A first for me. Two actually! (hey, that rhymes!)

Last night I put together my first attempt at hair detangler. Sick of purchasing chemically laden store bought bottles that seem to get used up too quickly and hurt the little ones eyes if the mist comes near it, I added a few extra items to my last soap haul and had a play!

I must say… pretty chuffed with myself right now. And very pleased with how well it worked!

My subconscious must have known something was going on as I woke up this morning looking like I had stuck my finger in the electrical socket over night. The doona was tossed on the floor and I could just tell I had either tossed and turned all night, or just moved around a lot. I mean normally I get out of bed looking like a supermodel… don’t we all?

Miss S came up to my desk while I was working with the above photos…

“Is that you?”

“Yes that’s mummy’s head”

“But your hair has black?”

“Yes, it has black”, I chuckle. “That’s because mummy only colours the top of her hair”

“Did you paint it?”

“The blond? Sort off, well, um, you know when mummy..” I get cut off.

“No… the BLACK! Did you paint the black? Why are you allowed you paint your hair black but you yell at me when I do it to mine? You’re not fair”

And she promptly stormed off. Um… lol!

So you have to excuse the bad photos as I used my phone to do them. My camera is too big and too expensive to try and navigate around the back of my head. Gotta love the iPhone! As you can see. Mess! Knots and Gnarls and generally not what I want other people to see.

Now I will admit that I didn’t actually have high hopes for the detangler. Not sure if it’s a first time thing, or just a general doubt in myself, but I have this problem when ever I try something for the first time. I remember being completely shocked when my first CP soap actually acted like, well, soap. Perhaps it’s an environmental conditioning that only big corporations can make things like this? Who knows.

But, I held my breath, sprayed my hair and waited thirty seconds to a minute. Then I picked up the comb…

SHAZZAM!! A couple of the really bad knots needed a gentle hand, but after about a minute of the detangler concoction sitting on my hair, it was super easy to comb!! My hair was temporarily wet – wetter than when I’ve used commercial products. But that’s to be expected given 90% of my mixture is water. But hair dries. And mine did.

I called Miss four and a half in to test it on her hair. Miss S was the reason I discovered detangler in the first place! Like my hair, hers knots up with a violent sneeze and although I can tolerate some pain while brushing, Miss S, as a child, can not. From her first year onwards I’ve been using detangler every time I need to brush her hair – wet or dry!

Not the best test subject due to her hair length – it used to be quite longer, but Kinder plus Scissors, plus teachers not paying attention and well, this is now the length. But, it still get’s quite knotty. Especially that back section.

I asked Miss S what she thought of it, and first comment was “Mmm, smells nice!” This is due to the fact I added a very small amount of fragrance oil that is a dupe of the perfume scent Angel. The amount is probably akin to one perfume spray across your entire head, not even. Nice and subtle.

I asked her if it hurt getting the knots out and got a very excited ‘NO!! It DIDN”T! You’re so clever mummy!” reply with a squeezy hug. Naaaw.

So that’s my first hair detangler attempt under my belt. It’s also my first time using a preservative. Now, before you wrinkle your nose at that word, I had to use one. With such a high water percentage (or the fact it has water in it at all), a preservative is required. This stops the mixture growing mold or bacteria or other nasties. I spefically chose a very mild preservative that is paraben free and can be used at very low concentrations.

All in all, my detangler consists of four, yes four ingredients! This mixture has five as I added a very small amount of fragrance oil. I just counted the product I was using and it has twenty-five! O_O

My ingredients will grow as I want to look at adding some hair loving ingredients (Vitamin E for examle), but it will (hopefully) never reach that number. Even if it does, mine will be easy to pronounce!

Now the hardest part of all… working out what to name it!!