In the winter of 2006, I took a relief trip to New Orleans to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. One of the girls on the trip was stung by a mosquito on her eyelid and her eye swelled shut. One of the other volunteers gave her this clay to put on the bite and within hours her eye was back to normal. I was amazed by this clay and its ability to remove the toxins and impurities from my friend's skin, and I wanted to know where I could get some. 
Fast forward three years, and I've finally got my hands on some of this *amazing* clay. I have had troubled, acne prone skin since the onset of puberty, and I've been looking since then for some miraculous product to clear up my skin. I was in my local Whole Foods store a few months ago when I stubbled across this
and I knew it had to be the clay that reduced my friends baseball sized eye back to its normal proportions. So, I snatched it up and I've been using this brand of bentonite clay as a weekly mask for a couple of months now, and my skin has never been clearer. I also use it as an overnight spot treatment when I get a blemish, and usually wake up with said blemish noticeably smaller. I mix a few spoonfuls of clay in a bowl with some apple cider vinegar and water to about the consistency of loose pancake batter, rub it into my face, layer it on, and let it dry for about 20 minutes. When left to dry on your face, the mask gets tight and your skin really does pulsate, but in a nice way. To remove, I rinse it off with warm water and rub on my moisturizer of choice. Since it's winter, I have been following up my water based moisturizer with some jojoba, coconut or castor oil, especially on the drier patches of my skin.
I had seen some really great results on my skin using this product, but I was still skeptical when I saw Curly Nikki and other natural hair bloggers using it in their hair. Still, I decided to give it a chance, and last Saturday I used this special clay on my hair. I pretreated my hair the night before with a mix of almond, coconut, and castor oils and some Suave Naturals coconut conditioner. I braided my hair in two french braids, covered it with a plastic cap and a pair of pantyhose, and went to bed. The next day I unbraided my hair, rinsed it out, and divided it into four parts. I mixed up my clay with water, honey, and oils and applied it to each of my sections using my hands and occasionally dipping my hair into the bowl of clay. I covered my hair with a plastic cap and waited about 30 minutes. I rinsed my hair out really well, co-washed with the Suave, and conditioned using Organix Coconut Milk conditioner. My hair was super smooth, tangle free, and had amazing, great coil definition. A lot of the bloggers have said that the clay left their hair feeling dry which I did not find to be the case, though my hair did feel a bit weird before I conditioned it.
The short story is, I'll definitely be including this clay in my routine as a treatment every other week.
Keep it happy and healthy 'til next time,
~t
Very informative - thanks for posting. I'm really going to have to try adding the ACV to my clay for my face and hair :o)
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