Diary of an Honest Naturalista: Week 28

Now I know how I will look when I am all old and grey, with healthy natural hair. Hopefully, my hair will still be healthy by then.

In a bid to have thicker and fuller hair, I decided to start applying castor oil all over my head every day. I mean, if something is good, why not use it in abundance. Right? Wrong! By 11.00am on Saturday, I soaked my already castor oil-drenched hair in more castor oil. I decided to use it as a prepoo treatment. So I coated every strand of my hair with castor oil, and just basically lazed around the house. I lazed so much that I did not even cover my hair during the prepoo period.

Around 7.00pm, I decided to wash my hair, so I employed the help of a sulphate-free natural hair shampoo. Not knowing what had happened, I had dabbed my hair with a cotton t-shirt, and walked into the Living room when my brothers averted their eyes from the movie they were watching to me, and their reaction went thus.

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Let’s just say by the time I was done washing,  it was as if I had just been transported with a time machine.
My hair proved that I was a full-haired 84 year old woman, with the face of a 25 year old. My hair was grey!!! My brothers laughed at me hysterically. To say I looked weird was an understatement.

So what had happened? As I later got to discover, castor oil is not actually a suitable oil for a prepoo treatment, as its molecules are too large to penetrate the hair cuticles. I had used it undiluted on my hair every single day. The very thick oil had stuck to my hair, weighed the whole thing down, and attracted all the dust it could attract. The whole thing formed yucky grime and stuck stubbornly to my hair. I guess the 8-hour ‘prepoo’ was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. By the time I washed with the sulphate-free shampoo, it was like trying to clean a 7-year old grime on top of a gas cooker with just soap and water, lol. What I needed was a scouring powder like vim to get the grime off.

By the time I saw my hair after the first wash, I was alarmed, and realised the reason for the loon on my brothers' faces. I called someone more experienced than me, who told me only a regular sulphate shampoo would solve my problem at that point. As much as I hated to use it, I had to. After all, I brought the problem upon myself. I followed it with the sulphate-free shampoo, and conditioner.

Well, I have tucked this in the wallet of my learning experiences as a naturalista. At least, for now, I don’t need to worry about how I will look when I am old. From my preview this weekend, I am sure I will be looking very hot and fly, lol.

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