Homemade Hair Detangler

I've never really been into hair detanglers, but if my little one even thinks you might be thinking about brushing her hair, she has a fit. She has one of the most tender heads I've ever seen! I went looking online and found several recipes for homemade ones using marshmallow root. The only marshmallow root I have is powdered and, while it worked well, the little grains that I just couldn't filter out really did a number on the spray nozzle. The key seemed to be the mucilage so I figured I'd try oatmeal. It works very well! I just make more of an oat water vs oatmeal.

As usual with me, no measurements.

Here's my oats and water.

I made this batch a bit thick, so I had to strain it through an old milk filter. The thicker stuff works great, but tends to clog the nozzle and also makes a mess of everything it hits.

Here you can see the thicker stuff separated from the thinner stuff that I'm after for the spray bottle. After straining, if necessary, I just add a bit of apple cider vinegar to it. It doesn't last very long with my kiddos, but it probably should be kept in a refrigerator if you are going to keep it more than a couple days. I've also been using some of my hydrosols as the base water and it makes the hair smell sooo nice!

Here's some of the mess from using the thicker stuff in the spray bottle.

As I said, the thick stuff works very, very well, but the thinner stuff works as well. Especially if you spray it on the hair and let it set a minute before brushing. Oldest child absolutely loves what it has done for her hair. It's not near so rough as it used to be and it's much more manageable.

I still use the thick stuff as a hair rinse in the shower. I make up a strong tea with horsetail, comfrey, calendula, nettle and sometimes rosemary. Then I soak the oats in the tea for a bit, strain and bottle with some apple cider vinegar. I just keep that in the shower and use as a final rinse after washing hair. I just leave it in, don't rinse it out.

It does seem to help with dry hair and split ends. Not as much as a good oil treatment, but I rarely actually get around to one of those.