Home Treatments
Here you will find step-by-step instructions on home treatments.
Reading The Mantle and Oil Theory may answer some of your questions.
General Oil Treatment – for dry and/or itchy scalp and hair.
- Prepare your mix of oils (maybe 1/6 Castor and 5/6 Hemp Seed Oil for scalp and hair treatments. Avocado and coconut oils are super moisturizing and nourishing for the hair, but are pore clogging to different extents. If you use these on your scalp and experience breakouts, irritation, etc., try putting the castor/hemp seed oils on the scalp and the heavier oils on the hair only.) OR use something like Jamaican Mango and Lime, Black Castor Oil (found at Sally’s Beauty Supply).
- Shampoo your hair and towel dry.
- Saturate hair and scalp with oils.
- Wearing a plastic bag or cap helps to keep these oils from running. Your body heat will melt them. External heat is recommended, but it doesn’t take too much to open the hair up for maximum absorption. Sit in a sunny window or lay a towel over your bagged hair to trap your body heat.
- Let sit for at least 25 minutes.
- Shampoo well, condition, and rinse.
- You can style as usual. If you want to retain as much moisture in your hair as possible, you’ll want to dry it. Let it air-dry if your hair dries quickly. If your hair takes a long time to air dry, blow dry on low power with medium heat (not high). Do this for your roots especially. Ends are optional.
A Quick Oil Application – intended for the wash and go, so it is highly advised you use oils with comedogenic ratings 0 – 1 (see Oil Theory), add very little of the higher rated ones, or use a premixed product from the store.
- Shampoo if you need. Whether you do or you don’t, rinse your hair with warm water and squeeze out the excess.
- Add about a dime-sized bit (more or less if you prefer) of your choice of oils to your conditioner and apply to scalp and ends during your shower. Massage it in. Depending on how much moisture your hair needs, you can rinse it right away or let it sit until the end of your shower and then rinse out.
- Style as usual.
- If your hair is too oily and unmanageable, then too much oil was used. If hair is still dry and unmanageable, you may want to do a general oil treatment.
Chelating agent treatments involve compounds that attract metals and pry them from your strands so that they can be washed away. The metals often come from your water source. What do metals and other buildup do? They can react unpredictably with color and/or block color absorption, weigh the hair down, and can create a brassy appearance to hair color.
Color Prime Treatment- intended for use within 12 hours before a color service.
Color Prime is a treatment that incorporates Color Prepare, a product of Malibu C. Color prepare contains a chelating agent. It readies the hair for pigment penetration, which aims to increase color longevity. It is available at Ugly Mug Studio, Malibuc.com, and/or Amazon.com.
- Shampoo and towel dry.
- Pour crystals into palm and add a small amount of water at a time to create a gel. Rub gel into hair and scalp. You can use an applicator bottle with 1 – 1.5 ounces of water to a pack of crystals.
- Let sit for at least 5 minutes.
- Apply shampoo and then rinse.
- Condition for best results.
A Lift – for shedding buildup and replacing it with moisture and proteins.
This in-salon treatment can be done at home. The chelating agent is the product Crystal Gel by Malibu C. The first part of the treatment will be the application of this gel. The second part may be a vegetable protein cream (like Miracle Repair by Malibu C) or a keratin treatment (animal protein, see proteins section below) if the hair structure needs it. You may also want to add or incorporate a third step for moisture, either a quick oil application or a full oil infusion. Crystal Gels are available at Ugly Mug Studio, Malibuc.com or amazon.com.
Two conditions to be aware of:
- If you have silver or white hair, the Crystal Gel may turn them slightly pink. This is temporary (a week or so).
- If you have been washing your hair for years in really hard water, like well water, there is a possibility that your hair will break after a Lift. This is because your hair has been overcome by metals other particles that have eroded your hair’s structure. In extreme cases, the metals may become the hair’s main structure. If you suspect this is the case, a vegetable protein cream will do little to help. They are topical proteins that do not build, which is why they are popular in many daily-use hair products. To rebuild the structure of the hair you will need animal protein, which does build on the hair. However, these can build up too much. See the section on proteins below for more details. To address weak hair structure in salon, a Bond treatment can also help with this.
Applicator bottles and plastic caps may make this treatment at home easy. You can reuse an old shampoo or conditioner bottle for mixing, and a plastic grocery store bag in place of a cap.
Lift Part 1:
- Shampoo, rinse, and towel dry.
- Mix 5g or 1 pack of Crystal gel with 2 ounces of tepid (room temperature) water.
- Apply to scalp and hair. Rub in vigorously with hands and fingers.
- Put a cap or a plastic bag over all of your hair so the gel does not dry out and expose to heat (dryer, sunny window, or lay a towel over the cap to trap body heat) for 45 minutes (more if removing heavy buildup).
- Shampoo before rinsing.
- Towel drying helps to avoid diluting the proteins and moisturizers for part 2 of the Lift.
Lift Part Two
If you hair is strong, condition with Miracle Repair. Leave this on for at least 10 minutes. It is a lighter moisturizer. If your structure is weak, you may need a Keratin Treatment instead of the Miracle Repair.
If your hair is dry, you can do a Quick Oil Application with the Miracle Repair. If it is really dry, you may want to follow part two with an Oil Infusion.
Proteins are not all alike. Vegetable proteins do not build on the hair. Animal proteins do, offering benefits such as strength and structure, but beware: too much animal protein can build up on the hair like a crust that deflects moisture and vitamins, thus weakening your strands. These should be done no more than every 8 – 12 weeks. Maybe do the first and second treatments 4 weeks apart and then another eight weeks for the third, but only if your hair is breaking. When your hair regains its strength, do not reapply! The following is an animal protein (keratin) treatment.
Keratin Treatment – for weak hair, split ends, and/or breakage.
- Whisk a whole raw egg and apply it to shampooed and towel-dried hair. If you only need some structure on your ends, only apply it to your ends. For a thicker consistency, the egg can be mixed with another medium such as Shea Butter, oils, or your conditioner.
- Saturate your hair with the egg or egg mixture and leave it in for 45 minutes.
- Use cool or lukewarm water to rinse and shampoo the egg out. Heat may cook it into your hair! You may have to shampoo twice before conditioning.
- You can add an oil treatment here if needed, or style as usual.
- One more time, do not repeat more than every 8-12 weeks, and when your hair regains its strength, do not reapply.
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