This Silk & Shine Conditioning Hair Mask is a decadent hair treat, leaving your hair noticeably more shiny and manageable. It’s packed with nourishing oils, rich conditioners, and goodies like silk and panthenol to leave your hair feeling its best. Simply work a generous amount through wet hair, leave it in for a few hours, and shampoo it out—a lovely recipe for ultra-silky hair and a nice bit of self-care ❤️
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So, what makes a hair mask a mask and not just a conditioner? Mostly marketing, really. Knowing a leave-in hair mask will be used less frequently than a rinse-out cream conditioner or conditioner bar (and knowing it will be shampooed out of the hair), I did make this Silk & Shine Overnight Hair Mask much richer than I’d make a rinse-out cream conditioner designed for regular use. The reason my “regular” rinse-out conditioners are lower in oils is that my hair is not hugely tolerant of oils. If your hair loves oils you might find this extra rich hair mask makes a wonderful regular-use conditioner for you! You might even like small amounts of it used as a leave-in conditioner. There are so many different kinds of hair (not only in the way it grows out of your head, but also from different treatments like dying + heat treating) that different products can easily meet different needs for different people with different hair.
Our water phase features all kinds of things that are lovely for the hair. Panthenol (vitamin B5) and luxurious hydrolyzed silk protein dd shine and bounce. Cationic guar gum and polyquaternium 10 bring all kinds of gorgeous conditioning goodness while also thickening the hair mask, adding body. I’ve also included a small amount of Cocamidopropyl Betaine to aid in rinse-out, as this hair mask is quite rich.
I tried an earlier version of this hair mask with more cationic guar gum (0.5% instead of the 0.2% seen here) and polyquaternium 10 (1% vs. 0.2%) and that made for a much gummier end product. I share a side-by-side comparison in the video so you can see just how big of a difference 1.1% of gums and thickeners can make to an end product!
The oil phase stars some lovely vitamin-rich, luxurious argan oil and glidey coconut oil—one of the very few oils that can penetrate the hair well (argan oil does as well, to some extent). Both oils work together to add shine and slip to the hair. Some cetearyl alcohol adds further richness and body, and BTMS-50 functions as our emulsifier while also bringing all its gorgeous conditioning goodness to the party. Seriously—if you haven’t tried BTMS-50 + hair before, I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve tried quite a few cationic emulsifying waxes, including several more natural ones, and the BTMS’s (50 & 25) are consistently my favourite. Learn more here in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia!
I have included some fragrance, but I’ve kept the amount low. Between the somewhat fishy-smelling cationic ingredients and the silk, this hair mask does have a bit of scent on its own, and I wanted to mask that with something a bit more pleasant. I started with 0.3% fragrance and found that was too strong for something I was applying in large amounts (I use about 50g [1.76oz] hair mask for one application) so close to my nose, so I dialled it back to 0.1%. If you’re using essential oils instead of fragrance oil you can likely use a bit more as essential oils aren’t as potent. Give this a read for more information.
To use, apply a generous amount of the hair mask to your hair—I prefer to apply it to wet hair, but you can apply it to dry hair if you prefer. Clip up your hair and leave it in for a few hours, and then shampoo it out and condition as usual (if you want to). Let dry, and enjoy your silky, shiny hair! You can also sleep with this mask in, though you’ll want to wear something like a shower cap to protect your bedding. I’ve tried this in the past and didn’t enjoy the crinkling of my shower cap all night long, but if you have a quieter hair covering that would likely work wonderfully!
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Silk & Shine Conditioning Hair Mask
Heated water phase
10g | 10% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% cationic guar gum (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% Polyquaternium 1060.5g | 60.5% distilled water
0.5g | 0.5% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% hydrolyzed silk (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)Heated oil phase
6g | 6% BTMS-50 (USA / Canada)
7g | 7% argan oil (USA / Canada)
4g | 4% cetearyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
7g | 7% virgin coconut oilCool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.1% fragrance or essential oil of choicePrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated 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 weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.
Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion 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 lotion is thick and creamy.
When the lotion is cool it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of lotion, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.
And that’s it! Package the mask in a 120mL (4 fl oz) wide-mouthed jar or tub for easy application. To use, apply a generous amount to the hair and leave it in for at least a few hours, or pop on a shower cap and leave it in overnight. Shampoo it out afterwards, and enjoy silky, shiny hair!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this hair mask contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative, this project may 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, which is approximately two applications for my hair.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list (panthenol, BTMS-50, argan oil, cetearyl alcohol, coconut oil) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could use regular guar gum instead of cationic guar gum, or replace it with more water.
- You can use polyquaternium 7 instead of 10. You could also use honeyquat, though I hate the way it smells.
- A different amphoteric surfactant will work instead of Cocamidopropyl Betaine, or you can replace it with more water (this will decrease rinse-out).
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this page.
Gifting Disclosure
The 100mL (3.3fl oz) black plastic tub was gifted by YellowBee.
How often should you use this product on your hair?
That’ll depend a lot on your hair; I probably wouldn’t use it more than 2–3x a month, but my hair isn’t hugely tolerant of oils. If your hair loves oils you could likely use it more often!
This is a lovely recipe, I may try it soon, specially now that there’s no hair salon open and my hair is a little dry at the ends. I love BTMS-50 as much as you do. Recently I’ve seen people condemning it because apparently it affects marine life. Have you heard anything about it! Best regards and thank you
I hope you love the hair mask! If you review the SDS for many ingredients (especially surfactants/emulsifiers), they are problematic if they get into the waterways without any treatment—this would be true for handmade soap, detergents, etc. I haven’t seen anything about them being problematic after they go through a water treatment plant, though, and given these ingredients are much more prevalent than microplastics, it seems like that would’ve made the news!
Somebody mentioned this article as an evidence that BTMS can be a contaminant since it states “Behentrimonium As a New Emerging Contaminant”
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es101169a
You, who are more familiar with all these chemical names, what’s your opinion on it?
I made and I used it today. I only left it on for 10 minutes because I have oily hair. I loved this mask so much. I will make more for friends and family
Hello! I think there may be an issue with the formatting of the recipe. When trying to print it gets very funky. Since I’m unable to attach a screenshot I’ll copy/paste a portion
Heated water phase
vegetable glycerine
cationic guar gum
Polyquaternium 10 10g | 10% 0.2g | 0.2% 0.2g | 0.2%
panthenol
hydrolyzed silk
USACanada60.5g | 60.5% distilled water 0.5g | 0.5% 2g | 2% 2g | 2% Cocamidopropyl Betaine ( / )
It looks like it’s more of an issue with the plugin than the blog post—it seems to be pulling linked items to the start of paragraphs, which is very unhelpful, but as I don’t have anything to do with the plugin I can’t do anything about it :/
Oh yikes!!! My bad I’m sorry!
No worries—hopefully they fix it soon!
Hi!
Should I duplicate the regular guar gum quantity to 0.4%, since I don’t have Polyquaternium 10 in my country, nor cationic guar gum ?
Hi, I stumbled across this page an am now totally obsessed! Just wondering how much does this recipe make and how should this mask be used? (did i miss this somewhere?)
Welcome! You did miss it—both details are in the formulation 🙂
hello i have tried and the result is amazing. But after one week the color changes to darker. what should i do if i want the color not to change? Thank you
You could try including a chelator like EDTA 🙂
I made and I used it today. I only left it on for 10 minutes because I have oily hair. I loved this mask so much. I will make more for friends and family
Hello!! I follow you very closely on youtube and instagram. I really like your formulations, although I must say that in most of them I can’t find the ingredients, and I use the substitutions that you offer, I’m from Mexico.
I want to consult with you about one thing, the hair mask, could it be done in a solid bar and when it is going to be used, put hot water to dissolve it and place it on your hair?
I saw some fantastic ones on a page in Spain, which has even won awards. It is a solid bar hair mask. I have the ingredients but I would not know the quantities and percentages to make it solid. Could you help me with that? Thank you very much and best regards. Gloria Cardenas
Hi
I am from India and most of the products are not available
Managed to find substitutes for most of the products but can’t find liquid Germal Plus can u help me out with a substitute for it
Please read this 🙂
I made the hair mask
The essential oil I used was ceder wood
But the final product was very lumpy small small lumps all over
Can u tell me where I went wrong
It sounds like you may not’ve blended the cool down phase until smooth before incorporating it in with everything else—it wouldn’t have anything to do with the particular essential oil you used.
I made the mask again with the instructions u gave me to avoid lumps and it has turned out beautiful thanks a lot
Fantastic!
Can the polyquat be replaced with tween 80? I don’t have access to polyquat or honeyquat
There’s really no reason to do that—just use more water if you don’t have a squat 🙂
hola, I’ll be grateful if you can guide me, I have liquid and silk protein extract, can I use it in the same amount? Thank you
I’d check the documentation for the ingredients and see if you can find a dilution level. For example, if the liquid version is 50% water, you’ll need 2x as much, and remove that extra from the water in the formulation. Happy making!
heya!! i made the mask and loved how it made my hair smooth and fizz free but instead of argon oil i only used coconut oil and my final product was not thick enough it was more like a viscose lotion and i also couldn’t see a shine in my hair that i expected to get.
so please suggest me where i went wrong and what else i can do to get that shine in hair.
Please watch this video for guidance on changing viscosity 🙂 Shininess in hair has a ton of factors, so you will need to research that yourself to see what might be your particular challenge and then research solutions for that. Happy making!
Hi
Ia made this mask it was amazing but the problem is
When I put in my hair it gives a white colour in the hair especially when I wash it the turned white
Is it like that or i did something wrong
Another incredible recipe from you! I made this and my hair turned silky (i have normally coarse dry hair which is coloured). I thought nah it must be because i had my hair done at the hairdressed, so a few days later i tried it again and yes, wow, silky soft shiny hair, and then i made some for my mum who was very impressed. I didnt have cationic guar, but have just got some so will be making another batch soon! thank you so much
Hooray! I am so dang thrilled you’re loving this ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi Marie! I’m getting ready to make a few things today, one of which is this mask again, this time with a couple modifications. Anyway, my question is, shouldn’t the silk and polyquaterium be in the cool down phase and not the heated water phase? Or does it not really matter? Thanks for your help and all of your awesome recipes!!!
You’re right! Good catch 🙂 Happy making!
I’m back to mix my second 900 gram batch of this mask so needless to say I’m in love with this recipe! Thank you so much Marie for sharing. I have damaged hair so I religiously use this every week and my hair loves it!
I’m so thrilled to hear it! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi Marie. I hope all is well. I’m so excited to make this and I have almost everything. The only thing I don’t have is the guar gum. I checked out your encyclopedia for substitutions and see that HEC can be used in it’s place. Do you think that would work in this recipe? If so, what would you suggest as an amount? Thank you so much for all of these wonderful tips and recipes.
Hey Dawn! One thing I would like to note is that the guar gum isn’t plain/regular guar gum—it’s cationic guar gum, which does make a difference and adds more conditioning to the formula 🙂 You can try hydroxyethylcellulose (just a one-to-one swap), but start with a small batch to ensure everything works 🙂 Happy making!
Thank you so much!!
Hi Marie,I made the mask & it came out beautiful,just a question do we need to apply on hair shaft only or we can apply it to scalp too,thx
You can apply it wherever you need it 🙂
Hi
I live it so much
I want to ask you
Can I use it on hair treated with keratin or protein?
The first time I made this, I accidentally overpoured the cocamidopropyl betaine to 3.3g. The resulting mask rinses out of my very fine 1b hair so well, I didn’t bother washing it out; I just used a little cleansing conditioner on my roots and enjoyed very soft hair for 3 days before my next shampoo! My hair tends to be slightly on the dry side because I wear cotton scrub caps at work, but it still gets weighed down if I don’t fully remove a conditioning treatment, so I was pleasantly surprised. It also did a great job smoothing out the small color-treated areas of my hair that tend to be rough and snarly if they’re not frequently treated with lots of conditioning hair balm (balm which is too heavy for me to apply even to the rest of my hair, even in tiny amounts). The other changes I made were using camellia seed oil instead of argan and coconut, rose hydrosol for fragrance, hydrolyzed oats instead of silk because I’m vegetarian, and honeyquat instead of polyquat. I mention those because it’s a lot of changes, but whatever else I swap around next time, I’m keeping the extra cocamidopropyl betaine.
Love how this works for my hair. I made one with nettle, horsetail and rosemary infusion and other one without them (just some blue tansy EO for scent). Both are very lovely! I’ve already finished over 100 grams with fantastic results. It doesn’t leave my hair feeling heavy and I’ve had less hair loss too. I typically let hair mask work for 1 hour or so and use shampoo afterwards – I’ll try leaving surfactant out next time just to see if it makes a difference. I might not need any surfactant at all. Thanks for the tip and this beautiful formulation!
I used this as a base to formulate a mask for my color treated hair and it’s amazing! I have curly hair 3A and can leave this in all day with my hair tied back on a wash day and it feels amazing after I shower.
Hello Marie!
Thank you for this lovely formula !
I noticed you do not use hydrolized keratin powder.
Any particular reason?
Thanks!
Zora
I don’t own any—simple as that 🙂