Homemade hair masks: why yours puts you off, and the 7 ingredients that work

The mashed avocado, the half hour spent scraping the sink, the urge to give up. If a homemade mask has ever put you off, the recipe probably wasn't the problem. The preparation was, and that can be fixed.

A treatment made at home costs little and does real good on a coily fibre, as long as you know what each ingredient can do, and above all what it never will. The one limit: a homemade recipe changes every time you make it, whereas a repairing mask for coily hair keeps the same formula in every jar. Here are the seven that deliver, each with its amounts, its leave-in time and the hair it doesn't suit. To fit them into your week, our step-by-step tutorial sets out the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.

Ingredient 1Coconut oil, in its rightful place

In a homemade preparation, coconut isn't the star: it provides the oily phase. One tablespoon, melted between your hands and mixed with the recipe's moisturising ingredient, and it is what stops the whole thing drying out on the fibre. It isn't used on its own over all your hair, and a preparation containing it is not an oil bath, to which we devote a whole article: that is kept to once or twice a year at most.

Choosing an oil is a subject in itself, which we cover in the best oils for coily hair. Remember one contraindication here: on low-porosity hair, or hair that already feels stiff after a rich preparation, coconut adds to the stiffness instead of softening it. Olive oil or grapeseed oil will work better in that case.

Ingredient 2Honey, which never works alone

Honey is a humectant: it draws in moisture and holds on to it. That is its strength and exactly its limit, because a humectant takes water from wherever it finds it. In very dry air, in the depths of winter or in a heated room, it can draw it from the fibre rather than from the air. So it is always mixed with something oily, which keeps the water in place.

Allow one tablespoon of honey for two tablespoons of fat, olive oil or blended avocado. A quarter of an hour on towel-dried hair, then a long rinse in lukewarm water: a sugary film that isn't fully rinsed out attracts dust for three days. Honey suits dull hair that lacks suppleness, much less a scalp that already itches.

Ingredient 3Avocado, the richest on the list

Avocado is first and foremost a fat: its flesh is rich in oleic acid, the same fatty acid as olive oil, and that explains the effect you notice the next day, hair that is supple, pleasantly weighty and easy to separate. It is often presented as a protein treatment. Its flesh does contain protein, but nothing shows that it gets into the hair or strengthens it, so we won't claim it. What you get is a coating on the surface, which is already a lot for half a fruit.

The method matters more than the recipe. Half a very ripe avocado, blended until every lump has gone, one tablespoon of olive oil, and nothing else. In particular, no egg: it sets as soon as the rinse water turns lukewarm and becomes almost impossible to remove from dense hair. Strain the mixture if you have the slightest doubt about how smooth it is.

Finally, space out the richest preparations. Repeated too often, they leave a weighed-down fibre that takes the next treatments less well: hair that is both dry and rough almost always signals too much product rather than too little.

Ingredient 4Aloe vera, for the scalp

This one works not on the lengths but on the skin. A placebo-controlled trial published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment in 1999 observed an improvement in seborrhoeic dermatitis in people treated with an aloe emulsion (Vardy et al.). It is a dermatological finding, not a hair promise, but it gives this gel a place the other ingredients don't have.

Apply it neat to the scalp, about twenty minutes before washing, when your skin feels tight or itchy after a protective style. Two checks are essential. In a shop-bought gel, aloe should come first in the ingredient list: many contain only a trace of it, in water and alcohol. In a fresh leaf, the yellow sap just under the skin is irritating; let it drain and rinse the pulp before blending it.

Aloe is also used as a base for styling gels, but that is another use, covered in natural gels for coily hair. What we no longer do is spray aloe water every morning: wetting your head every day ends up making the fibre more porous.

Ingredient 5Banana, a question of texture

Banana softens the hair and makes detangling easier, and its only flaw is mechanical: an unblended piece clings to a coily texture and can take twenty minutes to rinse out. It is the ingredient that gave homemade masks their bad name, and the easiest one to put right.

The method comes down to two moves: a very ripe banana put through the blender, never mashed by hand, thinned with a little lukewarm water, then passed through a fine sieve. A quarter of an hour on towel-dried hair, a lukewarm rinse, and nothing more.

Ingredient 6Yoghurt, the easiest preparation

Plain whole-milk yoghurt is both rich and acidic, which spares it the two opposite flaws of the previous ingredients: it doesn't stick like honey and it doesn't weigh down like avocado. Hair comes out smooth to the touch and easy to detangle.

Three tablespoons, one tablespoon of melted coconut oil, one teaspoon of honey, twenty minutes of leave-in time, and a rinse in lukewarm water, never hot, or it will curdle in your lengths. Leave it aside if you are sensitive to dairy, and on an irritated scalp.

Ingredient 7Cider vinegar, a rinse and nothing more

This isn't a mask but a final rinse, and its logic is all about pH. Shampoos and hard water leave the surface of the hair alkaline, where the scales of the cuticle lift and catch on one another; an acidic rinse brings the pH back down and reduces that friction, which is enough to make hair smoother and shinier. The principle is described in the cosmetic science literature (Dias, International Journal of Trichology, 2015), and diluted vinegar is the kitchen version of it.

One part vinegar to four parts water, one to two minutes, then a rinse in clean water. Once or twice a month at most, and never on a damaged scalp: on skin scratched raw or covered in small crusts, the acidity keeps the irritation going instead of calming it. Treat the cause first, as explained in our articles on an itchy scalp and dandruff on coily hair.

Where a homemade mask fits in your week

A homemade preparation is not one more treatment to pile on: it takes the place of something, and the rest of the week stays the same. In the full Rituel Texture®, every seven to ten days, there is a moment of care for the lengths, between cleansing and detangling with Le Peigne de Man Dol'. That exact spot, and no other, is where a kitchen preparation can stand in for Le Masque Réparateur, one week in two or three. The rest of the session goes on as usual, and the details are in the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.

The distinction to keep in mind is simple. A kitchen preparation coats, lubricates and soothes, which is already a lot, but its molecules are too large to go beyond the surface, and it is never measured the same way twice. When hair is clearly breaking, it needs a formulated treatment, and Le Masque Réparateur then goes on for ten minutes, under a shower cap if possible.

One last thing, often overlooked: whatever the preparation, it goes onto damp, well towel-dried hair, never dry hair. Water is the carrier. On dry hair you need three times as much, it stays on the surface, and that is where the discouraging half hours of rinsing begin.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Sources

• Vardy D. A. et al., "A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of an Aloe vera (A. barbadensis) emulsion in the treatment of seborrheic dermatitis", Journal of Dermatological Treatment, 1999.
• Dias M. F. R. G., "Hair cosmetics: an overview", International Journal of Trichology, 2015.
• "Photosensitivity reactions", MSD Manual, professional edition, dermatology section.