The inspiration for this Ginger Oak Moss Hair Masque came from a rather persistent Facebook advert for a similar product. It stalked me all over, pelting me with montages of women with stunning, shiny, voluminous hair and positively chiseled eyebrows. I did end up on their website, but needless to say I don’t think the ad worked quite as planned. I went straight to the ingredients list to see what was up with their product, and then set off to make my own hair masque. This is what I came up with, and it’s awesome.
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The hair masque in the advertisement was mostly water and BTMS, with some coconut oil, shea butter, and a whackload of obscure botanical extracts that couldn’t have been included at more than 1%. So, basically hair conditioner with lots of fancy add-ins and some nice oils—that’s a thing I can do!
I’ve included some lovely-for-hair things in our water phase. We’ve got two humectants—both sodium lactate and vegetable glycerin. Cetrimonium chloride is both conditioning and detangling, meaning your hair will be all kinds of easy-to-manage when you’re done with this mask. A touch of plant-sourced keratin helps add shine, reduce frizz, strengthen hair, and make our hair easier to style. I’ve rounded off the water phase with some powdered shavegrass (also known as horsetail) extract. I was on the fence about adding it initially as it does have a bit of a smell to it, but that didn’t end up coming through at all in the final product (to my nose, at least!). Shavegrass is rich in silica and I’ve always found it makes my hair sparkle!
Our oil phase is mostly coconut oil—a rare oil that can actually penetrate the hair shaft! I’ve also included some silky cetyl alcohol, vitamin-rich argan oil, and glossy castor oil. BTMS-50 is both our emulsifier and an additional cationic ingredient for added conditioning goodness.
My ginger oak moss essential oil blend makes another appearance here, and I love it. As I sat with the masque in my hair the wonderful scent of spiced oak moss was floating around my head and I was just in heaven. Yum! You can use something else if you prefer, but if you love warm, deep, mysterious scents, do yourself a favour and get some oak moss absolute!
The final mask is thick and creamy. When applied dry you’ll need quite a lot of it—I probably used a full third of the recipe for my hair from the ears down. After I let it sit for about twenty five minutes I washed it out and was left with silky, shiny, tangle-free hair that I just couldn’t stop touching. Swoon! If you have afro-textured hair you may not need to shampoo if out, but I’m not sure—let me know if you give it a try. Now, without further ado, let’s hair masque it up!
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Ginger Oak Moss Hair Masque
Water phase
72.71g | 66.1% (+10%) distilled water
2g | 2% sodium lactate (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
4g | 4% cetrimonium chloride (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% plant-derived keratin (USA / Canada) (look for products with names like phytokeratin or vegekeratin)
2g | 2% shavegrass extractOil phase
5g | 5% BTMS-50 (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
3g | 3% argan oil (USA / Canada)
3g | 3% castor oil (USA / Canada)
8g | 8% virgin coconut oilCool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])
0.1g | 0.1% oak moss absolute
0.2g | 0.2% CO2 extracted ginger essential oil
0.1g | 0.1% michelia alba (white champaca) essential oilPrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Weigh the oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat, and pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.
Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the hair masque, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid concoction doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute, leave to cool for ten, blend for another minute or two, and repeat this blend-cool-blend cycle until the outside of the glass measuring cup is barely warm to the touch and the hair masque is thick and creamy.
Transfer a few tablespoons of the lotion to a smaller container, and weigh the cool down ingredients into that container. Stir to combine, and then transfer the lot of it back into the rest of the lotion. Stir to combine.
When the lotion has cooled, stir in the cool down ingredients and transfer the lotion to a 120mL/4oz jar. I used a 100mL amber glass jar from Voyageur—this hair masque is too thick to put in a pump-top bottle. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this hair masque contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative this project is likely to eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 100g.
- If you don’t have either glycerin or sodium lactate you can use 4% of whichever one you do have
- You can replace the cetrimonium chloride with polyquaternarium 7 or honeyquat, but I would use those at 2% and add another 2% water
- You can use a different hydrolyzed protein, like silk or oat, in place of the plant-derived keratin
- You can use a different botanical extract in place of the shavegrass extract, or replace it with more water
- You can replace the cetyl alcohol with stearic acid or more coconut oil
- You can use different liquid oils in place of the ones I’ve used
- You can use babassu oil in place of the virgin coconut oil
- You can use a different essential oil blend if you wish
Well… I finally got my hands on some Oakmoss from The Soap Kitchen and I’ve been crazy busy packing and thinking of which recipe to use it on first. I think this might be it! And! I can use up some more extracts! Huzzah!!!!
This recipe has my name on it! Thanks for the share!
Ahhhh, exciting! New smelly things are the BEST 😀
Hi,
Maybe I’m missing something but don’t you usually include the instructions before the substitution list?
DERP! Fixed, thank you!
Any other scent blend you would recommend
I don’t have oak moss but wanted to make it ASAP
Orange / Tangerine/Lime
You can really use any scent blend you like, just keep it within safe limits for the EOs you are choosing 🙂
If I have shavegrass can I powder it and use it as the extract or do I have to make an extract with some alcohol?
I suspect you can as I am beginning to suspect my powdered extract may just be powdered shavegrass root; it doesn’t dissolve in water at all. Hrmph! 😛
I would really love to see a leave-in conditioner recipe. I’ve been trying to formulate one myself but I’m unsure about which emulsifiers and which oils to use to avoid an oily/greasy feel. I have super thick and dry hair. So hair serums leave me out of pocket, no jokes I end up using 100ml of hair serum and my hair is still dry. I want to make a thick hair cream/leave-in. Do you have any recommendations
There’s no reason you couldn’t use this as a leave-in conditioner if you hair is really dry; you’d use less than I do for a wash-out, but it is worth a try. Otherwise, take a look at some of my thinner rinse-out conditioners given your hair is so dry 🙂 You might also like this!
I made this today and tried it. Meh. Didn’t do much for me. It completely disappeared into my hair and had to use more than half the contents to get a half decent conditioning experience. I do however love your make-up recipes and lotions and creams and the liquid foundation in your book.
It sounds like we’ve got super different hair—if I put half this batch in my hair I’d probably have to wash it 4 times to get it clean again. You could try increasing the amount of BTMS-50 for more conditioning power. I’d also recommend reading the ingredient lists of shop-bought products that do work for you and cross-comparing; perhaps your hair loves silicone or some other ingredient that isn’t in your DIYs 🙂
Hi Marie, thanks for your reply. Your hair mask turned out to be a fantastic leave-in conditioner. I did make a conditioner with more BTMS as you suggested and it worked out beautifully. Thank you 🙂
I am SO glad! I’ve also just purchased some Behentrimonium chloride that looks to be even more potent than BTMS, with a max usage of 3%. If you happen across any of that it might be worth a try as well!
Hi Marie, wow, I’ll definitely get some Behentrimonium chloride. Thanks so much for your reply 🙂
This worked wonders on my hair. Not having any oak moss I used Lavender and Cedarwood which was pretty good. And felt a bit dreamy!
YAY!!! I’m so glad to hear it 😀 Thanks so much for DIYing with me!
Hi Marie! Another great recipe. Question. Would Varisoft 65Q work in this recipe? I think so. Your thoughts?
It certainly should, just be sure to check and adjust the pH as required as Varisoft 65Q is rather picky in that realm 🙂 I think you will also find the mask to be less conditioning—I’ve found Varisoft 65Q doesn’t have the same conditioning kick as BTMS 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie! I do not have the shavegrass extract powder. I do have shavegrass glycerite liquid extract 1:5. I did not realize yours was a powder until I watched the video. Will the product I have work anyway? If not, do you have any ideas on where I might purchase the powdered version; I haven’t been able to find it anywhere.
Good morning Lisa!
Ohhhhh you will have a lovely end product! You have probably already read this article regarding subsitutions (and wickedly familiar with it), you’ll know that you’ll have a wee bit different consistency than what Marie has in the pictures. If I were making this with with a glycerite instead of the powder, I’d just use 4% of the shavegrass glycerite, drop the extract (powder) and drop the glycerine. My hair loves the shavegrass glycerite I use, so that’s why I’d make that change in those numbers. If you are unsure how your hair might handle this product, you can begin just swapping out the extract (powder) for your glycerite and use that as a start place!
Thank you so much for your help, Barb! I made this today and it turned out great! Getting ready to go try it out. 🙂
Hello! Im excited to try out a few of the recipes here, but, uh – what is the goal or effect worth this masque? Conditioning? Strengthening (protein)? Combo?
What do you think would be the best beginer-friendly hair recovery recipe you have? (From bleaching, so either both moisture & protein or one of each! 😉 but mostly de-puffing)
I’d say the main focus is intensive conditioning to improve manageability, but you can also read more about the individual ingredients to learn what they do. I’ve gone into some detail about them in the post as well 🙂
If you’ve made lotions/emulsions before the making part of this conditioner is not hard, but I think the ingredients list may scare off a newbie as it’s pretty long. Something like this might feel a bit more accessible 🙂
Hi Marie! Thank you for this hair mask! I want to ask you about the subtitution of BTMS, can I use a blend of Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate se and Cetrimonium chloride and how much percentage do you suggest to have a nice hair mask to use it after cleansing hair with shampoo? Are 3% CA, 3,5% GSse and 1% CChlor enough? Thank you !
I don’t really recommend it—that will represent a huge drop in conditioning power and may compromise the stability of the emulsion. The BTMS-50 is our emulsifier (cationic, o/w), while glyceryl stearate is a w/o non-ionic emulsifier. Depending on how long you plan on leaving in the mask the concentration of cetrimonium chloride may also be too high. I’m not sure where something switches from rinse-off to leave-on if you are intending to rinse it out after a couple of hours. If you want to pursue this substitution you will be very firmly in re-development territory 🙂
Oh my, I was looking for a hair mask with Shea Butter and got excited when I read the intro! Could I replace some of the oil with shea butter instead? Or just add some shea butter in addition to current oils? I also only have BTMS25, hence why wanting to use some shea so it has abit more conditioning power in lieu of the BTMS50. I love your recipes, making up a storm in ISO! Thank you
You’ll want to replace some of the oil rather than add on or it may not emulsify. Be aware that between using 25 instead of 50 and using a solid butter instead of a liquid oil you are going to end up with a much more viscous product than I did 🙂 You may want to drop the cetyl alcohol and replace that with shea as well to counter that. Happy making!
Thank you so much for coming back to me Marie, I really appreciate it! Cool will replace some oil and see how it works out and then might play with some liquid emulsifier in there too if that test doesn’t work, you reckon? Thank you for having such an awesome community and resources, it is so generous of you. x
I’ve been dealing with really dry scalp lately and looked up some products on Sephora. There were a lot of hair masks whose main ingredients were mostly oils so I thought I would try this formulation of yours instead. And I have to say, it works beautifully! I massage it into my scalp and leave it for about 20 minutes before shampooing as usual. An added bonus that it leaves my hair soft and shiny!
YAY! I’m so thrilled your hair & scalp are enjoying this 🙂 I should definitely do another hair masque soon—it’s been too long!
Hi Marie,
Thanks for the amazing work and selflessness!
I just tried my hands on this Mask today but my finished product has lumps. Can you kindly advise if i can rework the Masque with and blend it again after several hours?
Thanks a lot!