If you’ve been reading along with Zounds, you’ll already know that I am trying out tons of natural beauty alternatives and posting about the experiences. If you don’t follow Zounds… you should. Anyway I’ve created a page called Simple Beauty (accessible at the top of the site next to the About Me page) which will have all my posts on natural beauty listed.

On to the real subject of this post… lentil shampoo.

I got the idea for the lentil shampoo from “Health and Beauty the Natural Way” by Nerys Purchon. In the book there is a story about a poor family in India where the women used a paste of cooked mashed lentil as a shampoo. I was intrigued, so I picked up some green lentils (it’s better if you can buy bulk lentils by the pound, since you don’t need much.) I boiled about a cup of lentils until they were soft enough to mash. Here is the result:

Appetizing, right? As you can see in the picture my lentils weren’t all mushy, some were still intact. I found out later, this isn’t good. You want all the lentils 100% paste, so cook them accordingly.

I took my pan of lentils into the bathroom, dampened my hair and tried to work the lentils into my hair. Most of the lentil paste stuck, but some just fell off and went everywhere. In the end I was having so much trouble trying to get the lentils onto my head I gave up. Instead I mixed the paste with warm water until it was very lentil-y and poured that on my head. I let it sit for about a half-hour and washed it out. Once again though, since I hadn’t cooked them enough I had to take a fine tooth comb and scrape all the intact lentils out of my hair.

As a shampoo, I’d say it didn’t work all that well. My hair didn’t lose any oiliness. However, as a hair treatment I would say it worked well. My hair was exceptionally soft, and did feel more conditioned. I made such a mess though, that I doubt I ever try it again. If you want to try it out, cook them throughly!! I would also use this after shampooing as a natural hair softening treatment, not as a shampoo.

If any one tries it out I would love to hear how it went, just leave me a comment!