Self Care Sunday session no. 1 - Essential Oil Hair Treatment & Tooth Whitening Oil Pull

  
​     I feel like I'm having all sorts of new realizations lately & it's kind of really cool. This week, I realized that for the past 3-4 Sundays in a row I have been doing a self care routine of some sort. I usually plan what my focuses will be for the week to keep me on track with my monthly goals, meal prep & grocery shop, & wind down with some sort of hands on self care practice - like a self given coconut oil face massage or a nice hot epsom salt bath. Upon realizing this is already becoming a consistent routine of mine, I thought, why not share this with others?

 I have to be honest from the gate here: I don't hardly know anything about essential oils or much about self care routines in general, but they fascinate me & I have been researching & practicing my own for years now. All I know is what I've stumbled upon in the midst of my own personal interests, travels, talks, & general learnings about this stuff in life. I'm not a cosmetologist, herbalist, essential oil consultant, or anything of the like. I simply think it feels good to take care of myself & is fun to put my own concoctions together!

I originally got the idea to try this hair treatment right on the back of the jojoba oil bottle itself. It says "[Jojoba Oil]...is good for moisturizing the scalp and to prevent dry skin or flakiness. It can be used as a leave-in hair treatment or as an aftershave moisturizer."  That got my wheels turning. Last Fall (September 2015) I picked up a handful of essential oils while I was in Thailand & also a book about all the different types of essential oils & what they can be used to help treat or aid in. I have been playing around a tiny bit with the oils since, but I am always looking for extra opportunity to bust them out! I selected Winter Melon & Rosemary from my drawer because their scents blended well under the opinion of my nose & both their bottles doted that they were each effective for dandruff, hair growth, as well as greasy hair.

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First Things First
Tame the Mane

First I brushed my hair & scalp, then did my best to brush out all the extra loose hair as much as possible too. I have very thick hair, lots of it. If you're a nail biter, I recommend letting your nails grow out a touch for this because it helps to be able to scratch & rub the scalp vigorously & really get in there. Especially if you're doing this because you currently have a flaky or dandruffy scalp - that's why I did it!

After the mane had been tamed I poured a little bit of the jojoba oil in the lid of another jar (nothin' fancy). You really don't need a ton of oil, because it spreads easily & a little goes a long way. I have extremely thick hair that can be hard to work through & still I found that I only needed a bit. It's also not an ideal outcome when you've gone overboard with the oil & can't wash it out at the end & you have to wait a couple days with oily hair...Trust me, just play it on the safe side. I put a couple squirts of jojoba in the lid then sprinkled in a few drops each of the Winter Melon & Rosemary oils. 

I parted my hair 3 different ways to get the oil rubbed into my scalp, then I did my bangs. First with the pony tail half bun (view left): I gently poured a little bit of the jojoba/essential oil mix on the base of my hair line at my neck & underneath the bun where the hair divided. I worked it in gently with my fingers & to get specific places around my scalp, I dipped only my finger tips into the oil.

​The second hair section divided the pony tail half bun in half again (see above), then I used the same procedure to get oil on the base of the bun/hair line. I worked the oil into my hair with my finger tips, massaging down to the neck line to blend everything together. After that, I removed the bun altogether & made sure I got the top of my scalp, my bangs, & all around my ears. A few extra hard scrubs & I threw all that hair up in a bun & put a bandana around my head for about two-three hours. I used a 2-3 hour time reference because I have read plenty about people doing overnight oil treatments, so I figured, a couple hours would still be a good enough time for it all to soak in a bit, & it wouldn't hurt anything if I forgot about it - win / win!

Upon immediate completion of getting the oil treatment in my hair, I decided to do a little oil pull. I do these occaisionally & again it's not something I am no expert in at all. My experience lies in what I have heard through the grapevine of my many friends in the spa service related industry approving that it's "a thing". I have read some articles & this is what I truly have pulled together from it all:

I use organic unrefined coconut oil because that means that it has been minimally processed with no pesticides or chemicals from the coconut itself, to in this jar, to your hands, to your body. At least the best you can hope for. I also use coconut oil because, as you may know due to its super fad-style popularity recently, coconut oil has a lot of healing properties, including being known for killing harmful bacteria (awesome for mouth health) & natural assistance to whitening your teeth.

I take a small spoonful & swish it around in my mouth for twenty minutes. Why twenty minutes? Honestly, because that is the time recommended that popped up in a few articles when I was researching the matter. I don't recall the articles to site them now, but they had said best done in the morning, for twenty minutes. It just makes relative sense to me as morning is a time when you haven't really done anything with your body yet. It's when, as a health coach, I recommend people drink warm lemon water & ease into their day, so I just decided to go with it. It makes sense to me. Just swish, swish, swish then spit 20 mins later - I usually set a timer & read during this time. ​ Once I spit the mix out, I rinse my mouth with warm salt water, with a dash of sea salt, which is the salt I keep in my kitchen. A warm salt mixture helps to sterilize everything & wash everything out. It should help to keep your mouth from feeling too oily afterwards too. To keep playing on the safe side, I also usually brush my teeth & tongue after this entire process is finished. 

Oil Pulling Benefits

To recap from everything above, from the knowledge gathered in my life it makes sense to oil pull simply for the fact that you're helping sterilize our mouth & possibly whiten your teeth. Coconut oil also has many healing minerals, like calcium benefits, that could play into benefits as well. As far as the toxins & bad stuff that oil pulling is supposed to take out of your gums & bloodstream & all that jazz - that is the part that I simply do not know my science on, don't feel comfortable trusting just a random beauty type blog, & so again I look at it as there is no loss. I'm getting some benefits & I just might be getting more!

Rinse it All Out

When you are ready to rinse out the oil in your hair & on your scalp, get in the shower & soak your hair down with hot water. Wash it twice with your preferred shampoo of choice. I first washed my hair with a dandruff shampoo, no special brand, rinsed, then washed again with a more natural based shampoo. This really gave my hair a thoroughly cleaning. I don't mention conditioner, because I just don't use it. No opinion of the matter, mostly just don't. I also don't ever dry my hair with a blowdryer anymore. I hand squeeze it dry with my towel then, then use a little touch of moroccan oil to help smooth it out. Then it dries all wavy & feels fresh for at least a couple days....

Simple self care practices brought to you by me,  Courtney Klop. All I want to do is share what I do, because I usually feel pretty lazy when it comes to 'putting a face on', however a self care routine is an critical part of my lifestyle & I would highly encourage others adopt their own & explore doing a little something extra for themselves every once in a while too! It's all part of the wellness wheel.