Tag: aloe

The Aloe Vera Experiment…Continued…

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Credit: Lady Care Health

I have been using my pure Aloe Vera (Aubrey Organics) with rosemary EO added since my last post in June. If you’re tardy to the party, the concept pertains to using aloe vera to seal/smooth your hair, ultimately decreasing frizz and adding shine. After testing it on my hair and doing further research, I am concluding that AV cannot replace using oil or butter for the “classic” purpose of sealing (feel free to disagree). Why, you ask? A couple of reasons:

1. Aloe Vera is made up of mostly water (I actually like to call it Water 2.0), which evaporates as your hair dries.

2. Aloe Vera does not coat the hair like an oil/butter does to form a barrier between your hair and moisture in the air (However, note – the Aubrey Organics AV does contain vitamin E).

Now, that being said, do I think that aloe vera is worthless on our hair? HECK NO! Because of its acidic pH, aloe vera can help “seal” your strands as in smoothing your cuticle, and also provides nourishment and moisture to your hair (which is why it cuts down on frizz). For my regimen, this would make aloe vera fall under the “finishing” step rather than actual sealing (when I put oil on my ends to reduce friction between my hair and clothes).

As an alternative, I also added some aloe vera to my oil mix and used that to fluff/refresh my hair in the mornings. Now, will I add aloe vera to my regimen permanently? Well, it sorta already is! Although I do not always use pure aloe vera juice, several of my staple products have an aloe vera base (UFD, AV gel, Cush Curl Extender, etc) or have AV very high on the list, as in the second or third ingredient (Curl Junkie Beauticurls Argan & Olive, ReVe Moisturizer, etc). Basically, it’s usually lurking around in there somewhere. Although, I can’t lie, I am a little disappointed that my main HG finishers, Curl Junkie Curls in a Bottle and Knotty Girl Leave-In, are both missing this stellar little ingredient. I may mix them with AV, but I’m a little scared to mess up the formula. We’ll see.

‘Til next time, pals…xoxo

The Aloe Vera Experiment: Day One

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Okay! So the other day I saw a very interesting post on heyfranhey that I posted to my Facebook. She was talking about how she seals her hair with aloe vera and did a comparison between each side of her hair, one with aloe, one without. Now, the aloe side looked all kinds of smooth and shiny, and the other side was noticeably  not as awesome (still pretty though). Initially, I figured that I would try sealing my entire length with oil rather than my ends only (as she referenced sealing), but…I didn’t really like that. My hair was much more stringy (although soft), especially when drying…so I was like..okay, so aloe vera can’t hurt (my hair generally loves aloe vera).

I went to Vitamin Shoppe and picked up a bottle of Aubrey Organics Pure Aloe Vera – it was only like $5.29. My hair was a bit frizzy today, especially because we had fairly high dews and I used Curl Junkie Smoothing Lotion as my leave-in. Here is a comparison pic of my hair before and after smoothing Aloe Vera on my dry hair (I was just testing, it’s not how I intend to use it all the time). The lighting is different, but I think you can see a difference in the frizz factor –

All of the styling products are the same – the only difference is that I smoothed aloe vera on my hair when I got home.

Now, because the main reason I personally seal is to decrease friction between my hair and clothing, I am still going to add oil to my ends. Aloe is going to be more along the lines of the finishing step for me.

I love playing with my hair and will be sure to keep you all updated!

xoxo