37 recipes

Hair Care

Hair care from the kitchen is mostly about slip, shine and a scalp that feels comfortable. The rinses here — rice water, tea, herb infusions — are poured through after shampoo and leave hair feeling smoother; the masks — banana, avocado, yoghurt, oils — sit for twenty minutes and rinse out to softer ends; the scalp oils are massaged in before a wash. What they will not do is make hair grow faster, stop hair loss or repair split ends; no rinse can, which is why you will not find the word growth in our titles.

Think of these as conditioning rituals with a lovely smell. Fine or oily hair does best with the light rinses and gels; thick, curly or dry hair with the oil and butter masks. A few practical rules run through every recipe: rinse water-based mixes thoroughly, keep them out of the eyes, patch test anything with essential oils on the inner arm first, and make fresh rather than storing food-based masks for more than a couple of days.