's the consistency of egg whites. Strain out seeds. Let cool. I put 1/2 cup of the gel on my head, gently massaged it into my scalp and squished it into my hair for a few minutes then put a plastic shower cap on and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then I shampooed twice and used a hair mask as a conditioner. The first time I tried it I added about 1/4 tsp of grapeseed oil in with the flax gel. That made my hair too oily and I had to wash it again the next day. The next time I tried it - a week later, I used flaxseed gel without adding any oil (left over gel from the previous week, stored in jar in frig) then shampooed and conditioned with store bought mask (only left mask on 2 or 3 min) and it turned out very nice.
For the tea rinse, which I use for my second hair wash of the week, I used green tea. I usually wash my hair every 3 to 4 days. Anna uses black tea but she has black hair. My hair is naturally light blond and I didn't want to stain it with black tea as she warns could happen. I put two green tea bags in a pint jar, filled with tap water and left it to steep overnight. I did not heat the water. In the morning I poured the tea over my head over the sink, massaged it into my scalp and squeezed it through my hair gently a few minutes, put on the plastic shower cap and left it for about 20 minutes. Then I shampooed and used commercial hair mask as conditioner.
It seemed to turn out fine. I didn't really notice any problems and my hair was clean and acted normally. I was glad to see it didn't turn my hair green!
This is a long term project so we will see by September 1st. I measured my hair June 1st following Anna's instructions by parting hair in the middle and measuring from the top of the middle of the part down the side holding the hair. I got 18-1/2 inches on the right and 19 inches on the left.
My hair is obviously not real long, a little past what they call armpit length I guess but it is the longest it has been for about 20 years and I don't expect to get hair as lush and beautiful as Anna's since I have daughters older than she is and my hair is naturally fine and thin. But I will be happy with healthy, happy hair and hope for a little thickening.
I have a lot more to say but just wanted to write about how I am incorporating those parts of the challenge.
If anyone else reads this and is following her challenge, feel free to share your experience!
