Clumping!

I also use aloe vera gel on dripping wet hair

You mean a normal one or there is a specific for the hair?

Normal aloe vera gel: just purchase a decent quality product with a high percentage AV, not crammed with alcohol, colours, silicones or fragrance. I haven't tried AV on hair myself, but UK brand Aloe Pura make decent products with no nasty additives and I purchased my last 200ml tube of gel for £4.

@mcgvil: frow what I know, shikakai acts like a shampoo, so are you doing that when COwashing? (If yes I'm interested!^^)

At the moment i'm mixing it with soya flour and water to create a mud then applying it to my hair but it's really messy. I'm thinking about mixing it with the conditioner to make application easier and also to help remove heavy oilings. I also really like what herbs have done to my hair (made it thicker, stronger and more shiny) and dont want to give them up 😛 Shikakai is really gentle imo so i think it will help the conditioner to clean rather than work against it.

@Starshine and @Firefox7275 thank you both. 🙂

Thank you! I really wanted to start using those herbs too, as I've just found a shop here that sells them (amla, shikakai and aritha) but I wasn't sure about how to use them ( as I've used henna before, hair was gorgeous but was hell to take out of my hair, both the mud as the colour ^^) and the soy flour looked as difficult as that to rinse out.. or am I wrong? But if it works in conditioner, then I'll buy them ^^

I also really like what herbs have done to my hair (made it thicker, stronger and more shiny) and dont want to give them up 😛

ok maybe I'll buy them anyway  😉

@Sunny_girl, you're welcome! 🙂

I didn't mix my herbs with soy flour personally. I made a blog post on it on LHC, not sure you can see it if you're not a member so I'll just copy and paste it (sorry if it's long!):

I thought I'd write this before I forget. I have had a very successful experience with using Indian herbs to wash 2 days ago and I want to write it all down before I forget. The problem with doing different experiments all the time is that I get really really confused. I try to write things down in my organiser but I don't always do.

So I had done one try before this. I had used 2 tablespoons of aritha and 2 tablespoons of amla, poured some hot water and let it sit for 5 mn. It was basically a paste. I put it on my hair and left this for 15 minutes. I did this on hair that had been generously oiled as I'd heard aritha could be super drying. Problem is: I didn't realise the oil mix I was using had cones in it.... Silly me.

New experiment, after reading the indian herbs article again:
1 1/2 tablespoon shikakai
1 tablespoon amla
about 4 cups of hot tap water
I left it to sit for 5 minutes. Poured it in a shampoo bottle for ease of use. Poured the liquid on my hair, let it sit for 5 minutes again, while showering. Then gave it a quick scrub. Rinsed with a light ACV/distilled water. Very quick rinse with cold shower water.

This was done on hair with just a teeny bit of oil on the lengths (Nighblooming triple oil, my daily staple). My hair came out super duper clean. So yes, maybe a little on the dry side, but nothing dreadful.

The plus sides:
-clean hair! Seriously clean as in my roots look their normal medium ash blonde, not muddy brown.
-waves! They are finally back! Although I stupidly combed them out
- it's really cheap!

Minus sides:
- need to figure out what type of oiling to do first so my lengths dont get too dry. Maybe a good coconut oiling is needed. Or some EVOO.
- well the smell is interesting, but whatever, it can't be worse that the neem soap I use on my face (much closer to my nose ahah)

So, I think I might have found my new routine: alternating CO and Indian herbs. I still have a bag of whole soap nuts to try but I've really liked the shikakai powder so might leave that experiment for later on this summer.

Thank you for the post Theodora!!!
ehm... I think we hijacked the topic *whistle*
but since we're here... what does aritha?
because my hair is dry as it is curly and damaged, amla is awesome for stronger, shiny hair *lovestars* , but even if I mix it with aloe, CO and EVOO and COwash after, it still dries my hair a bit..
( and I just read that the anti-sun-damages gel I used today (it's finally sunny here!)  is full with alcohol and am not happy at all.. -r-)

Aritha is cleansing just like shikakai! So Amla dries your hair? That's really weird cause it's a conditioning herb. Maybe it just makes your hair feel "stiff" the way henna and other herbs can do.

I haven't done indian herb washing since last summer because it doesn't really agree with veggie dyes I think, it would probably fade them quite quickly.

maybe it's just stiff, you're right... I'm going to buy an avocado today anyway^^  Thank you!!