🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Moisturizing and fragrant hair refers to traditional remedies that make hair glossy and aromatic. Used for lifeless, dry, brittle, dull hair. Mechanisms: dispel wind-heat, fragrance dispersion, moisturization, nourish liver and kidneys, tonify qi and blood. Main remedies: [Formula One] Apricot kernels, black sesame seeds as needed. Crush both, filter juice with water. Use to wash hair—treats dry, lackluster hair. [Formula Two] Small oil, osmanthus flowers, honeysuckle, plum blossoms, white rose, purple rose, rose, daylily flowers 50 grams each. Gather flowers seasonally, place in oil, change every 3 days, each flower soaked for half a month, extract intensely fragrant oil, store in porcelain, heat slowly. Melt wax first, adjust consistency as needed, apply to hair. Treats dry, brittle hair. [Formula Three] Poria, poria cocos, alisma, white atractylodes, cassia bark—equal parts. Powder all, sprinkle on hair. Treats dry, knotted hair. [Formula Four] Raw hemp oil 150 grams, raw iron (crushed) 900 grams, dried mulberry fruit, sour pomegranate flowers, chebulic myrobalan peel, early-lily grass, ligusticum, litsea, white spikenard, nitrate bean, dogwood root, myrobalan 30 grams each, fine cinnamon, angelica 15 grams each. Chop herbs finely, place raw iron inside cotton cloth, immerse in oil, soak for 49 days. Use regularly by combing hair—highly effective, makes hair black, shiny, and lustrous. [Formula Five] Half-burned sheep manure, half-burned half-dried stone moss 75 grams each, iron powder, locust gum 60 grams each, walnut meat 300 grams. Sieve first three ingredients into powder, mash last two into a ball, pack tightly into a small-mouthed bottle. Make a small round cake from locust seeds, poke several holes, cover bottle mouth. Place another empty bottle (capable of fitting over the first) upside-down below, then burn sheep manure overnight. Let cool, open—clear oil collects in lower bottle. Mix this oil with the first three powdered ingredients. Apply daily to scalp. Treats dry, lackluster hair. [Formula Six] Green sandalwood, angelica, litsea, fragrant sandalwood, eupatorium—equal parts. Wrap in cloth, soak in wine overnight, next evening place in oil, fry. Third evening add vinegar, adjust hardness, quickly fry, add a little white lead and rouge, then gently fry until sticky. Strain, form into tablets. Apply to hair—treats dull hair. [Formula Seven] One pig gallbladder. Extract juice, dilute in water, wash hair with it. Clears heat, dispels wind, moisturizes and brightens hair—after washing, hair naturally shines like lacquer. [Formula Eight] Unlimited quantity of hemp seeds. Crush, steam hot, extract juice, repeatedly wash hair with juice. Makes hair soft and lustrous. If using pressed hemp oil directly, effect is even better. [Formula Nine] Astragalus, apricot kernel, angelica, white peony, angelica, licorice, fragrant sandalwood, agastache, white sandalwood, litsea, white atractylodes, white peony, white spikenard 30 grams each, brain musk 1.5 grams. Soak all herbs in 1,500 ml fragrant oil for 5–7 days, simmer in silver stone vessel until golden yellow, filter through cloth, add 120 grams yellow wax, re-cook into ointment, finally add brain musk, continuously stir with willow brush until cooled. Apply externally to hair—moisturizes hair. [Formula Ten] Wheat bran 75 grams, pinellia 30 grams, agarwood powder 15 grams, ginger 30 grams. Wash pinellia seven times until smooth, slice, grate ginger with peel, boil with herbs for 2–3 boils, filter through fine silk, take clear liquid, add a little borneol and musk, mix well, use to wash hair. Treats dry, brittle beard and hair, promotes moisture and growth. Agarwood and musk can be replaced with patchouli and jasmine. [Formula Eleven] Ginseng 15 grams, cardamom, agarwood, sandalwood, locust pods, raw rehmannia (wine-washed), mulberry, cooked rehmannia 15 grams each, yam (peeled), poria, Sichuan pepper (remove eyes), star anise (wine-washed), wolfberry, early-lily grass, licorice, atractylodes (soaked in rice water for 3 days, remove skin, salt-roasted) 50 grams each, polygonum multiflorum (steamed seven times with black beans, cut with bamboo knife, remove tips, avoid iron contact) 200 grams. Powder all herbs, mix with honey into pills the size of chestnuts, take with salted wine, avoid radishes. This formula warms kidney, strengthens essence, tonifies spleen and kidney, neither too dry nor too greasy, neither cold nor heavy—not only darkens beard and moisturizes hair but also preserves vital energy, prolongs life.<Hair Care>[Formula Twelve] Hemp leaf. Soak in boiling water for several hours, then wash hair. Clears wind, moisturizes hair, smooths skin, enriches blood color. [Formula Thirteen] Honey friend flower. Infuse oil, apply to hair. Fully moisturizes and gives shine. [Formula Fourteen] Mulberry leaf, mulberry fruit 30 grams each, black sesame 120 grams, walnut meat 60 grams. Dry and powder mulberry leaf and fruit, mix with sesame and walnut, blend into paste, add honey, roll into pills weighing 10 grams each. Take one pill morning and night. Nourishes kidney, moisturizes hair—used for dry, lusterless, sparse, white hair. [Formula Fifteen] Sweetgrass, three-nut, schizonepeta, ligusticum, sandalwood, fine cinnamon, agarwood, fangfeng, Sichuan pepper, camphor 30 grams each, angelica, talc, fragrant litsea, fragrant safflower 60 grams each. Powder all, sprinkle into hair. Gives hair a pleasant fragrance. [Formula Sixteen] Osmanthus flowers (picked half-open in early morning, stems and stalks removed), fragrant oil as needed. Mix evenly, store in ceramic jar, seal with oil paper, steam in pot for about 2 hours, keep in dry place. After 10 months, pour out. Apply to hair—makes hair fragrant. [Formula Seventeen] Chicken grass. Boil juice or make ash leach (burn chicken grass to ash, wrap in cloth, squeeze in clean water repeatedly to extract medicinal components), use liquid to wash hair. Has fragrant hair effect. [Formula Eighteen] Litsea 30 grams, sesame oil 1,500 grams. Soak herbs in oil, steam for half a day. Use oil to coat hair—fragrant hair. [Formula Nineteen] Sesame oil 1,000 grams, pine tar (separate) 60 grams, chebulic myrobalan peel 45 grams, myrobalan 6 grams, real blue vitriol 3 grams, decoction of Chinese herbs 90 grams, gallnut, sour pomegranate peel, early-lily grass 15 grams each, pig gallbladder (separate) 2. Coarsely chop herbs, first boil sesame oil until bubbling, then add herb powder, fry together briefly, pour oil into jar. Warm slightly, add pine tar, stir, gradually add pig gallbladder, stir until very cold. Then add: litsea, agastache leaf, white angelica, fragrant cedar 9 grams each, musk 3 grams. Stir well, seal with thick paper, stir once in morning, noon, and evening daily, reseal. After 10 days, wash hair clean at night, apply to dry hair in the morning. After use, within days, hair becomes fragrant, smooth, shiny, oily, resists dust, and doesn’t need washing again.<Hair Care>