Let's Make Our Own Temple Balm

While ponytails, updos and buns do help with protecting our ends, our edges need pampering as well.

While wearing these styles, most like to smooth their hair back or up, along their temples, to give the style a ‘polished’ look. But as we all know, too much stress - tight braids, accessories, constantly pulling hair back - can cause breakage along the hairline.

There are several products available that proclaim to grow back or fill-in edges, but with a few simple ingredients, you can create your own.

The following list of ingredients will help you do just that :o) By the way, this was previously published in Clutch's sister mag Coco and Creme - DIY Temple Balm for Hairline Protection - it was one of the favorite articles I wrote, so I decided to share it here.

They are ingredients that will enable you to make a DIY temple balm, that will not only give your ponytails, updos and buns that ‘polished’ look, but will protect the hair around your temples, stimulate scalp circulation and promote hair growth.

The first step will be to decide whether you want an oil or pomade type balm. For an oil based balm, you can choose among the following carrier oils:

• Jojoba Oil


• Olive Oil


• Coconut Oil


• Hemp Oil


• Neem Oil


• Shea Oil


• Sweet Almond Oil

For a pomade type balm you can choose among the following butters:

• Cocoa Butter


• Olive Butter


• Aloe Butter


• Hemp Butter


• Shea Butter


• Almond Butter

*If you have a favorite carrier oil or butter that is not listed, you can use them as well*

The next step will be to add essential oils and/or herbs to your oil or butter. Carrier oils can be infused with herbs (see - Annies Remedy.com for instructions). Essential oils can be added directly to your oils or butters. You can also add carrier oils infused with herbs to melted butter.

Essential Oils and Herbs

• Arnica


• Calendula


• Stinging Nettle


• Rosemary (oil or leaves)


• Peppermint Oil


• Sage (EO or leaves)


• Cedarwood


• Saw Palmetto Extract

For those who would prefer a gel type balm essential oils and/or infused carrier oils can be mixed with 3 parts Aloe Vera Gel and 1 part oil.

DIY Basic Temple Balm Recipe

Combine ¼ cup of carrier oil (remember, see instruction link above if you want to make an herb infused oil), or butter in a 4 ounce container with 2 or more essential oils adding ¼ tsp of each. If you are using butter, melt butter before adding oils to make mixing easier, then let it sit to solidify. Feel free to tweak ingredients to your liking.

Use your temple balm as a hairdressing to smooth the edges when wearing ponytails, updos and buns, or just to protect and treat thinning edges. Your temple balm can also be used for scalp massages as well.



For the ‘polished’ look, lightly moisturized your edges with water, then add your balm. Gently brush back and cover with a silk/satin scarf for approx. 20 to 30 mins or overnight.

Here are the places where I shop for essential oils - I usually pull up all three sites to search for the cheapest prices.

Wholesale Supplies Plus

From Nature With Love

Texas Natural Supply

My 2011 Hair Resolutions

Although I'm constantly adding to my list - here is what I have so far - this was also previously published on Clutch's sister mag Coco and Creme - Natural Hair Resolutions Countdown

Like I said in the article, some of these are carry-overs from last year :o)

• Try more styles - For 2011 I’m going to attempt to not have a ‘signature’ style. I’m going to try to stay away from twists or box braids in a bun, and get more creative with my styles.

• Exercise and take supplements - a carry-over from this year. I started taking hair vitamins and actually began to see results, but kept forgetting to take them for weeks at a time. I don’t even have an excuse for not exercising. For 2011, I’m planning to stay on routine with both.

• Attend more natural hair events - There are so many meet-ups and natural hair events announced over the web, next year I’m going to plan to attend more than one or two.

• Keep a hold on product junkism - I actually did pretty well with this one. I stuck to my $20 budget when visiting beauty supplies, most times spending way less. I plan to continue this in 2011 - I have to work on a budget for online shopping though.

• Stay away from the scissors (when it comes to excessive trimming) - At the beginning of the year I would routinely trim/dust my ends every two or three months whether they were split or not.

The last half of last year I only cut knots and when I noticed split ends on certain strands. I saw a big difference when it came to retaining length. For 2011, I’m planning to only trim my ends when necessary.

• Keep up with natural hair social networks/blogs, YouTube videos, etc. For 2011, I plan to stay current with the online hair community - which will give me ideas for my own products, styles, routines etc…

• Keep up with documenting my journey. I find that documenting i.e. taking pictures, blogging, etc… my own journey also helps me to come up with creative styles, and more DIY products and accessories. And it’s a way to ‘give-back’ by helping others as well.

• Continue pampering my hair. I noticed that the more pampering, the better my overall hair health . I plan to try more ayurvedic hair treatments, keep braid washing, once-a-month deep conditioning and wearing protective styles.

• Make more products at home - This will not only ensure what I’m putting on my hair is chemical-free, but help keep the product junkie in me from arousing.

• Clean out cabinets - via using up all of my products before purchasing more and seeking out product swaps. I've started doing this and having my niece who loooves hair products living in the house with me is helpful as well.