The Hair & Skin DIY Ingredient You Need To Try

I'm not much of a DIY-er. Sure, I love the idea, and I'm always looking up different recipes and cheap-and-easy ways to do a mask or a peel at home with natural ingredients. But I always run into two different problems when I actually go to, well, do it myself. The first is cleanup. Yes I know it's, like, waaay cheaper to make that hydrating face mask in my kitchen than to go buy the damn thing, but let's get real: that's at least one more utensil and one more mixing bowl that I would have to wash if I were to make the mask myself. Please.

And then there's the problem of the ingredient list. They always call for something like bananas or yogurt or avocado. Does it pain me to mash up some banana for the purpose of spreading it on my face and not eating it? Yes. Does it pain me to spoon some yogurt into a bowl and then not add granola and blueberries and eat it? Hell yes. But I PHYSICALLY CANNOT open an avocado and then not eat it. Seriously. It's probably against some code of humanity to not eat avocado when it is presented to you anyway. And that's a code I don't want to break.

So I need DIY recipes that involve ingredients that I won't miss if it's on my face or in my hair instead of in my mouth, that are also easy to clean. Enter, salt. Salt is not an ingredient that is too appetizing on its own, it's good for both skin and hair, and treatments made with it are all quite simple. Here are nine ways salt can be used to help with your skin and hair woes:

1. Alleviate Dry Skin

Mix one cup of sea salt into a bath to relieve dry, itchy skin. The healing and moisturizing properties found in salt can even help treat eczema and psoriasis.

2. Heal Acne

So maybe it never ends, but at least it can be helped. Try a mask mixing one part sea salt to two parts honey. Both of these ingredients work to calm breakouts for clearer-looking skin.

3. Exfoliate

Mix one teaspoon of salt with one teaspoon of olive oil and massage into skin. This will remove dead skin without stripping moisture.

4. Control Oil

Add one teaspoon of salt to a spray bottle of lukewarm water. Spray this on your face, and blot it dry to reduce oiliness.

5. De-Puff Eyes

Add one teaspoon of salt to a cup or two of hot water. Soak a couple of cotton pads in the solution and apply them to closed eyes.

6. Treat Dandruff

Massage sea salt into dry hair before washing. This will help loosen dead skin cells and allow treatments to better penetrate.

7. Soften Hair

Mix one teaspoon of sea salt with conditioner and apply from mid-shaft to ends. Leave in for 5-10 minutes and then wash out. Use this treatment sparingly, though. While occasional use of salt in hair will help make it soft and shiny, overuse can actually make it dry and damaged.

8. Give Hair Volume

Nah, it's salt. Mix equal parts Epsom salt and conditioner and apply it to your roots. Leave in for 10-20 minutes and then wash out. Again, use this treatment sparingly as excess use can make hair dry and damaged.

9. Get Beachy Waves

Dissolve two teaspoons of sea salt into a spray bottle of hot water. Add one teaspoon coconut oil and one teaspoon hair gel. Then just shake and spray.

Images: Chris Goldberg/Flickr; Giphy (9)