For about three years, I’ve been vying hard for my hair goals. I want long, icy, Elsa hair that falls to my waist- a target that I’ve tried to accomplish through various coloring treatments while also skipping haircuts. However, somewhere along the way, I forgot about the importance of keeping my strands healthy. Never having had issues with dry, frazzled hair before, it took the appearance of abhorrent split ends to make me realize that my hair was not retaining the intrinsic and natural health that I had enjoyed before I started coloring it and growing it out.
Of course, I went and cut off a solid two inches- but I still am nowhere near the hair-commercial-esque softness and shine that I would prefer. I started doing research on how to keep my hair healthy (thanks TikTok) and specific treatments that would work for my hair type. After doing a hair porosity test by putting a strand of hair into a glass of water, I came to the conclusion that I have high porosity hair, which means that my hair is highly absorbent and would benefit from deep moisturization and as much protein as possible. Here’s where the egg comes in.
Hair is made up of a protein called keratin, and adequate protein intake is a crucial element for your body to be able to grow strong, healthy hair. However, topical application of protein to hair is also found to help restore overall hair structure. While there is no conclusive research that raw eggs are actually beneficial to hair strength, structure, or texture, it’s been a common element in hair masks for ages. While the egg white contains mainly protein, the egg yolk is mostly fat, which is also considered helpful for enhancing softness, moisturizing, and promoting new growth. It’s because of this, and because my mom has been recommending it to me my whole life, that I set out to try it.
I whisked two eggs together and simply put them into my hair after getting it damp in the shower. I used cold water, having read a few horror stories in which the egg started scrambling in some people’s hair. This part was kind of miserable, both because of the cold water and because I’m a little squeamish about raw egg. Once it settled into my hair (my hair is like a sponge) it felt surprisingly stiff, though the smell wasn’t very strong. Most of the recommendations I found said to leave the egg on for about 20 minutes, but I decided to rinse it out after 5 since this was very experimental. I then shampooed and conditioned as normal, and waited to see results.
My hair seemed to dry faster than usual after my shower, which was a good sign to me (more saturation = quicker drying.) Once it was dry, I was very impressed with the results. My hair felt a little bit thicker and was harder to brush out than usual, but it had amazing volume and looked pretty shiny. It didn’t feel weighted or coated at all, which I was a little worried about.
My final assessment: I would definitely endure the cold, slimy, egg mask again for the type of result that I received. I plan on leaving it in longer next time, though I’m not sure exactly how necessary that would be. This at-home hack had a similar or better outcome than any of the commercial hair masks I’ve tried, making me a new believer in DIY hair remedies.