Herbal infusions have been used as efficient, inexpensive home remedy for hair rinses since time immemorial. Elizabeth Woodville, king Edward IV’s queen, was famous for her luscious blond tresses. History tells us that she washed her hair in chamomile, rinsed it with lemon juice and polished it with silk. She obviously had a great deal of time! And, as we’re still talking about them, her remedies must have been effective.

Quality of our diet

Our hair reflects the quality of our diet. After that, damage limitation is the order of the day. Sun, wind, pollution, drying, coloring and vigorous brushing all take their toll on the state of our hair. And we all know the result: stressed hair, dull and lifeless with no body or shine, but plenty of frizz and split ends.

A healthy, varied diet, lots of water and a reduction in environmental stress will all contribute to strong, shiny hair. But how can this be achieved? We can’t avoid going out, so sun and wind and the attendant pollutants will always be with us. But we can stop drying, curling or straightening our hair every day. Let your hair dry naturally after washing – you’d be amazed how soft it will feel.

We can also reduce the number of styling products we use. Talk to your grandmother to pick up a few hair care tips. Sounds weird? Back then, most of today’s styling and beauty products had not yet been thought of, but great hair and beautiful skin was certainly appreciated. Many of the ‘traditional’ hair care products would have come from the kitchen or the herb garden. Fresh and natural, they would enhance the hair, not stress it.

At Home Hair Treatments

Here are some herbal homemade hair treatments and natural home remedies for hair, which have also stood the test of time:

# When your hair looks very stressed, nettles are a wonderful tonic and detox. Infuse dried nettle leaves (some health food stores now carry nettle tea bags) and drink the tea. The infusion can also be used as a hair rinse.

# Home remedy for conditioning your blond hair - To shine and condition blond hair, rinse in chamomile tea. Add one teaspoon of lemon juice to a liter of tea for extra shine.

# If your hair is very dry, infusions of elderflower, parsley or sage is a great home remedy for dry, frizzy hair and it will calm the frizz and restore moisture.

# Greasy or oily hair will benefit from a rinse made with lemon balm, rosemary, lavender or mint. All these herbs will calm the scalp and reduce the sebum production. Learn more about natural remedy or shampoo for oily hair.

# Red heads add highlights to their hair by using a strong infusion of calendula (marigold) as a hair rinse.

# A rinse made with sage will darken brown hair as will an infusion of rosemary. Both can also be used to darken gray hair, giving a brown tint.

Effective home hair treatments don’t have to be expensive or time consuming. By making use of fresh and dried herbs, we can achieve strong, shiny, and healthy hair. What’s more, these traditional treatments have stood the test of time and benefited generations of women, so it’s well worth to continue that trend.

Many of these herbal ingredients are now used in professional beauty treatments and included in natural hair and beauty products, so if you don’t have the time or desire to make your own home remedy, then go for natural hair and beauty products.