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Thumbs up for shea butter as a scalp moisturizer

In my ongoing search for a scalp moisturizer, I have a new favorite: shea butter.

I had heard about shea butter about for years. I hadn’t tried it because it cost a lot and seemed a kooky natural product of dubious merit and uncertain quality control. But dry skin and eczema on my scalp is now my primary problem. For several months I have been coating my head with Aveeno Daily Moisturizing lotion and feeling like I’m wearing a rubber bathing cap all day. It works OK but leaves something to be desired as a hair product. So I was up for trying new things.

Then, I found a jar of shea butter just sitting around on my four-year-old daughter’s dresser. She has eczema and my wife must have bought the shea butter and tried it out without me knowing. (Cue the eye-rolling on my wife’s part.) Anyway, the stuff was no longer in use, she informed me, so, having already paid for it, I was free to try it out.

The brand was True Blue Spa Too Shea, if you’re interested. $ 17.50 for 3.5 oz.

It goes on like actual butter–it’s hard at first, but you take a bit in your fingers and it warms up and melts a bit. Then you rub it on your scalp and once it’s on, it stays melted.

It works for me because I buzz my head with a 1/2 inch clipper attachment. So I am not wasting too much of it on my actual hair.

The feeling is a little greasy but not terrible. Plus shea butter is actually used as a hair product. Would you believe I had a compliment on my hair earlier this week? The first in a very long time.

I looked into shea butter. It comes from the nuts of the shea tree in west and central Africa. It’s a complex fat and apparently there is a wide range in quality. Someone named Samuel Hunter recently created the American Shea Butter Institute, which could well be a one-man operation for all I could determine, to certify various grades of shea butter depending on their oil content, melting profile, impurities and “rancidity values.” Shea butter is edible, and therefore goes bad like real butter. (But no mention is made of refrigeration.)

I can’t recommend one type or brand of shea butter to use, because it’s not clear what would make one better than another. You just wouldn’t want it to be rancid, evidently.

I don’t search out natural products, because I don’t think they’re necessarily any better than manufactured moisturizers and so on, but shea butter is the best solution I’ve found so far for moisturizing my scalp.
End Eczema

Christmas bread & butter pudding low fodmap

Yes it’s still November and thoughts are turning to Christmas🎄. I apologize now 😃 for posting this recipe but you do need to be planning and perhaps trialing recipes before the big day so here is one for consideration. Bread and butter pudding is not one of my favourite dishes as I have nightmarish visions of being offered this at school and school lunches were not to my liking. However it is a great option for a lighter pudding on Christmas day when spiced or perhaps thanksgiving if you are in the USA. If you can’t get Schar brioche rolls in the USA gluten free croissants will also be suitable. It is very easy to make and contains low fodmap ingredients, so should be a safe option for those of you following a low fodmap diet.

Ingredients

1 pack of Schar* brioche rolls (gluten & wheat free)

500mls of lactose free milk

3 eggs and one egg yolk

50g pecan nuts

1/4 teaspoon of allspice and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 tablespoons of 100% maple syrup

1 tablespoon of raisins

butter or spread

Dark brown sugar for sprinkling on the top

Method

Slice the brioche rolls length-ways

Chop the pecan nuts reasonably finely

Measure the lactose free milk and add the eggs, maple syrup and spices – mix well

Line the dish with butter and spread butter thinly on both sides of the bread.

Dip each slice into the chopped nuts to coat them.

Line the bread into the dish.

Pour in the milk mixture, then scatter the raisins and sugar on the top and grate over nutmeg.

Cook in the centre of an oven at gas mark 5 temperature 190 deg.C after 30 minutes check and if the edges of the bread or sultanas look a little over done cover with foil for the last 10 minutes. Enjoy!!

*Schar brioche rolls were purchased for this recipe.

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