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Banana fruit in hair product
I’m considering an organic hair product with the banana fruit, any advice on how to go about this, especially in terms of preserving it?
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8 Replies
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I’ll chime in on this one, because possibly I’m the member most into using natural substances in shampoos.
What do you want to achieve with that? What, precisely, do you think banana offers the hair? Banana has a history of people thinking it has magical powers. Donovan, for instance: Mellow Yellow.
Banana has lots of sugar. So I’d expect the shampoo to be sticky. Not a good vibe. And think of the finished appearance. Do you think it would look great in a bottle? A finished product should LOOK good as well as work well.
I think there are a lot of better choices. -
It’s actually for a hair mask. What alternatives would you suggest?
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Ah, sorry. I assumed incorrectly.
A hair mask. How much banana exactly are you considering? The problem is - well, you’ve seen how fast bananas go mouldy? If you put much banana in, it will be impossible to preserve, without the preservative system becoming part of the characteristics.
https://www.futurederm.com/how-well-does-a-homemade-banana-coconut-hair-make-work/ is worth a read for a good example of a natural style mask that actually ruined the hair.
There’s nothing wrong with the idea of using natural materials. Quite the contrary in fact; my own experience with coffee, licorice, and steviosides, has been very encouraging. But you need to:
1) Peruse available materials to identify candidates.
2) Make a short list in order of expected success.
3) Prepare hair masks using a standardised base but in small batches test the short listed ingredients on a test panel and yourself.
4) Pick the best three and test on more people.
5) Test market the three.
6) Design the packaging.
Now you have a product. -
There are a couple of Banana Extracts that you can use.
If you use real Bananas, I suggest you peel them first.
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Mark’s and Belassi’s cheeky comments aside (Donovan - haven’t heard that singer’s name in a long while!), you can and should use lipholyzed banana powder for a hair mask - it works great for a softening effect, and has a little rheology benefit too. You need to buy it from a food purveyor (hint: Chiquita makes it here in the USA), not a cosmetic specialty house. That supply chain only makes extracts, and will not work the same. Regarding preservation: ahoy, all parabens on deck! Molds will happen if you don’t heed that advice.
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Thank everyone!
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Won’t it need a considerable amount of antioxidants?. By logic, even a powdered product will oxidize very fast, and considering it will be on the hair for several minutes you will need a strong combo. And still, what shelf life might have?.
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