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?

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!

Nettle: Vitamin Dose On Your Dinner Table, in a Cup of Tea & in Bathroom

It's hard to get rid of them where they grow, you can't easily pick them, nor they have beautiful flowers, yet there is something to love them for: the health benefits they give. 

My mom used to make nettle soup early on spring when nothing is out of the ground yet, except little nettle heads, and this still is my favorite soup - always the first vitamin boost in spring I get from nettles.They are natural vitamin packages where you can find vitamins K and B2, iron, proteins, potassium, ascorbic acid, carotin, lecithin, histamine and others, and besides that this combination of good things into nettles has antimicrobial activity.

Get to know 

Urtica Dioica

Names: common nettle, stinging nettle

Where to find? Naturally grows in Europe, North America, Asia and some northern parts in Africa. They grow in forests and gardens, you can find them in backyards and around farmsteads. 

How to harvest? If you want to use fresh, raw nettles in your food, the best time for harvesting them is early on spring when they are almost the first plants that get out of the ground after the snow melts. The best time to harvest leaves or tops of nettles is when the plant is in flowers - from June to October (depending on the area, weather and other factors).You can use fresh nettles getting them right from the wilderness on your plate, you can keep them frozen in a cold storage or dry them. Use gloves and scissors to collect nettles, because even young nettles are stinging. 

What for?

• Nettles are among the greatest blood cleansers, they also help to get rid of physical weakness, tiredness, avitaminosis, they are stimulant and restorative remedies. 
• They are used to strengthen hair and treat dandruff. 
• In folk medicine nettles are well known for treating rheumatism, arthritis, hemorrhage, kidney disorders, internal bleeding, joint pain  and cough. 
• Due to high iron content nettles are also recommended to pregnant women. It's also known to increase fertility in both genders and increase the amount of milk in breastfeeding women.
• And one more thing: this is one of the top herbs to use for weight loss!

How to use?

• Fresh baby nettles make great vitamin tea with deep green color for spring avitaminosis and blood cleansing. You can use also dried herbs for making tea.
• Nettle extracts and infusions can be added to bath water to tone up the entire body, it can also be added to shampoos or simply hair rinsing water to strengthen hair and make it more glossy or applied on skin to relieve joint and muscle pain. 
• Fresh (or frozen) nettle leaves are good for salad (especially baby nettles), soups and stews. If you want to cut or add fresh nettles to salad, pour hot water over them to make them gentle and remove virulence.
• You can also make healthy, vitamin packed puree and pesto from nettle leaves.

Want to know how to harvest and store stinging nettle and other wild herbs? Check this article: Guide To Harvesting Wild Herbs