With drier days on the way, and a few months of sun exposure behind us, this rich and hydrating Marula Overnight Hair Mask couldn’t be more timely. I learned about overnight hair masks from a YouTube video of “beauty hacks that work” (or something to that effect), and the overnight hair mask bit really popped out at me. The lady in the video (which I am now totally unable to find) had amazing, long hair that she admitted to bleaching, curling, and straightening, but it still looked so healthy! She attributed it to overnight hair masks—masks that were supposed to be used for just an hour or so, but she’d wear them overnight with a shower cap. So I ordered myself a rather hilarious floral print shower cap and set to work.
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
I looked at a few shop-bought hair masks and they’re very different from clay face masks; all about hydrating and nothing about pore vacuuming. They’re mostly water with some rich oils, botanical extracts, keratin, and vitamins—awesome-for-hair things. They also usually have a healthy dose of silicones, fragrance, and things like propylene glycol—things we can do without. (A shop-bought hair mask is also usually at least $40, despite being mostly water.) In the end, a hair mask is basically extra-awesome hair conditioner that we give loads of time for our hair to soak up. Awww yeah.
I chose marula oil as the star oil of this hair mask. Marula oil is a new one to me, and I love it. It’s pressed from the seeds of the Marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea), which is endemic to southern and western Africa. It’s a pale yellow liquid oil with a very slight sort-of nutty scent. It absorbs into the skin quickly, leaving your skin feeling silky smooth and hydrated. Similar to olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada), marula oil is rich in oleic acid, though I find it to be much lighter than olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada). Marula oil is rich in antioxidants and is resistant to oxidization, giving it a relatively long shelf life of about two years. Thanks to its light consistency and high Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) & C content, it’s a fantastic oil for both hair and skin.
And, something even better about marula oil—I’ve teamed up with the folks at Swanson Health Products so you can win some, plus other goodies and a gift certificate! The contest kicks off today and runs for the entire month (the contest closed September 30, 2016), and you should definitely check it out and enter 😉 I designed the prize pack myself and I think you’ll be super stoked about it!
The water part of this hair mask is mostly water, with silica-rich shavegrass root, hydrating glycerin and vitamin b5, strength and shine boosting phytokeratin, and all-around-awesome silk, which helps strengthen, hydrate, and protect our hair. The fancier ingredients are optional, but there’s no denying they take this hair mask to the next level.
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Marula Overnight Hair Mask
79g | 2.79oz just-boiled water
1 tsp powdered shavegrass (horsetail) root
10g | 0.35oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.03oz phytokeratin (optional)
1/8 tsp powdered vitamin B5 (panthenol) or 1/4 tsp liquid vitamin B5 (optional)
1/2 tsp silk powder, peptide, or amino acid (need a substitute?) (optional)6g | 0.21oz marula oil
4g | 0.14oz BTMS-50 emulsifying wax (see note below on alternatives)
1g | 0.03oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)20 drops lavender essential oil
7 drops cedarwood essential oil
10 drops lemongrass essential oil0.5g | 0.017oz liquid germall plus (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at its recommended usage rate [why?])
Weigh the water, shavegrass root, glycerin, phytokeratin, vitamin B5, and silk into a small heat resistant glass measuring cup, and then weigh the marula oil, BTMS-50, and Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) into a second heat resistant glass measuring cup. Place both of them in a sauté pan or other shallow, wide pan that has about 3cm/1″ of water in it, and put that pan on the stove top over medium heat.
Bring the water to a bare simmer to create a hot water bath to melt the oil part together and heat and hold the water part for twenty minutes.
Once twenty minutes has passed, pour the oil part into the water part (or the other way around—it really doesn’t matter), and leave the measuring cup of both parts in the water bath for another five minutes to ensure everything has melted through.
Remove the measuring cup from the water bath and give the mixture a few quick blasts with an immersion blender. Continue to intermittently blend the mixture as it cools, leaving it for a few minutes at a time to cool before blending it a bit more.
Once the mask has cooled to room temperature, stir in the essential oils and your preservative, and then transfer the mask to a jar (I used this great 100mL jar from YellowBee) or 120mL/4oz pump-top bottle.
To use, spread a relatively small amount of the mask through your hair from about the ears down—check out the video to see how I did it. I used about 30mL/2 tbsp of mask. Pull your hair back, pop on a shower cap, and go to bed.
When you wake up in the morning, shower and wash your hair. If you’ve got very dry hair you might be able to get away with just rinsing your hair (the emulsifying wax will help it rinse out), but I needed to do a full wash (I used my Mermaid Silk Shampoo Bar + Silk Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse). And that’s it! Let your hair dry and enjoy your lovely, soft hair.
Unless your hair is very dry, I don’t recommend doing this mask more than two or three times in a month; it’s fairly rich, and you can end up with build-up in your hair, especially if you’re using natural shampoo bars.
BTMS-50 emulsifying wax has extra awesome conditioning and de-tangling properties, making it the best choice for hair conditioners of all kinds. You can use Ritamulse/Emulsimulse, Polawax, or Emulsifying Wax NF instead, but they aren’t as conditioning as BTMS-50.
Can I use hemp seed or macadamia nut or safflower or sunflower oils instead of the marula. I have everything but the oil Thanks in advance
Macadamia would work 🙂
Love your contest!
And I love Marula oil. I’ve been using it on my face for about a year now in a nightly face serum I threw together with a handful of other oils. I’ve heard it’s great for hair, so have been hoping you’d concoct a hair recipe someday cause I trust your knowledge more than mine.
My hair is very dry around my face because that’s where I use a curling iron. I’d rather not use it but I have to if I want to tame it. I’ve got enough curl. I need something that works!
Your conditioner with broccoli seed oil helps mask my problems, but I want to heal it. As much as hair can be “healed.”
Thanks, Cristie! I’m happy to have read your mind on the marula + hair thing 😉 And I very much get the curling iron love, except my hair is so straight that I need to use it everywhere… but I love having curly hair… hence the reparative measures!
Wow, your blog is getting so much bigger now! I remember when you were just a “wee” blog, as you would say, haha. I entered the giveaway and don’t really think I shall win, but hey, at least it’s there!
Thanks, Mylan! I still feel pretty small potatoes, but it sure is fun to watch it grow, and it’s nice to know people actually care when I post something new, unlike the old days when I’d get one comment a month and be pretty stoked about that 😛 Thanks for your longtime support!
Thank you so much great recipes will try soon. I always look fwd to check out your blog, congratulations on your video…great job!
Claudette
Thanks, Claudette! Happy making 🙂
I’m a legal citizen of Canada! Does that count?
I’ll be giving this hair mask a try next week and see how it goes. My hair is wicked fine and horribly shiny I can’t really do much with it other than complain about how dry the ends are all winter. I’ve had Shavegrass, marshmallow root taking an olive oil bath all summer so I’m hoping To put it to good hair use this winter!
My usual hair mask has been castor oil, coconut oil, honey, silk and a wee dollop of glycerine. I really don’t see any differences in my hair using it, but I know it’s good for the hair so I continue to use it.
Sadly you need to be a resident, not just a citizen :/ I’m just happy we were able to include Canada as well as the USA—I’m really used to getting left out of giveaways and didn’t want to be the cause of that!
Castor oil can be drying (to the skin, at least), especially in large quantities… so perhaps that’s what you haven’t noticed any changes?
I should have wrote,
Honey, coconut oil, castor oil, glycerine and some silk. Castor oil makes up a small amount.
L’sigh. One of these days I’ll live in a country with awesome contests! I probably already do, just not with things I consider awesome! Maybe next time!
Hmm. I dunno, then. Your hair is so different from mine that it’s hard to offer advice on things that my hair reacts very differently to!
Could I use Olivem1000 instead of BTMS-50 ?
From my reading I think so, but I have never worked with it myself so I can’t say for certain.
Can I use broccoli seed oil?
Just ordered a bunch of stuff and spent more than 300$
Don’t want to order again
Yup, that should work nicely 🙂
Hi Marie,
Great post!
I have a question for you – can I make this richer for my African hair? As you know, our hair tends to be very dry. Thanks!
Hey Dorothy! This is actually pretty darn rich as-is; I’d recommend making it as written first. You can probably use mucho more of it than I did, and perhaps even get away with just rinsing it out of your hair instead of washing it out 🙂
Hi Marie! I noticed right away that I have everything for this but the marula oil. So my second thought was ‘what should I sub for it’? haha. My “problem” with your prolific talent for sending forth new fantastic recipes twice weekly is that I can’t keep up, ingredient-wise (haha again). After looking more into marula though, I definitely want to add this one to the cupboard rather than sub something I already have and want to use up. Here is another source for beautiful oils, especially for those local to Calgary or in Canada. https://fronaturals.ca/pages/about-us.
Ah yes, I am victim #1 of my problem LOL. With the new encyclopedia up and running, I’d always recommend checking there first; I’m making sure to include substitution information about every ingredient on its page 🙂
Hi Marie, do you think freezing this mask in individual portion would work? Just to avoid the preservative? Not that I am especially fanatic of a no-preservative life, it’s just that germall is not available in Europe and reading up on what is a good substitute is giving me mixed answers…
I am going to give it a try anyway, but would like to read your thoughts 🙂
Honestly, I think that would break the emulsion, and you’d have to throw it all away. I don’t recommend it. Let me know if you try it, though!
Hi Patrizia! Gracefruit Preservative PGL at http://www.gracefruit.com seems the equivalent for Germall Plus. They are based in the UK and they offer international shipping. Shipping (as always?!) isn’t cheap but they have got loads of interesting ingredients (I just got a bottle of their natural cucumber fragrance – amazing!) and postage covers up to 25kg! Just make sure to look at the VAT added prices for your overall cost – it’s 20% on top of the price quoted in the first, main price.
Thanks, much appreciated!
Great find, thank you! I couldn’t find PGL on their site (just PCG, GPL, WW, COS, and POG—talk about a confusing naming system!) but their Gracefruit® Preservative GPL has the same INCI as Liquid Germall Plus, so I’m assuming you just typo’ed. Thank you so much for searching this out and sharing 🙂
I’m going to try this recipe soon, but in the meantime I wanted to offer an alternative method: I’m a restless sleeper and can’t fathom putting goo in my hair and leaving a on shower cap overnight. I don’t think it would stay put, and I have visions of getting goo all over myself, my pillow, and my husband.
Instead, when I do deep treatments, I pick a day when I’m going to be doing house/yard chores or errands, put goo in my hair in the morning, then put a thin shower cap on, then put a knit cap on over the shower cap. Everything stays in place with a little adjustment, the hat keeps my hair and the goo nicely warm, and people are rarely the wiser that I have goo in my hair even if I leave the house. I usually wash my hair at night anyway, so it works great for me — and my pillow stays nice and clean. 🙂
Oooh, good call! Perhaps pair it with a face mask for an extra decadent look-like-a-spa-monster day 😉
I finally had a chance to make this yesterday, and my hair is so much happier!
I don’t have marula oil yet, so I used buruti oil, which is supposed to be great for your hair.
It mixed up really thin — thinner than yogurt, but still thicker than milk. I’m not certain which e-wax I used (there was a jar mishap a few years ago), but I’m pretty sure it was BTMS-50, that one that’s supposed to be really good for conditioners. It’s what I usually use for your conditioner recipes, and sets up pretty quick. This recipe seems to use a lot more water than your Bamboo & Broccoli Oil conditioner, though, so maybe it would have thickened over time.
However, I have a lot of hair (it’s long, fine, and curly), so I used it all in one go. I just poured it straight from the pyrex measure and into my hair, gooed it all around, shower-capped and hatted myself, and went about my chores.
My preferred hair deep treatment in the past has been an oil-and-egg mix that definitely deep-moisturizes, but is also pretty sticky and messy. I instantly liked this one better, since it didn’t seem to leak out of my hairline and down the back of my neck. It was also way easier to wash out — just like conditioner, rather than sticky goop.
I noticed the difference right away, before I washed my hair. It was already pretty smooth and soft, and the past few months it hasn’t been so nice before the vinegar rinse. My hair was also easy to wash afterwards — I came in ready to give it two washes to get all the gunk out, and then found that this isn’t gunky at all. 🙂
Shampoo is the one area where my hair-care routine drastically differs from yours: my hair just doesn’t like shampoo bars or soap, even with the vinegar rinses. It just ends up feeling sticky. Could be the long fine and curly thing. I was using the basic shampure shampoo from Aveda for a while, then I bought a luxury shampoo base from New Directions Aromatics, and mix a little carrier oil and EO into it. It does the trick nicely, and is still cheap and customizable, though not as convenient.
Anyway, I followed up with your jojoba and olive oil conditioner, shine and detangle hair rinse, and then a fresh batch of ultimate hair serum, and then a little hair balm for the very ends. I do blow-dry my hair straight most of the time these days (it’s so much easier to maintain over the course of a few days between washes, and I tend to fuss with the curls if I don’t watch myself), and it feels great this morning. Less frizz, very smooth and silky (except for the last two inches or so, which really just need to go).
I’ll definitely make this again, and maybe even make it well ahead of time to see how thick it sets up (if I ever get that organized). Thanks for posting!
My hair is the same way! I want to use the shampoo bars and vinegar rinses, but the number of times I’ve tried, I always get ugly gross hair. I thought it was just me or my soap recipes!
I’m not alone!
I was expecting a parcel last month with Marula oil, but it didn’t arrive till yesterday. So! Tonight after work,mim whipping up this pretty mask! Even bought a fancy jar for it too!
Awesome! I’m so glad your hair is loving this stuff 🙂 How funny that yours was so runny—it makes me think that might not’ve been BTMS-50. That, or perhaps you didn’t use an immersion blender? In any case, as long as it emulsified it should perform the same, and it sounds like it did! I just did another round of this (once a month seems to be a good balance for me) and gosh darn, my hair drinks it right up and feel so lovely afterwards! And best of all… using this stuff lets me heat-treat my hair without destroying it 😀 Huzzah!
Useful recipe i will try it too. I never heard by this kind of oil. Thanks for sharing this information.
Thanks, Amina! Happy making 🙂
This recipe is simply wonderful! It makes my hair so soft and nice. I bleeched the downpart of my hair (ombré hair) the last weeks but even when my hair was damaged by that treatment, you notice nothing with this mask. I wash it with my natural shampoo and the restorative conditioner afterwards from marie’s recipe.
I’m so glad! I love doing this mask if I’ve been heat treating my hair lots—it really brings it back to life 😀
That does it – I have GOT to have me some BTMS-50!
It’s well after 2 am. The wind are playing with an old newspaper and a plasticbag. I’m walking down the street with my collar pulled up and my hat pulled down. Trying not to draw attention. It’s not the bedst part of town, I know, but I have got to have it.
I turn right down the dark alley. There he is. I whisper “Do you have som BTMS?” He says “Yes, I have some 25”
No, no, NO, NOOOO – IT HAS GOT TO BE 50!!! So Marie said.
Hmmm maybe I should just order some at Amazon?!
Sorry my imagination some times get the bedst of me 😉
Ha! I am picturing this scene in a dimly lit alley with steam coming up through the grates. He has a New York accent, you are in a polka dot dress and a coat with the collar turned up… BTMS-50! I’m coming for you, my love! 😛
I understand avacodo oil and argan oil are suppose to be great for hair. I’ve been experimenting with some coconut oil hair masks that really bring my curl out but have been way too oil heavy. I have also experimented with honey in hair masks.
Most oils are pretty lovely for hair—it’s just about what your hair loves 🙂 Experiment away!
Hi! I’m not sure if I’ve just missed it, but where is the horsetail powder in the instructions? Just wondering if it goes into the watery part or the oily part. Sorry if it’s in there and I just don’t see it, but I’ve read through it a few times, and I just can’t find it… Thanks! 😀
Good catch! I’ve fixed it 🙂
Hi Marie
Have you been able to source Marula Oil or Shavegrass in Canada?
Thanks,
Mary-Ann
Voyageur has shavegrass and you can get marula oil on Amazon 🙂
Wow, this looks amazing. I love marula oil. Need to try this — my hair definitely needs it. Love your blog!
Thanks so much, and happy making!
Hi
Can we replace btms 50 with varisoft e 65 ?
You *can*, but I find the performance of Varisoft to be significantly poorer than that of BTMS 50.
Thank you so much for your beautiful recipes. I love them! Greetings from Argentina!
Thanks, Natalia! Happy making 🙂
Hi Marie. I can only get horsetail root extract as a liquid (INCI Aqua, propylene glycol, alcohol denat., equiseti herb extract (3-10%)). Can I use this as well?
YES!!!! Where did you get it? I’ve been looking for some off and on when I think about it as I want it in a skin cream.
But, yes, you can most certainly use horsetail extract in your formula. I’d look at the recommended usage amount by the supplier and just reduce the amount of water in the liquid phase.
Enjoy!
Barb
Hi, I followed this recipe to the tea but my end result came out less thick than yours. How can I fix it or do you know why that may be?
Thanks! 🙂
Did you use a high-shear mixer? Has it thickened up over the last few days?
Hi Marie,
love your recipes, i tried making the mask but used Goose berry oil instead of marula oil. I did not get the horse tail powder also. My hair felt so smooth. its an excellent recipe. However my mask became very fluffy. What can i do to get the creamy constituency. Appreciate your reply. Thank you. Much love.
What is the difference between Phytokeratin and keratin? I have keratin. Could I use this too? Kind regards,
Katja