Feet Baths: Simple, Natural & Healing Ways to Pamper Your Feet during Summer Season

Your feet deserves love.  In cold season you pack them in socks and shoes and don't really let your feet to enjoy fresh air on the skin. In summer feet finally get it + a lot of dirt, dust and sweat. Wow, that's an incredible mixture... It's not very surprising that exactly during summer season many people fight with cracked heels, skin thickening and Athlete's foot, oh, and those painful blisters...

One basic rule that stays the same in all seasons: keep your feet clean. You are not allowed to forget to wash your feet before going to bed if you don't want to suffer from pain that doesn't let you enjoy summer. Let's keep it straight! Here are some natural treatments that will pamper, support and care for your feet in a pleasurable way:

Stinging nettle infusion

Put in a bowl fresh stinging nettle leaves -> pour hot water to cover them -> let the mixture sit covered for 10-15 minutes -> remove the cover and let it cool down a bit so you can put your feet in -> enjoy! You can also simmer nettle leaves in hot water on low heat for about 10 minutes and then add it to lukewarm water. You can take the herbs out, but I usually leave them inside and play with herbs in the water with my feet. 

Benefits:  Improves blood circulation, so will be useful for tired feet, treats corns, warts and nail

fungus.

A bit more about stinging nettle I've published previously here: Nettle: Vitamin Dose On Your Dinner Table, in a Cup of Tea & in Bathroom

Burdock leaves

The same what you would do with nettle (and other leaves): put fresh leaves in a bowl -> add hot water -> wait -> enjoy!

Benefits: Fights Athlete's foot, helps to treat psoriasis, eczema, bacterial and fungal infections, swelling and skin rashes

Pine needles

Crush fresh needles -> add hot water -> wait -> enjoy!

If you can't get fresh pine needles, pine tree essential oil will help.

Benefits: refreshing and deodorizing treatment, disinfectant and antioxidant, aromatic treatment for reducing stress as well. Used for healing psoriasis, poor skin, itchiness and other skin issues, reduces inflammation and pain.

Birch leaves

The same what you would do with nettle (and other leaves): put fresh leaves in a bowl -> add hot water -> wait -> enjoy! Leave these leaves in water!

Benefits: It has antibacterial properties, helps healing skin issues, ulcers, wounds and inflammations. The best birch leaves are gathered and used until summer solstice. You can also harvest and dry them in little whisks to use all the year round. 

Peppermint essential oil

Prepare warm water for soaking your feet -> add 3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil -> enjoy!

Benefits: truly refreshing, stimulating and cooling feet soak for tired feet. Helps to fight fever, energizes tired feet, will heal sore skin and inflammations, can soothe blisters, oh, and if you inhale the aroma, you might get headache relief!

Tea Tree essential oil

The same what you would do with peppermint or any other essential  oil: prepare warm water -> add 3-5 drops of essential oil!

Benefits: treats toe nail fungus, Athlete's foot, abrasions, blisters, bruises and dry skin, burns and bacterial infections.

Lavender essential oil

Prepare warm water for soaking your feet -> add 3-5 drops of lavender essential oil -> enjoy! You can also apply add a drop of neat lavender essential on blisters and wounds.

Benefits: relaxing and calming to the entire body, will relax muscles and calm down your mind, heal sore skin and blisters. It has antibacterial properties and aids healing scars, wounds and sunburns. This feet soaking ritual before bedtime can prevent insomnia and improve your sleep quality. 

Here are some other ingredients to add to your feet baths together with herbs and essential oils or pamper your feet after soaking or in other ways:

Vinegar
Add 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to 2-3 cups of water and soak your feet for about 10-15 minutes. You can add vinegar to any of feet soak options mentioned before. 

Benefits: softens skin, so will be helpful if you are using pumice stone for heels, relaxing for tired feet after long walks. 

 

Lemon Juice

Add lemon juice to water and soak your feet in it or prepare a foot scrub with lemon juice. Everything about making your own body scrubs can be found here: Guide to Home-made Body Scrubs

Benefits: softens skin, helps to get rid of thick skin and dead skin cells, helps healing cracked heels.

Coconut oil

Massage your feet with coconut oil after soaking feet and put on clean cotton socks before going to bed. Wash it off on morning.

Benefits: skin moisturizer, helps healing dry skin and cracked heels.

These are my top recipes for summer season, although I often experiment with different herbs, fresh leaves and flowers. What are your favorite ways of pampering feet with natural treasures?

DIY: One Coconut - Get Out of It as Much as You Can

So, I bought a coconut. One coconut. And I didn't really know what to do with it, so I tried to get out of it as much as I can, this time not because I wanted to get it all, but to try how easy or hard it actually is. Easy, in fact, easier than I thought.

For those who live in places where coconuts grow naturally it all might seem funny. In Northern Europe we don't really get fresh coconuts and we don't see in nature how they grow. It's not that we haven't eaten them, but for me this was the first time experimenting with a coconut.  

But first of all - coconut (Cocos Nucifera) health benefits:

- Improving metabolism and digestion (advised for weight loss)
- Decreases heart disease risk improving blood cholesterol levels
- Reduces sweet cravings
- Boosts energy levels
- Immune system support
- Coconut milk is perfect milk substitute (vegan friendly)
- It's gluten-free
- Contains Vitamins A, B and E, calcium and iron

But mostly I've been interested in coconut oil, because coconut oil...
... is a natural sunscreen
...protects from negative environmental influences (wind, cold, sun etc)
...prevents skin dehydration
...absorbed in skin fast without leaving it greasy
...makes great make-up remover
...can be used to treat dry hair and dandruff
...is suitable treatment for children as well
...makes a great body butter that keeps skin elastic
...prevents wrinkles
...is a great carrier oil to mix with essential oils or use for DIY lotions, creams and balms

This is what I got from 1 coconut:

1 liter of coconut water

Firstly I broke the coconut and grated coconut meet. Eat some of it and decided to get some coconut water. I have no idea if you call it coconut water, but I poured on shredded coconut about 1 liter of water, and left it for 3-4 hours. So, the result was 1 liter of water with light coconut taste.

A jar with coconut milk

The next came some basic Google research writing in the searcher "Homemade Coconut Milk". I had coconut flakes already soaked in water, but my curiosity was strong enough that it didn't stop me. I boiled water, poured it in a bowl with soaked coconut and used blender to get a smooth mixture.

I strained the mixture through a piece of cotton cloth separating shredded-blended coconut from the liquid and squeezed it well to get out of it as much of liquid as possible. The liquid I got was about half a liter of coconut milk. It tasted fat and oily. I guess, if I mixed it with more water it would be lighter, but I left it in a jar and put in the fridge.

Coconut flakes

In a cotton cloth I had already pretty dry, fine coconut flakes. I do not have a dehydrator, so I left in a warm place to dry out, so I could keep coconut flakes.

Coconut oil

The next morning when I opened the fridge to try morning coffee with coconut milk, I discovered that on the top of my coconut milk there is a thick layer of curd. So thick that I had to  break it to get the liquid. It seemed so oily that I started to think I've got coconut oil, it just wasn't really the same consistence as coconut oil I buy from the store, so once again I had to ask Google - what's that. Getting to know that I could make my own coconut oil, I decided that I'm not a fan of my coconut milk. So I sacrificed this half a liter of coconut milk to get my own coconut oil!

I poured it into a saucepan and set the fire on low. It was simmering and I was stirring it pretty often, the liquid evaporated in steam, it got less and less, and when there was liquid left only on the bottom of the saucepan I finally saw the precious coconut oil. Little white coconut crumbles were still swimming in the oil, I let the water to evaporate and crumbles - to boil a bit in the oil, and then the limit of my patience was over and I poured the liquid into a little jar (leaving crumbles out of it) - yap, it got solid and I recognized that it really is coconut oil.

Oh! And you can make something like this as well: 

(Ok, the last thing I actually made couple of years ago and don't know were it is now...) I consider that I got everything I could have made from one single coconut. Is there something else I could have done with it? 

Herbs and Oils for Healthy Hair and Scalp

Who doesn't want a strong, healthy, shiny hair? Sun, heat and wind often affect our hair badly, not talking about hairsprays, hair dyes, shampoos and conditioners that often promise us stunning results, but we end up with weak hair that breaks and falls off... 

Well, natural hair care products are best what we can give our hair and skin, but how often do you find really natural shampoo or a conditioner? And how much it costs you? Choosing a baby shampoo or a simply shampoo without added fragrance is always the best choice. While you are not a master of making your own hair care products, there still is something you can do - you can help your hair strengthening it with herbal infusions, essential oils and different plants, so let's get in!

Firstly, issues and treatments and at the end you will get the advice how to use these oils and herbs to get strong, healthy, shiny hair. This list might not be full and complete, but that's what I've got to know so far.

Dandruff

Firstly, you have to improve your skin, and hair will improve together with it. 

• Washing/rinsing water with stinging nettle infusion
• Coconut oil mask
• Lemon essential oil (it has lightening effects, so will be more suitable for light hair)
• Lavender essential oil
• Patchouli essential oil
• Tea Tree (Melaleuca) essential oil
• Eucalyptus essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil (especially suitable for naturally dark hair)
• Cedarwood essential oil
• Calamus root infused water and oil

Hair loss & improving hair-growth

To improve hair growth you have to improve the blood circulation in your scalp. In fact, scalp massage does it well enough, but there are some herbs and oils that will bring positive changes:

• Wash hair with fresh meadowsweet leaf and stalk infusion
• Massage your scalp with peppermint essential oil
• Add a few drops of rosemary essential oil to your shampoo
• Wash your hair with stinging nettle and/or burdock root infusion. You can get burdock root oil to massage in your scalp as a healing mask before washing it out. You can also make nettle-burdock root infused oil at home. 
• Cut a leaf of Aloe Vera lengthwise and grease your hair and scalp with slippery part of the leaf. Leave it in your hair for at least 30 minutes before washing it out.
• Almond oil mask
• Lemon essential oil (it has lightening effects, so will be more suitable for light hair)
• Lavender essential oil / lavender water
• Rosemary essential oil (especially suitable for naturally dark hair)
• Cedarwood essential oil
• Hops infused water and oils
• Calamus root infused water and oil

For Dry and Damaged Hair

• Washing hair with rosemary and burdock root infused water or using oil for hair masks
• Coconut oil mask
• Lemon essential oil (it has lightening effects, so will be more suitable for light hair)
• Chamomile infusions (it has lightening effects, so will be more suitable for light hair)
• Ylang-Ylang essential oil
• Shea butter mask

For Oily Hair

• Eucalyptus essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil (especially suitable for naturally dark hair)
• Lemon essential oil (for light hair)
• Grapefruit essential oil
• Replace hair conditioner with rosewater.
• Beer (yes, you read it correctly, it has drying effects and can leave you with truly shiny hair without being greasy, just make sure you get natural beer)

Shiny & strong hair

• Wash or rinse your hair with nettle infused water
• Replace hair conditioner with rosewater.
• Apply a bit of coconut oil on your hair-ends after washing and drying them (but really a little bit - it's oil and you don't want your hair to look greasy)
• Olive oil mask
• Lemongrass essential oil (by the way, it has a really uplifting scent that even helps for headache)
• Ylang-Ylang essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil (especially suitable for naturally dark hair)
• Sage infusions (works also for darkening gray hair, and in general more suitable for dark hair)

How to use these treatments?

• Essential oils: add a few drops to your shampoo and conditioner, massage into your hair and scalp and leave for 5-7 minutes before washing out. They will also make your hair to smell nicely. You can also add essential oils to natural hair masks, like olive oil, coconut and others. 
• Infused water: make a strong tea  from fresh or dried herbs, let it draw in well and then add to the washing/rinsing water
• Oils (and infused oils) and butters: massage them into wet hair and scalp and leave for at least 30 minutes before washing out.  Natural oils can be left in your hair even overnight. Just take in account that it might not be fast and easy to wash them out so that your hair isn't greasy after washing. It's not that bad, of course, it just might take a bit more time for washing hair.
• Take in account that using any specific treatment just once might not give the desired result. Use the same treatment repeatedly! Either you put a hair mask 1-2 times a week for 3 weeks or use infused water or shampoo/conditioner with essential oils every time!

Check also this post:  

No-shampoo Challenge: Recipes, Personal Experiments... and more than baking soda.

Feel free to share your natural hair care recipes in comments! Tell how you've used any of these treatments and what results you've got!