Old Wives’ Tales and Treatments for Hair

Hair is put through a lot every day, starting from the morning shower and the application of countless haircare products, some of which are packed with chemicals, and ending with pollution and damage done by stress and too poor a diet. Because of this, we should do our best to make sure our hair gets the best treatment possible, even if that means turning our back to technology and returning to what our mothers were telling us would help.

However, there is one important aspect here that we mention, namely that of being well documented, so as to be able to make the difference between a myth and a treatment that actually offers results, as the Daily Mail also points out. There are countless old wives’ tales treatments out there for anything from more lustrous hair to receding hairlines. What’s important is knowing which one to pick and use on a regular basis – and this is where the Mail comes in handy with a few tips.

For instance, washing your hair with beer might seem like a ludicrous idea, but bottom line is that it actually works. Apparently, after soaking the mane in beer and letting it dry, the hairs are left with a coating that makes them seem thicker and with more volume. There are some downsides too and, in fact, they’re genuine deal breakers: the smell and the cost. What this means is that, when factoring these two considerations as well, we can conclude that washing the hair with beer might not be such a smart idea after all.

Rainwater, though, is a solution that could prove a winner. The treatment is based on the idea that hard water (from the tap) damages the hair, which is why it’s substituted by rainwater. Of course, you can achieve the same results with a good conditioner but, unlike rainwater, it’s not natural and is packed with chemicals, some of which could actually be damaging in the long run, as researchers were pointing out a while back. Oppositely, treatments with egg or bananas don’t work.

“Egg: Lecithin, a protein in the yolk, will coat the hair, but it won’t penetrate it. It’s not bad, but it won’t compete with even a relatively cheap conditioner. If you do try it, don’t rinse it out with hot water as your hair will smell like an English breakfast. Banana: This might smell rather nice but that’s about it. It will not penetrate the hair and, therefore, will have no effect at all. You’d be far better off eating it,” the Mail writes.

Please refer here for more on the bizarre hair treatments our mothers and grandmothers have been telling us of.