Hair Products (DIY)

Whipping It Up: Shea Butter

I’m all for DIYing my way to super long, healthy, luscious locks but honestly the initial outlay in getting all the ingredients you need to make your own products can be a little scary.You look at a little essential oil bottle and can’t believe you’re spending £3, £5, even up to £10 on 10 ml of anything. And that’s before you start looking at the exotic stuff. However, when you start getting things in stock and if you are willing to shop around…a lot, you can find some pretty awesome deals making it less of a burden.

Now I bought my Shea Butter off the internet to make some of my Christmas DIY hair and skin products and I had no idea what I had actually bought when it arrived. I had done some research but what I received didn’t seem to look like the Shea Butter I had read about. It was yellow and chalky, really hard to work with in its raw form. I tried using it this way for quite a while. Turns out it wasn’t worth my time to use it like that so I decided to whip it. I had previously made a Shea Aloe Mix which I found at Discovering Natural but I wanted something a little simpler and without having to buy anything extra. I got onto one of my favourite resources, YouTube, and did some digging.

This recipe from ParisIn85 requires Shea Butter, Avocado Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Jojoba Oil, Sweet Almond Oil and Argan Oil.  I didn’t have all of those ingredients. So I did a little Pinteresting, Googling and referred back to the Discovering Natural Shea Aloe Mix. There was a little bit of my intuition used, which may not have been a good thing at that early point in my hair journey.

I basically warmed up my Shea Butter, added the oils I had at home at the time – Almond Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil and some essential oils – Vitamin E, Peppermint, Lavender, Tea Tree and Cedarwood. This was made last Summer, so a little while ago now. I can’t help but think there was something else I threw in there, oh yeah, the kitchen sink! I remember thinking at the time that I was going a bit overboard. There definitely ended up being too much Cedarwood which helps to prevent thinning and stimulates the scalp but doesn’t have the most pleasant odour. Luckily the smell doesn’t linger.

The whipped butter is really easy to make. Melt your butter a little to make it easier to whip, add your other ingredients and whip to the desired consistency. It takes about 10 minutes. Those ten minutes make your life so much easier compared to using raw Shea Butter. I do think I need a few more rounds in the kitchen to attain anything like the beautiful Flora and Curl Flower Garden Butter that I have raved about on the blogThat was light and fluffy which was not a consistency I quite achieved. Mine was thick and creamy. At times felt a little sticky, this could have been due to varying room temperatures perhaps?

I really liked my butter, my hair felt well moisturised after use. It wasn’t as featherweight as I would have liked. This was possibly down to the wrong ratio or types of oils used. But I will try again until I get it right. Or until I can afford to buy some more Flora and Curl!

Let’s keep growing together!

xx Lee xx

Comments welcome below. Do you have any tips to share with whipping butters? What do you do if a DIY recipe doesn’t go right first time?

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