I’m wiggly with excitement to say that we might-maybe hopefully-possibly be en route to winning yet another award… We’re not quite there yet, but I’ve been contacted by the 2021 Natural Health Beauty Awards, to say that ‘after rigorous testing’ the Tea & Rice Bran Curl Butter has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Curly Hair Product’. The winner is to be announced in August.

I thought I’d tell you a little bit about how I made it and what it is…

When I was a teenager and took home what felt like the entire contents of Boots’ make up and hair product aisle on a weekly basis, there was a deep conditioner for hair which stood out as being rather brilliant. I can’t remember the brand or name of it anymore, but I remember it was made with rice bran, and for some reason, this ingredient stuck in my mind long after I finished the tub.

Somehow, rice bran seemed like something which could really ‘fortify’ hair (maybe I’d been reading the backs of cereal packets at the time – I never could eat breakfast without reading something!) and to this day I seem to associate rice bran with fortification….

…Quite rightly! Rich in natural plant sterols and antioxidant gamma oryzanol, rice bran is another way of applying rich plant nutrition to your hair, and much loved by Japanese women, who have traditionally applied it directly for smoothness and shine.

Fast-forward several million years, and I found myself with a small natural beauty range, wanting to create something nourishing for my (rather wild) hair. Something smoothing and deeply nutritious for frizzy hair in need of TLC, which came not in plastic, but in glass, and which had no synthetic colours, fragrances or harsh preservatives.

‘Rice bran’ was in my mind, dancing around in my consciousness from my teenage years, and I got experimenting with different ingredient combinations, consistencies and compositions.

After multiple efforts, I cracked it, and the Tea & Rice Bran Curl Butter was born.

(Side note: I actually really struggled to name this product, which is unlike me; I originally called it a ‘dab’ and a ‘drench’ before arriving at the far simpler ‘Curl Butter’, though it’s really for anyone who has hair prone to dryness, curls or not!).

One of my favourite things about this concoction is the delicious natural scent from the essential oils, which I chose to echo that of the Tea Seed & Olive Wonder Balm; that is, the same lavender, peppermint and rosemary trio which came unconsciously from my grandmother’s own apothecary whims, via some bruises (read all about that here).

Like the Shine Elixir Hair Food, the Tea & Rice Bran Curl Butter can be used in multiple ways. You can use it on wet, damp or dry hair, and only a small amount at a time is needed (actually, a small amount only is recommended!) as it’s a pure shot of plant goodness, with no filler (not even water!).

Use it as an overnight, luxurious treatment, a 3-minute pre-shampoo drench, as a cooling scalp treatment or just to smooth the ends of unruly locks whenever you feel like it. I like to dampen my hair between washes in the shower, in order to allow my curls to air dry again to re-set the curl pattern when it’s all gone a bit haywire, and when I got out of the shower this morning, I rubbed a small fingertip’s worth between my palms, until the soft balm became liquid, and smoothed it through the ends of my hair, so that the curls would dry with some nourishment and definition.

Applying oil to wet hair is a good way to lock in moisture, by the way. And extra moisture helps thirsty, frizzy curls to calm down and spiral in peace. ✌️

I also find it gives a very small amount of hold, too, which was something I actually did not plan while formulating it, but which was a happy accident. 🙂

Ingredients include organic shea butter, cocoa butter, macadamia oil, rice bran oil, tea seed oil, walnut butter, andiroba, baobab, black seed oil. Read all about why you want these in your hair, here!