Grace Coconut Milk Powder for Hair

Premise: For the longest time I've wanted to use coconut milk as a hair treatment. When I was highschool, my friend's mom would style her hair in-between hairdressing appointments and use homemade hair treatments to boot. Hey, my friend had a male hairdresser so she was avant-garde in my humble opinion especially since male hairdressers are rare in my neck of the woods. I still think that she is. One of the home treatments that she used was a mixture of mayonnaise and eggs for a protein treatment every six weeks. I tried it and had o.k. results (my hair has never been a fan of protein treatments and I'm still in search of a product that will be gentle enough to do so). My friends hair on the other hand was always beautiful.

Where and How Much: In any event, I went into my local Save-a-lot and was perusing the international food isle (they have a pretty good selection of products that fit my budget and many of the products are familiar but I'll write more on that later). I found this packet of Coconut Milk for 99 cents and decided to try it. I thought about using the coconut milk in the can but decided against it because of the potential mess and product dripping down my neck.

At home, I decided to use this product as a pre-poo because of the fats contained in the product. No joke, as much as I love peas n' rice make with coconut milk I try my hardest not to consume it. That's a dish for special occasions and comfort food when life gets too rough.

Breakdown it down: Basically, each packet has 5 servings of 5 tsp each, each serving has 6g of total fat and 5g of saturated fat with 1g of protein. The product is high in saturated fat. A packet of this has as much fat as a burger. In contrast, the acutal liquid coconut milk has one serving as 1/3 cup. There are 5 servings per can. Each serving has 10g of total fat and 9 g of saturated fat with 1g of protein. So, if you use a half a can of the product on your hair, it's about 25g of total fat, 22.5g of saturated fat and 2.5g of protein.

I used a half a packet of the coconut powder which was 15g of total fat, 12.5g of saturated fat and 2.5g of protein. There is a disparity between the two. To further illustrate, a large egg has about 6g of protein. In terms of protein, I have NO IDEA how many grams of protein is supposed to be in our hair or how many grams of protein are in protein treatments. Math is also not my strongest subject so my quick calculations are up for debate. In any event, I supplemented the coconut powder with a Hot Oil Treatment and an o.k. conditioner and added just a touch of water until the mixture became a creamy paste. I wet my hair and put on the paste for about 3 hours. It was pretty cold outside so I just put on a shower cap, a metallic shower cap and a wool hat to hide the shower cap whilst I ran some errands. I've alternated this method with only keeping the product on for an hour and also sleeping with it overnight. Next, I rinse out the mixture (a good tip would be to pull the shower curtain out of the bathtub and just wash your hair under the faucet; because there's so much fat in the product, it's quite difficult to wash out). I followed up with shampoo, a light conditioner to detangle (which really wasn't needed because my hair came out quite detangled. I did it out of habit), a deep conditioner and just let my hair air dry in a wrap.

The process does sound time consuming but it really isnt. I do it in phases. I prepoo the night before (for warm weather where I can't conceal the shower cap) or the day of and go to the library (for cold weather where I can conceal). The deep conditioner I do late at night before bed and whilst studying or cleaning.

Overall: I love using the powder. I may use the liquid when I have more time on my hand for cleaning and washing towels. I use this as a treat for myself especially if there is spare change in my pocket when I go to the supermarket. It's also a great way to use up a conditioner that I'm not so hot for anymore. I had no shedding with this product and my hair felt stronger and healthier. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Try it out guys and tell me what you think! Don't be afraid to comment below.