If you are a DIY person when it comes to natural hair care, you probably would have come across ayurvedic hair care recipes, and seen that in many cases, you are asked to add acidic contents like lemon juice, ACV or aloe vera juice to a clay or ayurvedic powder before use. Being the learner that you are, you just go ahead and do it without asking yourself why. Your mantra is “If it worked for her that way, that’s good enough reason for me to do it.”
Acidifying some of these products before use is neither a random practice nor a concoction of a blogger’s brain content just because she wants to make her recipe more complex. There is actually a reason for this.
Take henna for example. For the dye properties of henna to be released, an acidic catalyst has to be added to it, in order to lower its pH.
When you are preparing clay mixes for your hair such as bentonite clay or some ayurvedic powders, you add acidic content to it. The major reason for this is that many of these products are alkaline in nature. Our hair is naturally acidic, with a pH of 4.5-5.5. Adding these products to our hair just like that will not have a good effect on our hair cuticles. It will raise them, and leave them raised, thus leading to dull, dry, frizzy hair. If you are already dealing with highly porous hair, this is definitely not something you want.
So in order to bring these products to a point where we can safely use them on our hair, we need to balance it out with an acidic content like lemon juice or ACV.
In summary, we acidify many ayurvedic products in order to neutralize the pH or make them slightly acidic, in order for them to be compatible with the pH of our hair and skin.
Please note that not all ayurvedic products are alkaline. For example, Shikakai and Reetha are acidic so there’s no need to acidify.
In order to determine whether your ayurvedic mix should be acidified before use or not, there are two options
- Research the specific powder you want to use and find out about its pH. If it is more than 6, please acidify it a bit
- Make the paste with the powder and water, with the consistency you would like to use on your hair. Test the paste with a pH strip. If it is more than 6, please acidify it a bit.
The more alkaline it is, the more content of acid you would need to add. Herein lies the disadvantage of DIY mixes over manufactured hair cosmetics… knowing how many spoons and cups of this and that to add to achieve what is safe for your hair shaft.
I hope this post has answered some of the questions you might have about ayurvedic mixes.
Are you a DIY person? Do you use ayurvedic powders? How do you acidify them? Please, let us know in the comment section.
Also, you have any questions, Please, let us know in the comment section.
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