This Homemade Mask is The Ultimate Fix For Dry, Damaged Hair

Between beanies, coat hoods, and dry, winter air, my hair always ends up looking like the Cousin It version of itself by New Year’s Eve. As a curly girl, I was getting sick of forking over $20+ for hair treatments and trying DIY hair masks that left a funky smell (I’m looking at you, mayonnaise mask). So this year I started looking into other options and kept reading about how great aloe is for your hair. This experiment completely shocked me with how well it defined my curls and how easy it was to put together!

What You Need

Materials

Your favorite oil (jojoba, coconut, avocado)

Castor oil

1 large aloe leaf (you can find these at the grocery store for $1-2)

Tools

Knife

Cutting board

Clean glass jar

Instructions

Different hair types have different porosities, a.k.a. how well you hair can absorb and retain moisture. You might have to experiment with which oils work best for your hair. For example, I know through trial and error that my hair just does not absorb coconut oil but loves avocado oil, so that’s what I used here.

1. Cut away the top and bottom of the aloe leaf. Remove the side spines and half horizontally.

2. Transfer the fresh aloe gel into a container. Scraping the gel off will get you most of what you need, but if you need more, try ‘milking’ the halves and straining.

3. Add your hair oil (jojoba, coconut, avocado) and castor oil to the aloe gel in a 3:1:3 ratio (3 parts aloe gel, 3 parts hair oil, 1 part castor oil). If you’re mixing in a glass jar, you can easily see the ratios of the ingredients as you add them:

4. Now the magic part. Soak or spritz your hair with warm water to prep. Liberally apply the mixture throughout. Cover with a shower cap for 1 hour and then rinse thoroughly.

Tada! This pic, and the lead image above, were both taken with air dried hair, the same day, with no extra products used (because that wouldn’t be a fair test would it?). When I do this hair mask again, I’ll use my usual styling gel and put into twists to set, but overall I’m absolutely thrilled my winter frizz has been managed!

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