Monday, August 3, 2009

The Secret to Healthy, Shiny Hair: Mayo??









When I was a child I read on some crazy website that putting mayo in my hair would make it shiny and soft. The thing was, at the age of eight, I already had shiny, healthy hair. My daddy, well intentioned but no hair-care expert, allowed me spread a cup of mayo all over my eight-year-old head like it was a Subway sandwich. The end result was a traumatic week at school with wet-looking, stinky, greasy hair. It was a week I never lived down.

Now, at the age of 21, I'm older and wiser. Or am I? I've dyed my hair a different shade of blond, brown, and blue-ish, blond-ish, brown-ish every month for the past two years. As most of you know, I was committing hair suicide.

My hair no longer has the shine and health it had when I was eight. But whose does? And now that I'm seeing some serious breakage in my ends, and having difficultly getting my hair to grow much longer than my shoulders (which I've never had a problem doing before!), I'm once again considering the mayonnaise trick. But dare I risk it?

According to online sources, mayonnaise is made up of a blend of egg yolks, oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. When combined, they help add strength, moisture and shine to hair. Many other hair treatments lack the protein that mayo has, which why it’s used to add strength to weak hair.

MY EXPERIMENT:

1) Add ½ cup of full-fat mayo to dry, unwashed hair.
2) Cover with a plastic cap (or warm towel if you’re cap-less), and let penetrate for 15-30 minutes.
3) Rinse thoroughly with cool water (be careful not to use hot water, you don’t want to accidently cook the egg into your hair!)
4) Shampoo and condition as usual.

Despite the nasty smell of mayo in my hair for the 20 minutes I left it there, the overall experience was not all that unpleasant. The end result is that my hair really is a little bit SOFTER, SHINIER, and possibly stronger (but how do I really test that in just one day?). I plan to use the other half of my mayo jar in a week to do another treatment, and I'll report back.

-Sarah

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