Herbal hair teas are super nourishing, give your hair extra vitamins, and can even bring out subtle tints and colors. They can also help treat oily, dry, or thinning hair (depending on the herbs used). If you don't know what herbs to use, I provide some examples throughout this article that you can use as a guide. If all else fails, choose herbs you love (I personally adore rose, lavender, and chamomile) and see how your hair reacts. Try crafting these herbal hair tea recipes to experience the benefits for yourself.
Basic Herbal Tea Rinse
Note: For dry, brittle hair I recommend using a combination of green tea, nettle, calendula, burdock root, and comfrey leaves. For oily hair, try using a combination of rosemary, nettle, burdock root, comfrey root, and baking soda.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup dried plant material
- jar with lid
- 1 cup water
- pot or saucepan
- plastic or metal strainer or piece of cheesecloth
- plastic bowl or measuring cup
Directions
- Place the plant material in the jar. Then, put the water in the pot, boil it, and pour it into the jar so that it covers the plant material thoroughly.
- Secure the lid on the jar, and let the plant material infuse the water for at least 20 minutes. The longer you leave it the better, so consider letting it sit for up to an hour.
- Strain the tea with the strainer (or the cheesecloth). Just a heads up, you might need to strain it more than once (like two to three times) to get all the plant bits out. If some plant bits remain after you’ve strained it several times, don’t fuss over it (it won't impact effectiveness).
- Now pour the tea into a plastic bowl or measuring cup. Congrats: You've made your basic herbal tea rinse!
- To use, shampoo and rinse your hair as you normally do. Then, just pour the rinse over your hair and work it through to the tips. Feel free to use a measuring cup when you apply the rinse (the spout makes it easy to pour). After you apply the treatment, you don’t need to rinse your hair with water, although you can if you want to.
Hair Rinse For Highlights
If you'd like to give yourself some natural highlights, it's simple to do using a hair rinse. All you need to do is add 1/8 cup chamomile and 1/8 cup calendula to the basic herbal tea rinse recipe (listed above) and follow the same directions. This won't give your hair any extreme, harsh highlights (like you might get at a salon), but a gentle sort of lighter tint.
Hair Rinse For Lowlights
To give your hair a slightly darker color (with minimum risk), add 1/4 cup black walnut hull to the basic herbal tea rinse recipe. Similar to the hair rinse for highlights, this will not turn your hair pitch black, but it will give it a natural, overall darker tint. This is perfect for anyone who wants to see how they'd look with a darker shade without using dyes.
Note: Black walnut hulls can stain the skin.
Hair Rinse For Fast Hair Growth
To encourage fast hair growth, add one to two small branches of rosemary and five peppermint leaves to the basic herbal tea rinse recipe. Follow the exact instructions as they are listed. These herbs are also great for people with thinning hair, or people who want to grow their hair out quicker. I suggest doing this at least once a week for the best results.
Rosemary is known for helping with hair problems. Rosemary extract helps thicken the hair and leaves it shiny. By stimulating the blood circulation in the scalp, rosemary is able to encourage hair growth which counters hair loss. It also contains anti-inflammatory properties which can nourish the scalp (perfect for anyone suffering from an inflamed scalp). Meanwhile mint, specifically peppermint, is also great for hair growth. It possesses the ability to soothe blood vessels, which boosts blood flow to the hair roots (similar to rosemary), thus reinforcing continued hair growth. It also is great for those with itchy scalp and dandruff. In other words, rosemary and mint combined together make one potent hair rinse for hair growth!
