7 Effective Aloe Vera Gel Uses For Hair, Skin And Overall Health
As you all must have known by now, Aloe Vera is one of my most favourite natural cosmetic ingredients, which I use in almost all skin-care products I make at home.
In this article, I am sharing 7 effective ways I incorporate fresh Aloe Vera gel in my daily life routine.
First thing first, don’t waste Aloe Vera Gel (Oh! I do hate it when people do)
1. Apply Aloe Vera Gel Directly on Your Hair and Skin
Whenever you are extracting aloe vera gel, scarp and apply the remaining one from the Leaf directly on the skin, hair or scalp.
Skin:
Aloe vera gel moisturises our skin like no other ingredient. Keep for 15 to 30 minutes on the skin and rinse. If you want to keep it for a longer period then dilute it with few drops of your favourite carrier oil.
Hair:
You can also apply the fresh aloe vera gel on your scalp and hair and wash it after an hour. If you want to keep it overnight dilute aloe vera gel with your preferred oil (applying raw aloe vera gel overnight sometimes makes my scalp itchy).
Instead of hair oil, I mostly apply aloe vera gel on my hair or mix both (oil and gel) and do head massage twice a week.
This is my quick and Natural Hair Spa, which I use often. It makes my hair soft, smooth and shiny.
How to make Aloe vera gel and coconut oil hair growth mixture?
1 part Cold Pressed Coconut oil + 2 parts Aloe Vera Gel
Apply this on your scalp and hair. Do a light massage. Keep it overnight or do hot towel treatment and wash after an hour to boost your hair growth.
To know the systematic way to extract fresh Aloe Vera gel from the leaf you can watch my video ‘How to cut and extract aloe vera gel: Click Here
2. Aloe Vera Ice Cubes
Once a day, rub an aloe vera gel ice cube on your face. I do this either first thing in the morning or last thing before going to bed or before applying makeup if I am shooting. I sometimes add this ice cube in ice water and dunk my face in it whenever I feel have puffy eyes or face
What do you need for this?
Pre-frozen Aloe Vera gel ice cubes
How to make it?
3. Make your own products using Aloe Vera gel
There are two methods you can go about this. First one is very easy. You just have to add aloe vera gel to your daily products.
You can add fresh Aloe Vera Gel (or Aloe Vera gel preserved with vitamin C and E) to all your daily cosmetic product and make small batches for daily use. Use them in the span of 5-6 days. Then make a new batch again.
You can pre-mix it in a separate bottle for a week’s supply. Just make sure you don’t keep it for a longer period of time as aloe vera gel’s shelf-life is very less.
Below is the ratio for all the products:
- Mouthwash
Aloe vera gel has antibacterial and moisturizing properties. It helps in protecting the mouth from harmful bacteria and because of the anti-inflammatory properties, soothes the sore gum muscles. It is wise to use aloe vera gel with your daily mouthwash.
- Take equal parts of both mouthwash and aloe vera gel (1:1).
How to use?
Swirl it in your mouth, back and forth for about a minute and spit.
- Shampoo
Aloe Vera Gel makes our daily shampoo little milder and because of its anti-fungal properties help in preventing dandruff. Also, aloe vera gel provides moisture to the flaky scalp and prevents the formation of dandruff.
- The ratio is for every 1 part of shampoo you have to add 1 part of aloe vera gel. (1:1)
How to use?
Simply take some amount of your daily shampoo in a bowl and add aloe vera gel to it. Mix it well and shampoo your hair the usual way.
- Conditioner
Aloe Vera gel is an excellent moisturising and conditioning agent for our hair. It penetrates into the hair follicles and deeply nourishes them.
- The ratio is again the same for every 1 part of conditioner 1 part of aloe vera gel. (1:1)
How to use?
You can pre-mix it in a separate bottle for a week’s supply. Just make sure you don’t keep it for a longer period of time as aloe vera gel’s shelf-life is very less. Keep it on your shampooed hair for about 2-3 minutes and rinse!
- Body wash
- If you are using liquid body soap it is very easy to mix 1 part of aloe vera gel to every 2 parts of liquid body soap. This will make the latter milder
5. Face cream
Aloe vera has minerals, amino acids and vitamins, which help our skin to remain healthy and boost the collagen for new cell formation.
- Simply add 1 part of Aloe Vera Gel to 1 part of your daily face cream and stir well.
- This will take a little longer to mix, so stir it until you get a smooth consistency. This will make the texture smoother.
- Body lotion
Aloe Vera keeps our skin moisturised for a long time, plus vitamin C gives it a healthy glow and helps in fading scars or tan.
- To make your regular body lotion more hydrating and moisturizing, add 1 part of Aloe Vera gel (fresh or Aloe Vera gel preserved with vitamin C) to every 3 parts of your favourite body lotion.
- You can (Watch my video )for more details on how to preserve aloe vera gel with vitamin C!
How to use?
Mix well and pour this in a smaller bottle to make a small batch. Keep refilling it as you cannot preserve it without keeping it refrigerated for a long time.
Second method requires a bit more efforts.
It is by making your own organic products at home using aloe vera gel.
You can refer to some of them here;
- How to make Aloe Vera Day & Night Cream at Home
- Aloe Vera Hair Serum and Hair Mask with Fenugreek
- Summer Special Hair Tonic with Aloe Vera Gel and Coriander
- Face Cream for Dry Skin with Aloe Vera Gel
- Home made Body Lotion with Aloe Vera Gel
- How to make Herbal Hair Oil using Aloe Vera
- How to do Aloe Vera Gel Facial at home
- Face Sheet Mask using Aloe Vera Gel
4. Drink Aloe Vera Gel
Drinking Aloe vera juice has many benefits. As much as it is beneficial to heal us externally, it equally helpful from internally as well. (Though there are no scientifically proven evidence, a lot of people has found drinking aloe vera gel extremely beneficial for health).
Aloe vera juice hydrates us from within. Regular use of aloe vera juice makes our skin supple and hydrating, and also helps in boosting hair growth. Aloe vera gel cleans the toxins from our gut and thoroughly cleans our liver.
Once I have an aloe vera leaf, I simply extract some gel and take a shot of aloe vera gel (20ml) with a pinch of lemon.
Sometimes I also add the gel into my morning smoothie (half a cup).
Whenever I don’t have fresh aloe vera leaf, I use frozen aloe vera cubes and add them into my smoothies.
(I have tried all the branded aloe vera juices and out of them all, I found only one brand genuine, which is Forever Living. No affiliation!).
5. Aloe Vera Hair serum
I have naturally curly hair and it tends to get super dry and frizzy quite often.
Believe me, I have tried almost every product available in the market on my hair, but they all tend to make my hair dry and rough in a couple of hours only.
I always wanted something organic and sustainable, which I can use for a longer period of time.
And therefore I started making my own hair serum spray.
If you have a curly or wavy dull lifeless hair you can try this natural hair serum as well. It is safe to use for all types of hair as it is made up of all-natural ingredients.
How to make?
Fill half the spray bottle with distilled water (Why distilled water? Cause most of the times the water is the main issue for all hair related problems, making our hair dry and causing hair fall. So try to use distilled water.)
- Add 1 tbsp of coconut oil / argon oil / camellia oil
- Add 5 tbsps of aloe vera gel.
- And 3-4 drops of Ylang-Ylang essential oil.
- Now shake the bottle and mix it well. Spray this on your curls starting from the outer layer to the inner layers.
- Let it get air-dried. And your hair would feel fresh and beautiful again.
- 6. Make a miracle Eyelash serum
This is a magical eyelash serum which will grow your eyelashes in just 2 months if applied regularly.
To make this eyelash growth enhancing serum we need:
- Freshly extracted aloe vera gel
- Castor oil
- Vitamin e tablet
- Old empty mascara bottle
Add 1 tsp of aloe vera gel + 5 drops of castor oil and 1 tablet of vitamin e and stir well as aloe vera gel and castor oil will take a while to mix.
Once properly mixed add this serum to your old, empty, clean mascara bottle.
How to Use!!
Dab the mascara wand into this magical serum and apply it on upper lash and lower lash like we apply our regular lash before going to bed. I also apply a stroke on my eyebrows and the sides of my hairline to make the hair thicker in those areas.
Aloe vera gel is an ultimate hair growth stimulator and castor oil thickens the hair and makes them stronger while vitamin E provides all nutritions and also helps in boosting the growth.
7. Make Your Own Natural Lip Plumper
Unfortunately, we don’t have any lip plumper gel or serum available in the market. Everyone opts for lip fillers therapy to get plumpy lips.
Here I am sharing a method on how to make your own temporary lip plumper gel at home.
What do you need for this?
- Freshly extracted aloe vera gel
- Ground Cinnamon / Cinnamon Essential oil / Peppermint essential oil
- Castor Oil
- An empty clean lip gloss bottle
How to prepare?
Mix 1 tbsp of aloe vera gel + 1 tsp of Castor oil and a pinch of ground cinnamon (or 1 drop of cinnamon essential oil or 2 drops of peppermint essential oil) and pour into the empty lip gloss bottle.
How to Use?
Apply on lips and scrub your lips lightly for 5 minutes. You will feel a tingling sensation on your lips. Keep it on for another 5-10 minutes and wipe your lips using a dry tissue. Now apply a lip balm to moisturise your lips and then apply your lipstick.
Aloe vera gel hydrates and moisturises our lips and castor oil adds the lustre and glow while cinnamon or peppermint boosts the instant blood flow in that particular area making your lips plump.
These are my personal ways of using Aloe vera gel in my daily routine. You can try them out and let me know how useful they are for you!. 🙂
