Let’s talk about eggs baby, let’s talk about yolk and me! 🍳🤣
And FYI, no I haven’t finally ‘cracked.’ 😉
Following my last ‘beauty blog’ which detailed the lengthy hair regime I had in place to bolster my long locks, I have since modified my routine.
Eggs. Just – eggs. With a dash of olive oil.
I imagine that most of you are, at this point, wondering whether you have accidentally clicked on a cooking blog for an especially fatty fry-up. Yeah, I get it – you could be forgiven for thinking that. But this is NOT a cooking blog, nor is it the ramblings of someone on the edge of a nervous breakdown (although that’s certainly up for debate!).
If you are familiar with my previous ‘hair blog,’ then you’ll be aware that I have always absolutely sworn by olive oil when it comes to hair care. It is basically a miracle in a bottle.
(Previous hair blog): https://www.carajasminebradley.com/post/the-hair-blog
Admittedly, you do have to know what you’re doing when it comes to olive oil. The first few times you introduce it into your hair care schedule will be complete trial and error. It definitely isn’t for everyone.
My hair very rarely gets greasy. I wash it once a week, and if anything, it just gets dryer and curlier as the days pass by. I have very thick, coarse hair that benefits from extra moisture, however, if your hair has a tendency to grease up, I would probably avoid olive oil at all costs.
The thing is, olive oil is well renowned in the beauty industry for being an incredible aid in hair growth, but people are skeptical.
I often get asked how I grew my hair so long, and when I tell people it’s probably 99% attributable to my weekly olive oil mask, they look at me with a mixture of pity, confusion and terror.
But it’s true; people spend hundreds of pounds (EGG-tortionate!) on their hair, but the best and most simplistic remedies are often sitting in our kitchen cupboards!
Which brings me nicely back onto the subject: EGGS. 😏
A few weeks ago, I was chatting with my legend of a hairdresser (oh hey Carl! 😁) about natural remedies for hair. He suggested mayonnaise, and at this point, I thought I was either hallucinating or going to have to call in a shrink.
Mayonnaise? For HAIR? I mean, surely to God...???
(Don’t know who I was to judge, anyway – sitting there with my hair slicked back in olive oil on the reg! 🤣)
Anyway, I went home and Googled this strange advice... To find that my hairdresser was in fact right: mayonnaise is good for your hair! As in, covering your mane in the stuff is widely and actively encouraged by various beauty blogs and sites!
Who knew?!
I opened the fridge and stared at the bowl of egg mayonnaise and cress that I’d made up over the Jubilee weekend for a picnic.
I mean, where do you draw the line? Is cress also a staple of priceless beauty bonanza? Black pepper? Why not go full hog and whack an egg mayo granary roll onto your scalp?!
I was intrigued, but still a little dubious, so I consulted Clinician Google for some further advice.
I figured that if mayonnaise was recommended, then eggs surely had to feature somewhere in this fandango. And indeed they do.
The Science-y Bit 🤓
(Info taken from Healthline, so you can be assured it’s legit 😉)
Eggs contain high levels of protein and are bursting with vitamins. Consuming this superfood in your diet has numerous advantages, and adopting it into your beauty schedule is just as beneficial.
Eggs are rich in biotin, which has been proven to aid hair growth.
Nourishing your scalp with raw egg strengthens the follicles and encourages them to grow. This results in healthier hair, which is all-round less prone to shedding and breakage.
So, without further ado, let me introduce to you my new and improved hair routine, which I have indulged in for the past three Sundays.
🍳 Step One:
Crack an egg in a bowl. There are various debates online as to whether the yolk or whites are more beneficial when it comes to hair nutrition – I use both. Again, if you have greasy hair, it might be best to avoid the yolk, as this tends to be oilier.
(I also use two eggs, because my hair is very long and thick).
🍳 Step Two:
Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil into the bowl and mix well.
At this point, you will be wondering whether I have cracked alongside the eggs. The mix will look deeply, deeply unappealing, and the consistency will be even more formidable. But just trust me!
🍳 Step Three:
Dampen your hair from root to tip with lukewarm water.
🍳 Step Four:
This next stage is particularly messy, so I would recommend standing in the bath or at least setting several towels down.
Scoop up the mixture and massage generously into the scalp, then work the mixture down the entire length of the hair.
You may think I’m weird (God knows why...!), but I also like to dip the ends of my hair into the bowl – I can’t even tell you how much this has improved my split ends in just three weeks!
🍳 Step Five:
Pop your hair in a bun and leave it for an hour.
You hair will eventually ‘set’ and feel ‘stiff’ to touch, almost as if you have gone a bit OTT on the hairspray.
🍳 Step Six:
Wash your hair THOROUGHLY in cool water. (I figured that using hot water may actually cook the egg, which would be like something out of a horror movie. Besides, blasting hair with cold water gives it a gorgeous glow.)
You may need to shampoo more than once to ensure the mixture is definitely out of your hair. Apply conditioner as normal.
🍳 Step Seven:
You’re welcome.
The left pic is my natural, frizzy hair prior to the egg treatment - the right is after! 😱😍
My EGG-cellent routine is the reason that Josh has started to detest Sundays so much: “BABE!!! I’ve just cut my foot open on a piece of eggshell in the bathroom!!!”
Oh, and the clean-up isn’t exactly inspiring as you scrub yolk off the bathroom tiles at 10pm on a Sunday night, but honestly, despite this, you will NOT look back.
I’ll try any fad at least once to see if it’s worth the hype, and oh my gosh, this most definitely is. I’m not even joking when I say that I noticed a difference after the very first wash.
EGG-citing stuff, hey! 😏
Since incorporating eggs into my beauty routine, my hair has been so much sleeker.
Usually, if I wash my hair once a week on a Sunday, I can only get away with wearing it down until Wednesday at the very most before it starts to curl and go frizzy. Adding eggs to my wash has mean that I can get away with SIX sassy ‘hair down’ days in a row.
And OMG, it feels AMAZING.
My natural hair is wavy and unmanageably frizzy, but this routine takes the frizz right out of my tresses without the aid of straighteners.
I literally can’t stop caressing my own hair – sooo silky!
Your locks will be so shiny, you can use them to gaze at your EGG-trodinary reflection. 😉
(Okay, okay, sorry, I’ll stop with the egg puns now, I promise! I just hope I have EGG-ceeded your EGG-pectations 🥁🤣)
“I wonder what would happen if you went out into the sun with the mixture still on your head?” One of my friends mused worriedly. “Would you, like, cook?”
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
Does anybody remember that kid’s show, The Queen’s Nose? I used to be obsessed with it! In one of the episodes, a main characters makes a wish for ice-cream (girl after my own heart)… And then everything she touches turns to ice-cream. She accidentally touches the head of the diva older sister and turns her hair into a ginormous mound of raspberry ripple.
I imagine going outside with the egg and oil mix festering in your scalp on a particularly balmy day may result in similar consequences, except with an omelette rather than raspberry ripple ice-cream.
Disclaimer: I can only advise on my own personal experience with the elusive egg hair mask, so please don’t come at me if it all goes a bit Pete Tongue and you turn into a half a fry-up or something x
Day six of ‘Egg Wash’ and my hair is still shiny and sleek! 🤯🍳
Cara Jasmine Bradley