This recipe is for a deep conditioner. It will not only help to moisturize and nourish dry hair, it also contains essential oils, hydrosols and other ingredients that help to soothe your scalp.

Heated oil phase (19%)

• 6g BTMS (6%)
  
• 3g cetyl alcohol (3%)
  
• 10g kukui butter (10%)
  

Heated water phase (69%)

• 37g water (37%)
  
• 20g chamomile hydrosol (20%)
  
• 10g aloe vera (10%)
  
• 2g hydrolyzed silk protein (2%)
  

Cool-down phase (12%)

• 4g honeyquat (4%)
  
• 2g cyclomethicone (2%)
  
• 2g dimethicone (2%)
  
• 2g panthenol (2%)
  
• 1g optiphen preservative (1%)
  
• 1g peppermint essential oil (22 drops) (1%)
  

Method

You will need two pyrex bowls because you will be creating two bain maries (a.k.a. double boilers)

1. Weigh out the heated oil phase ingredients into a pyrex dish.
   
2. Weigh out the heated water phase ingredients into another pyrex dish.
   
3. Create a bain marie for each and heat to 70°C or at least until the water in the pot starts to boil then reduce the heat. 
   

• Leave the oil phase heating at 70°C for 20 minutes. 
  
• Put the water phase on 8 minutes later and leave it for 12 minutes. 
  
• You can have the heated water phase on for the full 20 minutes but for a 100g batch I find that you get a lot of lost product due to evaporation so I prefer to put it on a little later.
  

1. Remove both from the heat and pour the heated water phase into the heated oil phase immediately. Stir simultaneously.
   
2. Continue to stir gently until the mixture has cooled down and thickened.
   
3. Allow to cool to just more than hand hot (45°C if you want to be specific) then add the cool-down phase ingredients. To be honest 45°C is a bit more than hand but I am so scared of inactivating the cool-down phase ingredients that I would rather not risk it.
   
4. Allow the formulation to cool completely then bottle it up.
   

Application

• Always condition freshly washed hair. To make you your own shampoo see nenonatural.com/DIYshampoos.
  
• Condition as normal. 
  
• If you have tangle-prone kinky-curly medium-to-long hair (like I do) wash it in twists to minimize tangling. Then undo each twist to condition the section.
  

Storage: The shelf life is 9 to 12 months. Store in a cool, dry place.  

Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.


You might also like:

• Neno Natural's Free Conditioner Recipes

Heating the ingredients that go into a hair conditioner, detangler or moisturizer helps to emulsify (mix) water and oil. 

Normally, as you already know, water-based substances and oils/butters don't mix. However, heat alone is not enough to cause the blends to mix and not "split" again afterwards.

In addition to the heat each one of my DIY Hair Recipes contains an "emulsifying agent" (the cationic compounds, BTMS or cetrimonium chloride or cetrmonium bromide) - that is a chemical that helps the water and the oil to blend. 

But, heat and an emulsifier are again not enough to make the oil and water to mix without "splitting" again afterwards. The stirring motion also helps with the emulsification process. 

Think about it this way, if you make a cup of tea and add a solid block of sugar it might not completely melt if you don't stir. To dissolve the sugar you need: (1) a solvent called water, (2) heat, i.e. hot water, the sugar would not melt well in cold water and (3) stirring. It's pretty much the same deal deal with making conditioners and other hair products that combine oils and water-based inputs.

In addition, the heat kills any contaminants that might have been in the ingredients. Having any unwanted bodies in the formulation would make it rot faster.

In summary, to mix water and oils/butters you need:
1. An emulsifying agent
2. Heat
3. Stirring action

​Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.


You might also like: 

• Neno Natural's DIY Hair Recipes
• What Ingredients Go Into Making A Good Conditioner?

If you are making your own "Do It Yourself" products it is more accurate to use grams. 

How About Millilitres, ml?

Millilitres are also quite accurate but not as accurate as grams and importantly, you can't use ml for solid ingredients only for liquid ingredients.

Accuracy is important when you are dealing with ingredients for your hair. Be patient and weigh everything out slowly.

Why Can't I Use Pounds (lbs) and Ounces (oz.)?

If you are used to pounds and ounces don't worry, you will get used to grams very quickly. 1,000 grams make a kilogram so it's very easy to understand metric units, all scientists use metric measurements and as a mixtress you should too :P.

Spoons, cups and ounces are extremely inaccurate for proper chemistry and my DIY Hair Recipes are proper chemistry.

​Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.


You might also like: 

• Neno Natural's DIY Conditioner Recipes

This recipe is for a deep conditioner. It will help to soften, moisturize and nourish dry hair.

Heated oil phase (38%)

• 4g BTMS-50 (4%)
  
• 2g Cetrimonium bromide (2%)
  
• 2g cetearyl alcohol (2%)
  
• 8g shea butter (8%)
  
• 2g sweet almond oil (2%)
  
• 20g marshmallow infusion (20%)
  

Heated water phase (52%)

• 24g water (24%)
  
• 20g aloe vera (20%)
  
• 5g glycerin (5%)
  
• 3g hydrolyzed silk protein (3%)
  

Cool-down phase (10%)

• 2g cetrimonium chloride (2%)
  
• 2g cyclomethicone (2%)
  
• 2g dimethicone (2%)
  
• 2g panthenol (2%)
  
• 1g optiphen preservative (1%)
  
• 1g essential oil blend (1%)
  
• 0.7g chamomile (16 drops) (0.7%)
  
• 0.3g cedarwood (6 drops) (0.3%)
  

Method

You will need two pyrex bowls because you will be creating two bain maries (a.k.a. double boilers)

1. Weigh out the heated oil phase ingredients into a pyrex dish.
   
2. Weigh out the heated water phase ingredients into another pyrex dish.
   
3. Create a bain marie for each and heat to 70°C or at least until the water in the pot starts to boil then reduce the heat. 
   

• Leave the oil phase heating at 70°C for 20 minutes. 
  
• Put the water phase on 8 minutes later and leave it for 12 minutes. 
  
• You can have the heated water phase on for the full 20 minutes but for a 100g batch I find that you get a lot of lost product due to evaporation so I prefer to put it on a little later.
  

1. Remove both from the heat and pour the heated water phase into the heated oil phase immediately. Stir simultaneously.
   
2. Continue to stir gently until the mixture has cooled down and thickened.
   
3. Allow to cool to just more than hand hot (45°C if you want to be specific) then add the cool-down phase ingredients. To be honest 45°C is a bit more than hand but I am so scared of inactivating the cool-down phase ingredients that I would rather not risk it.
   
4. Allow the formulation to cool completely then bottle it up.
   

Application

• Always condition freshly washed hair. To make you your own shampoo see nenonatural.com/DIYshampoos.
  
• Condition as normal. 
  
• If you have tangle-prone kinky-curly medium-to-long hair (like I do) wash it in twists to minimize tangling. Then undo each twist to condition the section.
  

Storage: The shelf life is 9 to 12 months. Store in a cool, dry place.   

Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.


You might also like:

• Neno Natural's Free Conditioner Recipes

A double-boiler is a gentler way for heating the ingredients. It stops ingredients from getting unnecessarily overheated and destroyed. This is especially important because different ingredients have a different melting point.

Can't I Just Heat On The Hob Or Microwave?
No, you can't.

If you used a hob the direct heat would be too strong and destructive.

If you used a microwave you would overheat the ingredient, at best; at worst, you would have some kind of an explosion.

Pyrex dishes won't crack from the constant heating and cooling. 

If you choose to use another type of glass, i.e. not pyrex bowls or jugs, Make sure whatever glass bowl you are using can take the heat!

Have you ever poured boiling hot water into a glass tumbler - it cracked didn't it? That's what most glasses will do, pyrex is specifically designed to take heat well.

This recipe is for a deep conditioner. It will not only help to moisturize and nourish dry hair, it also contains essential oils, hydrosols and other ingredients that help to strengthen hair.

Heated oil phase (22%)

• 6g cetrimonium bromide (6%)
  
• 3g incroquat CR (3%)
  
• 3g cetearyl alcohol (3%)
  
• 10g avocado butter (10%)
  

Heated water phase (70%)

• 33g water (33%)
  
• 20g hibiscus hydrosol (20%)
  
• 10g aloe vera (10%)
  
• 2g hydrolyzed silk protein (2%)
  
• 5g glycerin (5%)
  

Cool-down phase (8%)

• 2g cyclomethicone (2%)
  
• 2g dimethicone (2%)
  
• 2g panthenol (2%)
  
• 1g optiphen preservative (1%)
  
• 1g essential oil blend (1%)
  
• 0.5g geranium (13 drops) (0.5%)
  
• 0.3g bergamot (5 drops) (0.3%)
  
• 0.2g cedarwood (4 drops) (0.2%)
  

Method

You will need two pyrex bowls because you will be creating two bain maries (a.k.a. double boilers)

1. Weigh out the heated oil phase ingredients into a pyrex dish.
   
2. Weigh out the heated water phase ingredients into another pyrex dish.
   
3. Create a bain marie for each and heat to 70°C or at least until the water in the pot starts to boil then reduce the heat. 
   

• Leave the oil phase heating at 70°C for 20 minutes. 
  
• Put the water phase on 8 minutes later and leave it for 12 minutes. 
  
• You can have the heated water phase on for the full 20 minutes but for a 100g batch I find that you get a lot of lost product due to evaporation so I prefer to put it on a little later.
  

1. Remove both from the heat and pour the heated water phase into the heated oil phase immediately. Stir simultaneously.
   
2. Continue to stir gently until the mixture has cooled down and thickened.
   
3. Allow to cool to just more than hand hot (45°C if you want to be specific) then add the cool-down phase ingredients. To be honest 45°C is a bit more than hand but I am so scared of inactivating the cool-down phase ingredients that I would rather not risk it.
   
4. Allow the formulation to cool completely then bottle it up.
   

Application

• Always condition freshly washed hair. To make you your own shampoo see nenonatural.com/DIYshampoos.
  
• Condition as normal. 
  
• If you have tangle-prone kinky-curly medium-to-long hair (like I do) wash it in twists to minimize tangling. Then undo each twist to condition the section.
  

Storage: The shelf life is 9 to 12 months. Store in a cool, dry place.   

Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.


You might also like:

• Neno Natural's Free Conditioner Recipes

The six DIY Conditioner recipes that I give out for free are deep conditioners designed for weekly use. If you wanted to make a shampoo for daily use you would just halve the quantity of the following ingredients:

• BTMS
  
• Cetrimonium bromide 
  
• Cetrimonium chloride
  
• Cetearyl alcohol 
  
• Cetyl alcohol
  

Then add more water to make the difference.

In my ebook, DIY Conditioners Course I give you the exact volumes needed to convert each deep conditioner to its daily use equivalent.  

If you find that a conditioner you've made yourself is too thin, next time you formulate you can:

• Add more BTMS
  
• Add an oil or a butter
  
• Remove cetrimonium chloride from the recipe

Obviously, if you want to make a conditioner thinner if it is too thick then, you do the opposite:

• Reduce the amount of BTMS
  
• Use less vegetable oils or a butters
  
• Add cetrimonium chloride 
  

Remember to keep to the usage rates advised by the manufacturer. 

• For a weekly use conditioner you can go as high as 10% BTMS but for daily use I would not have more than 5%. In fact, I think 10% is pushing it even for a weekly use conditioner, I wouldn't go beyond 7/8%.
• With oils 5-10% is okay for us dry haired girls. Even up to 20% for an intense condition (but that is a lot). For oily haired girls 3-5% is plenty.

Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.



You might also like:

• Neno Natural's Free Conditioner Recipes
• What Is The "General" Recipe For Making A Conditioner DIY-Style?

Because we dry-haired girls only wash our hair once a week all my DIY Conditioners are designed to be for weekly or twice-weekly use. This makes them a bit stronger and more conditioning than a daily use rinse-off conditioner.

All the ingredients are split into 3 phases:

• Heated oil phase
  
• Heated water phase
  
• Cool-down phase

At a base level, if you have what is called a cationic compound in the right amount, you have a conditioner. So, a very basic daily use conditioner would be:

4% BTMS-50 (the cationic compound)
+ 1% optiphen preservative
+ 95% water

But how bland and dissatisfying would that be - no smellies! I like smellies so I would add fragrance or essential oil to get:

4% BTMS-50 (the cationic compound)
+ 1% optiphen preservative
+ 1% essential oil blend or fragrance oil
+ 94% water

But I have dry hair so I don't condition daily so I would need a more intense conditioner for weekly use so I would bump up the cationic compounds to get:

6-8% BTMS-50 (the cationic compound)
+ 1% optiphen preservative
+ 1% essential oil blend or fragrance oil
+ 90-92% water

But I have VERY dry, tangle-prone hair so I need more than just cationic compounds, I need a fatty alcohol for more moisture and slip plus some carrier oils for greater moisture and nourishment. So I change the formulation to get:

6% BTMS-50 (the cationic compound)
+ 3% cetyl alcohol or cetearyl alcohol
+ 10% carrier oil blend
+ 1% optiphen preservative
+ 1% essential oil blend or fragrance oil
+ 79% water

But that's a lot of water - I'd want something better, something with herbs and extracts that are beneficial to hair moisture, strength, softness.  So I would add an infusion or hydrosol / floral water.

Then I start thinking are there any ingredients that can soften and moisturise my hair further? Perhaps make detangling even easier? And the answer would be, yes, throw in some hydrolysed protein.

As with all kinky-curly hair it's sometimes hard to get it shiny, can any ingredient improve shine? Yep, try adding some silicones or silicone alternatives. Silicones not only help with detangling and softening hair but also boost shine/gloss and a healthy appearance of hair. Plus, they can help you retain moisture for longer, they coat hair and seal it like an oil or butter would.

Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair.


You might also like:

• What Are The Best Silicones For People On A Co-Wash Regimen?
• What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Silicones To Natural Hair?
• Water-Soluble Vs. Non-Soluble Silicones Found In Hair Products

This recipe is for a deep conditioner. It will not only help to moisturize and nourish dry hair, it also contains essential oils that have been empirically shown by scientists to improve hair growth. 

INGREDIENTS

Heated oil phase (19%)

• 6g BTMS-50 (6%)
  
• 3g cetearyl alcohol (3%)
  
• 4g jojoba (4%)
  
• 6g avocado butter (6%)
  

Heated water phase (69%)

• 47g water (47%)
  
• 10g aloe vera (10%)
  
• 10g rose hydrosol (10%)
  
• 1g hydrolyzed oat protein (1%)
  
• 1g hydrolyzed silk protein (1%)
  

Cool-down phase (12%)

• 4g honeyquat (4%)
  
• 2g cyclomethicone (2%)
  
• 2g dimethicone (2%)
  
• 2g panthenol (2%)
  
• 1g optiphen preservative (1%)
  
• 1g essential oil blend (1%)
  
• 0.3g Rosemary (7 drops) (0.3%)
  
• 0.3g Lavender (7 drops) (0.3%)
  
• 0.2g Thyme (4 drops) (0.2%)
  
• 0.2g Cedarwood (4 drops) (0.2%)
  

Method

You will need two pyrex bowls because you will be creating two bain maries (a.k.a. double boilers)

1. Weigh out the heated oil phase ingredients into a pyrex dish.
   
2. Weigh out the heated water phase ingredients into another pyrex dish.
   
3. Create a bain marie for each and heat to 70°C or at least until the water in the pot starts to boil then reduce the heat. 
   

• Leave the oil phase heating at 70°C for 20 minutes. 
  
• Put the water phase on 8 minutes later and leave it for 12 minutes. 
  
• You can have the heated water phase on for the full 20 minutes but for a 100g batch I find that you get a lot of lost product due to evaporation so I prefer to put it on a little later.
  

1. Remove both from the heat and pour the heated water phase into the heated oil phase immediately. Stir simultaneously.
   
2. Continue to stir gently until the mixture has cooled down and thickened.
   
3. Allow to cool to just more than hand hot (45°C if you want to be specific) then add the cool-down phase ingredients. To be honest 45°C is a bit more than hand but I am so scared of inactivating the cool-down phase ingredients that I would rather not risk it.
   
4. Allow the formulation to cool completely then bottle it up.
   

Application

• Always condition freshly washed hair. To make you your own shampoo see nenonatural.com/DIYshampoos.
  
• Condition as normal. 
  
• If you have tangle-prone kinky-curly medium-to-long hair (like I do) wash it in twists to minimize tangling. Then undo each twist to condition the section.
  

Storage: The shelf life is 9 to 12 months. Store in a cool, dry place.