I give up on hair secrets!

[hersheyskiss]

Thank you for your question Faith. This is what the lady uses. She has very long hair past BSL. she made it for me every weekend. Now I am at university I make it also when I cant run to the store. It looks like oil and smells like rosemary. I guess hearing this is very new to alot of members on the board but its not in other parts of the world. I guess as some of us travel, we will have other new things to share with members on the board.

Legend, the Lamp oil that you talk about I have seen this before it looks sort of brown. My grandmother used this for colds.

On this board I learnt about buying coconut oil which is new to me because I was taught as a child to grate the nut and boil it until it springs a oil in the pot. There you have pure coconut oil. This is what I know. As I said before there are so many cultures out there and do different things from what we know. We dont have accept them. It does not hurt to know and learn.

Wow I can make my own coconut oil. It's that easy. How long does it take for the oil to start coming out? I dont like Whole Foods coconut oil. How do you grate the nut?

I found this:
The method we use at Mt. Banahaw Health Products Corp. in the Philippines is the traditional fermentation method. The coconut milk expressed from the freshly harvested coconuts is fermented for 24-36 hours. During this time, the water separates from the oil. The oil is then slightly heated (less than boiling temperatures) for a short time (10-15 minutes) to remove moisture, and then filtered. The result is a clear coconut oil that retains the distinct scent and taste of coconuts. This is a traditional method of coconut oil extraction that has been used in the Philippines for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

 

[AtlantaJJ]

uh so would emu constutute as a really big chicken maybe?

-A

That point has been brought up on more than one occasion... makes one wonder doesn't it !! hahahahah!!!

 

[rdm]

Ya'll laughing but....I asked my 88 year old grandmother how they took care of their hair when they were little. Her mother would wash it with castille soap and then put chicken grease in it!!! My great grandmother would put bergamont oil in the chicken grease to cover the smell.

 

[hersheyskiss]

the answer was here on lhcf all along. but um, I aint doing all this lol

I used five to six large coconuts a recipe. Pour off clear liquid in a qt jar. Have the meat ground out of the shell. Place in a large glass bowl. I had a huge mixing bowl. Slowly add fresh water at a rate of about 1 cup at a time up to about four or five cups. Add 1 cup then start to knead(acturally sort of mashing then squeazing) the meat and water add another cup and knead as you knead a white liquid will begin to appear. This is coconut milk. Continue until all the water has been added. This is why I only use 5-6 at a time. Large coconuts are larger than the ones I see here in the grocery stores and my hands get really tired squeazing and mashing. The milk should be rich and white. Not thin looking. Thats how you regulate the water you are adding. Then I strain and press the coconut mixture through a strainer into a glass bowl.

You must plan to have a few hours to stand by so not to scorch or burn the coconut milk.
I used a wide base enamel pan. I got it from Spain. It was a piaja(spell) pan. May be a wide pyex skillet or shallow enamal skillet. You don't want your milk any deeper than2 inches. My stove had a large slow cook burner. You want the heat spreadout under the pan for even heating.

Heat on very low flame til you see vapors or steam. Do not let boil or bubble. Very slow and low. No stirring so the flame is so low no sticking will occur. Then take out your knitting or crossstitch and sit back. The milk will begin to custard up after a long while. keep low flame. No cooking it. As it clumps up a clear oil will begin to escape running between the clumps. The longer the more oil will appear. The coconut "custard" will separate more and the oil will run inbetween clumps. I would then gently move the clumps to make vally's and a river to tip the pan and drain off the oil. Generally I got 3-5 oz of oil. That is the at home on the stove method I have.

Cold press requires sub zero temperatures and high pressure to press out the oil or a expellar press.

The difference to my maids method was at the stove. She used a regular flame and basically cooked the coconut milk. When the oil appeared the coconut milk custard like clumps had turned dark brown(mine had remained white) and thus released a dark oil with a definately strong cooked smell.

 

[keluric]

Okay, you said it so much better than I would've. I thought this was supposed to just be funny and I thought the Dominican young lady was just joking around with Jen.

I didn't doubt for one second that the young lady was serious. Most dominicans are all about some long hair and light skin, that's just part of the culture. It's almost sad but some have "doctors" develop formulas to determine how many generations it would take for the children to come out "white." The process is called blanquemiento or "whitening," I believe. I've also heard that some dominican mothers use coconut milk on their babies when the hair grows in to keep it straight.

Basically, any endeavors toward light skin, light eyes, light hair, straight hair or long hair by dominicans are not surprising in the least.