Green Up Your Beauty Regimen: The Mane Question – Coffee

This is part five of a multi-part series on Green Beauty alternatives.
The rest of the series can be found [here]

Part 5: Coffee

Photo by the Queen of Product Placement, Eowyn.

Eowyn being the Divine Goddess of Thoughtfulness, saved me some coffee grounds when Kass made coffee the other day. After all of the chatter about washing hair with coffee grounds, I had decided to give it a shot. So I grabbed the tupperware container from the kitchen and marched on over to the shower. I love coffee, but not so much for drinking. Typically when I get a ‘coffee’ it is a früfy blended something-or-other. I like it to taste more like a milkshake then coffee. Since I’m in a Biggest Loser competition with a ton of my friends (root me on here), I’m laying off the uber blended milkshakes of doom. I would like to give my thanks to Starbucks for having a lower calorie version that I can consume and be pleased. I’m in it to win it, Mama needs a new pair of Vibrams! Anyway, back to coffee.

When I was first starting out with baking soda, I would stand outside of the shower in front of the mirror and dry apply the powder. I contemplated doing this for the coffee grounds, but it seemed like that might be a disastrous idea, so I opted to do so inside the shower. I ran the water for a minute to get my hair wet and turned the shower back off. I rubbed the coffee grounds in, starting with my scalp. I massaged the coffee grounds into my scalp and then down. I then applied grounds to my roots gently and worked my way back up to the middle.

This coffee grounds thing is messy business, but smells great. As I was rubbing it into my scalp I was pondering if the caffeine was seeping in through my scalp and being entertained by the thought. Coffee grounds were dropping everywhere on the floor of the shower, on me, all over the walls, and shower curtain. I have determined I am part five year old due to my inherent love of making a mess. But I am also an adult, as I like to make messes where they are easily cleaned up. I was grateful that they have a removable shower head so I could hose down the shower.

Another lovely photo by Eowyn

After the coffee grounds are nice and saturated into my head, hair and scalp I let it hang out for a minute. Random fact, coffee is great at removing varicose and spider veins. I rubbed a few choice spots while letting the coffee grounds do their thang. I then finished scrubbing the rest of my 2000 parts with a lemon orange soap from The Little Things Store (buy all their soap, it’s so freaking awesome).

Rinsing coffee grounds out of your hair when it is a thick mane like mine is a bit of a feat. My water consumption during this portion of the ordeal pained me a bit. I had to wiggle my fingers right above my scalp and get the water in there really good. My mental note is that if I make a habit of this, I’m going to have to acquire espresso grounds so it is a bit thinner and easier to wash out. But this rinsing took a good 5 – 7 minutes of tedium to get them out really well. Even still, I’ve stumbled across a few grounds here and there when I have brushed my hair or run my fingers through it.

Once I was out of the shower and drying my hair, it felt ‘squeaky’ clean. I was a little disappointed at first, expecting more of a oily texture on my hair like I did when I did the hot oil treatment. I dried my hair thinking that the coffee didn’t infuse my hair with much oil.

About 20 minutes later, as my hair was drying, I ran my fingers through my hair and it was super soft! I was amazed! The coffee didn’t leave my hair feeling or looking greasy and it left my hair super clean.  What was interesting was that my hair did not really smell like coffee afterwards, much to Kass’ disappointment. However, he has made a habit of putting his coffee grounds in a container for me.  I am unequivocally sold on the natural hair products. Eowyn gave my hair a trim last week. Since I cut the dead ends off and moisturized it with the various products, my hair is doing fantastic. It feels really soft and my scalp is on the mend. Which is just in time for the weather change into the fall season.

I recommend giving the coffee grounds a try. Have you tried any other moisturizing hair treatments that you like recently?  Share below in the comments.

~Kera