Project: Bentonite Clay.

The naturalista adventures continue. Last week, I decided to try a clay detox mask for my hair, being that I had worn box braids for the past seven weeks and wanted to really cleanse it after taking them down. A bit of back story: I heard about Bentonite Clay a year ago, when my friends and I happened to stumble on a video on YouTube about it. Excited and intrigued about this procedure and spurred on by all the comments of the clay softening and defining your hair, I bought the clay, some gloves, and set about to do it. But that was a year ago. And I didn’t do it. Because it’s clay. And, uh, I didn’t want to put clay in my hair. I was terrified that the stuff would turn my curls into cement blocks. Can you blame me?

But a year later, I decided to put on my lady pantaloons and just do it. So last Monday, a day after my braids had been removed by my long-suffering sissy (“must you insist on not sitting still?!”), I took a thousand deep breaths and got started.

The Mixture

You take the clay (no real measurement; eyeball it, as all the gals like to say), add some apple cider vinegar (warning: the meeting of the clay and the vinegar produces a sizzling, steamy effect that a year ago, would have had me running for the hills but now was just fairly interesting), and some water. Some naturals on YT mentioned that also threw in some essentials oils and some honey, but I didn’t do that that. Just kept to those three ingredients. I mixed everything together (in a plastic bowl with a plastic spoon; no metals, apparently, lest you…turn into the Tin Man? I don’t know but, yeah, no metals) until there was a yogurt-like consistency and then it was good to go. And now a photographic journey of the application of the mixture and the results that came afterward.

I should add that I was supposed to slightly dampen my hair before adding the clay. Skipped that part in my eagerness to get down to business, which made the clay slightly harder than it likely would have been. Anyway, after about 25 minutes, it was time to wash it out. (Length of time to sit in your hair should be about 20-30 minutes, but no more than that, or here come the cement blocks.) What were the results? Did my nightmarish visions of curly pieces of clay come to pass?

You guys.

My hair was soft. Clean. Shiny. Defined. My hair color was popping, like it was newly done. My scalp was amazing. The clay did everything the YTubers promised it would do, and then some. Oh, and can I add that I didn’t detangle my hair before applying the mixture and that the clay went ahead and detangled my hair for me?

So it’s a keeper, this Bentonite Clay. It’s a keeper. I will be using it every time I wash my hair (of course, switching it up here and there). A few things I will do the next time:

• Definitely dampen my hair before applying the mixture.
• Although my hair felt conditioned, it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and co-wash or deep condition my hair after rinsing out the clay. I think my hair would benefit from the added conditioning, being that a few days after, it felt a bit dry.
• I’ll go ahead and throw in a little olive oil in the mixture, too. Can’t hurt.

And that’s it. I highly recommend this mask! Four Square Pegs, indeed.

Has anyone out there tried Bentonite Clay? What were your results?