DIY Rosemary Infused Coconut Oil Dandruff Treatment

It’s funny how birthing a child literally changes EVERYTHING about your life. Thankfully, most of the good outweigh the bad. But there are still those annoying things that used to never exist until your children — like less perky boobs and dandruff.

Just being real here.

P.s. I don’t really mind about the first thing so much but the second? Ugh, it irritates me. It’s like a pesky mosquito flying around my head and I can’t seem to smash it.

My whole pre-Andrew life, I never really experienced dandruff. There were probably a handful of times that I would get it (I totally remember using that serious toxin-overloaded blue shampoo). Then, the moment my beautiful child came into the world, my hair did a 180 on me — I had unusually oily hair, dandruff, and my scalp became itchy.

Truth be told, I’ve been dealing with these symptoms for almost four years now and have just never taken the next step to try and eradicate it. Remember how I mentioned the hardest part of natural living is often just doing “it?” Well, since I’ve opened myself up to the world of herbs and healing, I inevitably came full circle and began researching ways to deal with my issue.

But first I had to ask myself: What is dandruff?

Dandruff is small pieces of skin that flake off. Human cells are continually renewing themselves but when people have dandruff, the cells produce faster than our body can get rid of them (source).

Dandruff can literally be caused by many different things; from environmental allergies and a yeast/fungus overgrowth to poor gut health and dietary allergies. Not one dandruff treatment will work for everyone, so it’s important to do your research and ultimately know, you may have to try more than one remedy to help you along the way.

As I was doing research in one of the my new books I ordered, I came across a diagram outlining essential oils for hair care. I noticed that rosemary was considered great for dandruff treatments because it promoted hair growth. Remember how I said people with dandruff tend to have skin cells renewing faster than our body can get rid of them? Rosemary promotes hair growth by stimulating skin cells to grow which helps those of us who may have a slow hair growth rate. Rosemary has anti-fungal properties which makes perfect sense as to why it would help treat dandruff considering dandruff can be a yeast overgrowth (source).

To cover my grounds as to whether my dandruff may be caused by just dry skin or from a fungus, I included a few multi-purpose ingredients to make this DIY rosemary infused coconut oil dandruff treatment.

I have a fairly large rosemary bush in my backyard that I never do anything with, so I figured I’d make the most of my rosemary and infuse it in some virgin coconut oil (also anti-fungal and anti-bacterial). Since the weather is cool which means my coconut oil will stay solid, I opted to go for the low and slow double boiler method of infusing (learn more about that here).

Because I did the double boiler infusion method, I decided to add additional drops of rosemary essential oil to really amp up the properties rosemary has. If I did a long infusion (learn how to infuse oils here), I would probably omit the rosemary essential oil.

I added:

• Tea tree for it’s cleansing properties. Fun fact: Tea tree contains Terpinen-4-ol which is thought to be responsible for fighting all three categories of infectious organisms (bacteria, fungi, and viruses).
• Lavender to help soothe dry skin
• Patchouli for it’s antimicrobial, antiviral, and fungicidal properties. It’s also great for oily hair that is plagued with dandruff

Once you mix all of it up, you let it sit on your hair for anywhere between 45-60 minutes. To ensure my hair didn’t stay oily from the coconut oil, after I shampooed the coconut oil out, I rinsed my hair with apple cider vinegar.

Lately I’ve been rinsing my hair with apple cider vinegar and have had AMAZING results. My hair would often get oily a day after I washed it and it always felt gross. I started pouring apple cider vinegar (ACV) on my hair right before I get out of the shower and my hair has never felt more clean and shiny. I actually went 5 days without washing my hair before it started to become oily!

This makes sense because apple cider vinegar helps normalize the pH on your scalp. The acidity of the apple cider vinegar makes it an incredibly hard environment for any fungus to thrive (source). ACV also has natural probiotics which always helps any way you look at it.

Additionally, I have issues with natural shampoos and finding the right one that doesn’t make my hair feel greasy a day after washing it. The moment I started rinsing with apple cider vinegar, the greasiness went away.

Once I made sure to shampoo the coconut oil out of my hair and rinse it well with ACV, my hair did not feel the least bit oily. Win!

DIY Rosemary Infused Dandruff Treatment

 

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Ingredients

• 1 cup virgin coconut oil (I just tried this brand and I love it)
• 3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked off of branches
• 6 drops rosemary essential oil (find quality rosemary EO here)
• 6 drops tea tree essential oil (find quality tea tree EO here)
• 6 drops lavender essential oil (find my favorite lavender EO here)
• 5 drops patchouli essential oil (find quality patchouli EO here)
• ½ cup raw apple cider vinegar diluted in one cup water, for rinsing

Instructions

1. In a double boiler (or a bowl on top of a pot), add fresh rosemary leaves and coconut oil
2. Let the rosemary and coconut oil infuse for 1-2 hours on a slow, simmer; stir occasionally
3. When the time is up, strain out the rosemary leaves by pouring the infused coconut oil in a jar with a strainer on top; discard the rosemary
4. Let cool for 5 minutes
5. Add all essential oils; stir

To Apply to Hair

1. Take a spoon or your fingers and dip it into the infused coconut oil, and massage the oil into your roots
2. Go through your head until your roots are completely covered with the infused coconut oil; massaging as you go
3. If you still have leftover coconut oil after your roots are covered, rub the coconut oil on your ends
4. Put up in a bun or clip and let sit for 45-60 minutes; you can add a shower cap at this point if you have one. Otherwise, keep a towel with you because the mixture may begin to drip.

To Rinse

1. Head to the shower and rinse out your hair very well first with water
2. Shampoo and condition as you normally would; for longer, thicker hair you may need to shampoo twice (I did)
3. Right before you're done showering, take diluted apple cider vinegar (ACV) and pour it on your scalp
4. Massage the ACV in your hair; rinse it out with cool water

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This post is sponsored by Plant Therapy. However, the opinions and photos are of my own. Authenticity is important so I would never promote any brand or product that I wholeheartedly don’t believe in. My readers are my number one priority and I always recommend companies and products that I believe will benefit my readers.