Natural colour for hair - Henna preparation

I don't believe in artificial hair colours as I'm always scared I would lose my hair but since I have premature greying of hair, I have no choice but to colour it. So I use henna for colouring my hair.

This is how I prepare it.

You would need :

• Henna : one cup would be enough for short hair
• Yogurt : 3 table spoons
• Fenugreek powder : 2 table spoons
• Amla powder : 2 table spoons
• Tea decoction : half cup ( use it at the end to mix everything so that you can use as much as it requires )
• Lemon juice : from one whole lemon
• Egg white : of one egg

The above ingredients are for one cup of henna.

Uses of the above ingredients :

• Henna is a natural colouring agent and also a conditioner. It cools off your scalp.
• Fenugreek in yogurt is beleived to get rid of dandruff and Lice in the hair ( I shall post on using the preparation of yogurt and fenugreek, for the same purpose, soon.........)
• Amla powder makes the hair black.
• Lemon juice is again used for dandruff treatment.
• Egg white is a conditioner.

Procedure :

Mix all the ingredients and keep aside for atleast 4-5 hours. I usually make this preparation and let it stand by overnight and then apply it the next morning. That would leave an amazing colour.

For those of you who do not want the regular coulour of henna, mix beet root juice for burgundy colour. Instead of mixing the tea decoction at the end, add 2 tablespoons of decocotion and then mix the beet root juice finally. In this case avoid amla powder.

There are two methods of using the henna preparation. One is for hair conditioning and other for hair colouring.

For hair conditioning, apply oil to the hair at night and then apply the henna the next morning and leave it for 2-3 hours before washing it off with a shampoo. This leaves a mild colour and conditions very well.

For hair colouring, apply henna first and then let it stay for 2-3 hours before you wash it off with water ( do not use shampoo immediately ) and after the hair dries completely, apply oil and then shampoo the hair the next day. That will take care of both conditioning and colouring too.

Hope this post of mine was of some help to you. I am not sure if there would be any reaction to these because I have seen many use it and I personally use it and I haven't found anyone including me have any side effects or allergies with the above preparations. In any case I would suggest you take a patch test to make sure it leaves no side effects.

Till the next post, stay beautiful and healthy.

Love

R

Today's Kitchen Tip

Aubergines or Brinjals, as they are called in India, change colour soon after they are cut and kept aside before they are cooked. To prevent them from changing colour add half a teaspoon of salt to the water and put the cut aubergines in that water. It will stay up to more than 15 minutes to half an hour with out changing colour. The water would get coloured though.

Love

R

Mouth Ulcers - remedy

It has been quite some time since i posted anything on Grandma's corner.So i guess its time i told you guys something about the mouth ulcers and its remedy.

I'm not an expert in this field.The information i'm going to give is based purely on experience and lessons learnt from elders. My husband had this problem before and he was a frequent victim to this problem and my MIL ( mother-in-law ) came up with this solution.

Mouth ulcers are usually caused because of excess heat in the body.So you need to basically cool your body and drive away the excess heat. My MIL would finely chop the onions and fry them in oil and once they turn golden brown, she would add salt and red chilly powder to it and give it with rice to eat.

I have also tried this couple of times when i had mouth ulcers and it did wonders.Although, i would also suggest drinking butter milk or eating mint leaves ( cooked form- any recipes made from mint ) which are also potential body coolers.Hope this tip is of some use to you guys. Stay cool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love

R

Dark circles

Welcome everyone to Grandma's corner.Here you'll find easy ways of finding solutions for your everyday problems,whether it be health, cooking or anything for that matter.

This corner will deal with home remedies and also ways for better living.Those would be the remedies my grandma taught me.It is with immense pleasure that i look forward to posting a remedy in this section,if not everyday,atleast once a week.Here comes the first one.

Dark circles are always a problem for everyone, especially in these days when people hardly find time to grab good sleep.My solution is not a replacement for a sound sleep but some times even after we sleep adequately, it is possible to find those dark circles under the eyes.

All you have to do is grind the raw potatoes with the skin peeled off, i would say 2 medium-sized potatoes would be sufficient.Apply the paste under the eyes, gently rubbing the paste in a circular fashion.You can also apply the paste over the eye lids, depending on how the darkness is distributed around and over your eye.If the darkness is more under your eye, then apply the paste first under the eye for about few days until the colour matches it with the one over your eye.Then start applying the paste over the eye too.

Donot rub the paste for more than 15 minutes.Apply paste once or twice a day depending on the severity of the darkness.You shall see the change with in a week.

Any queries you have,please ask us.

Love

R & T