Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Chamomile Tea is for Blondes!


I love blonde hair- which is the reason my hair has developed the texture of straw over the years. As I get older I keep getting blonder...and blonder. Unfortunately, it has become even too blonde for me (I am not trying to channel any of the Golden Girls)and my hair stylist's expensive attempts to add "caramel sprinkles" to my hair has not worked. On Sunday night my husband and I went out for a fabulous dinner and over the course of the meal he kept looking at my hair. Now, this man does not normally look up from a plate of pasta to look at me so I knew there must be something sticking up or hanging from my head. I asked him if there was something "on my hair" and he told me that he was noticing how white my hair was. He said this with the same enthusiasm he had when our accountant told us the balance we owed the IRS so I was pretty sure that it was not a compliment. By Sunday morning I had become obsessed with my white hair so I headed to the pharmacy to see what do-it-at-home trouble I could purchase. In the shampoo aisle I spotted a "Chamomile" shampoo that advertised its ability to add golden hi-lights. Well, chamomile was listed as the last ingredient on the shampoo bottle so I decided to go home and see how I could make some chamomile infused shampoo with a higher concentration of chamomile. Now, I know that chamomile has long been used as a hair rinse but I figured that chamomile infused shampoo would be better since it could be left on the hair for a few minutes to allow the chamomile to do its trick. I mixed 1 TBSP of shampoo (for color treated hair) in a 1/2 cup of cool, very strong chamomile tea. I took it in the shower and washed my hair with it, I slowly added the entire 1/2 cup of mixture and let it stay on my hair for about 5 minutes. I was really surprised after I blew my hair dry that I actually had hi-lights. I repeated the process on Monday morning and have to say that I am thrilled with the results- very subtle but natural looking. The power of tea in action!!

To try at home:

Use 3 teaspoons of loose chamomile and steep in 1/2 cup of boiling water for 15 minutes. Strain. Stir 1 TBSP of gentle shampoo into the cool tea. Wet hair and shampoo with mixture. Repeat once each day until desired results are obtained.

2 comments:

Lannie said...

OMG! I love it!! Going to try it right after work.

Susie said...

I have used chamomile on my hair in the past trying to get a boost to my blonde hair but it was never strong enough to make much of a difference. I was excited to read your instructions because I think my problem was that I was not letting the tea steep long enough. I am going to try this and I will let you know how it works out.