I first heard about the concept of herbal tea rinses for natural hair a year ago. I questioned “what could pouring tea on my hair and scalp possibly do?!” Living between London and Lagos, I’m practically drowning in tea 24/7 – but tea for my hair? I was thoroughly confused.
So of course, off to Google I went. I found that the scalp produces a hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which causes hair shedding. This hormone is often what causes baldness, especially in men. DHT causes the hair follicles to shrink, resulting in the strand having a shorter lifespan and thus falling out of the scalp.
Now that we’ve gotten the science out of the way we can address what the tea actually does for the hair. Well, tea contains caffeine and the caffeine blocks the DHT, resulting in less shedding.
Hurray! We all know how annoying, and potentially embarrassing, excess shedding can be so anything that slows down that process is a plus in my eyes. I have only ever tried using green tea and black tea to perform this task and both teas worked very well for me.
In addition to reducing shedding, the tea adds shine, softens the hair, can darken the hair (if that’s what you want) and I’ve read articles which claim it’s a natural way to treat scalp psoriasis and dandruff.
TEA RINSE RECIPE
Here’s the method I use to create my tea rinse:
• Boil some water
• Put it in a bowl and pop 3 tea bags into the water
• I allowed the bags to sit in the water until the water was completely cool (yeah, I think it goes without saying that you shouldn’t pour piping hot tea on your head!)
• Then I stood in the bathtub and slowly poured the tea all over my hair and scalp.
• I rubbed it into my scalp and then covered with a plastic cap for 20-30 minutes.
• I then rinsed out the and carried on with my routine
I was very pleased with my results. My hair looked so shiny and I definitely experienced less shedding the next few times I washed my hair. One thing I will say, MAKE SURE TO USE A MOISTURISING DEEP CONDITIONER AFTERTWARDS. The tea can make your hair a little dry so you’ve got to put that moisture back in. Hopefully it works well for you. Share your experiences and results in the comment section below!
