6 Amazing DIY Hair Treatments Using Latin Ingredients

November 2, 2015

The constant heat styling and chemical treatments my hair undergoes (highlights, blowdrying once a week, and flat-ironing pretty much everyday) dries out my hair big time and with the cold, winter-y weather approaching, my strands are sure to brittle up…and break off! To get my hair back in top-notch shiny, smooth shape, I use these Latin ingredients to create masks and treatments that seriously transform my dry, damaged hair into shiny, smooth locks.

These natural ingredients, like avocado and papaya, are full of nutrients and other moisturizing ingredients that help nourish my hair and the best part: They’re easily found in your fridge or pantry. So whether your hair is breaking off because it’s so brittle, dull-looking because the color is fading, or lacking shine because of heat styling (like me!), there’s a treatment for every hair issue here. Check out a few of my fave at-home hair treatments to get your pelo looking amazing again!

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6 Amazing DIY Hair Treatments Using Latin Foods

Coffee Scrub

A little cafecito for your hair will do wonders for a natural brunette's rich color. The coffee grounds aren't only good as a great exfoliant for your scalp, but the deep espresso tone it leaves behind will give your hair a shiny jolt of color that is full of dimension.

Photo: Into The Gloss

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Papaya Honey Hair Mask

Thanks to it's nutrients, vitamins, minerals and enzymes, this yummy fruit helps remove gunky product build up from your hair, helping to give your pelo crazy shine.

Photo: Daily Curlz

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Avocado Hair Mask

If you have dry, frizzy pelo, using avocado in your hair is a moisturizing lifesaver! Its natural oils and proteins will smooth and moisturize even the most stubborn greñas.

Photo: Hello Natural

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Sugar Scrub

If you only wash your hair once a week, like I do, then you know how oily, flaky and clogged your scalp gets by day 5. This sugar scrub helps remove excess oil and gently removes dead skin cells so your style lasts a full week!

Photo: Love Natural Sunshine

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Banana & Olive Oil Treatment

Bananas are rich in potassium and natural oils and when used on your hair, can help strengthen strands and minimize breakage. Combine it with aceite de oliva and you've got a seriously deep hair conditioning treatment that nourishes hair, leaving it soft, smooth and shiny!

Photo: Hello Natural

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Coconut Oil Treatment

A secret ingredients in my mother's home country of the Dominican Republic, coconut oil is a lightweight oil that contains fatty acids to help restore shine to dry, damaged hair without ever weighing it down.

Photo: Hello Natural

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Yesenia Almonte is an experienced Editorial Beauty Director in New York City. She is widely recognized for her expertise in developing unique beauty content for a variety of top—selling publications that span a broad range of multi-media platforms. Yesenia has the ability to conceive, construct and transform beauty trends into personalized creative recommendations for diverse markets. She has comprehensive knowledge of the teen and Hispanic markets and has created a number of revenue-generating editorial packages across different mediums. Throughout her career, she has initiated collaborations with some of the foremost innovators in the creative industry, including Pat McGrath, Kenneth Willardt, Ondrea Barbe, Sarah Silver, Serge Normant, Orlando Pita and Gucci Westman.

Yesenia was most recently the Beauty Director of Seventeen. During her tenure at the magazine, she entirely redeveloped the magazine’s beauty editorial and direction by expanding and diversifying its content through creative and innovative features and looks, while also providing increased visibility to a broad range of beauty brands. In addition to overseeing the beauty content across all of Seventeen’s platforms, including seventeen.com and misquincemag.com, she created the massive multi—platform beauty franchise Seventeen’s Beauty Smarties, an initiative whereby real girl YouTube beauty vloggers create exclusive looks for the magazine and online videos. Since it’s inception, the Beauty Smarties franchise became a successful YouTube show, The Seventeen Beauty Smarties Showdown and became the backbone to the launch of Seventeen’s multichannel network on YouTube in partnership with AwesomenessTV. Yesenia edited Seventeen’s Ultimate Guide to Beauty, an in-depth how-to guide, and helped develop Seventeen’s extensive digital tool, the Seventeen Shopping Insider app. In an effort to reach readers everywhere, Yesenia also created customized beauty specials targeting the Latina and African American teen market, which have resulted in record-breaking advertising revenue for the magazine.

Prior to joining Seventeen, Yesenia served as Beauty Director of Latina Magazine, where she curated the beauty content for the Hispanic woman via the magazine and website. At Latina, she also developed Latina Beauty, a Walmart-only special interest publication for the Hispanic woman.