Irritated Skin Treatment

This morning, I was once again having some computer troubles so while I was waiting for that to resolve, I decided it was time to make the irritated skin treatment. I had previously written down the instructions and gathered all the ingredients together. I poured the Yellow Dock and Burdock in the pan and then put 2 oz of water over it, quickly realizing that there was no way that was going to work. I had read the directions wrong and then poured the appropriate amount of water in and heat up the brew, stirring occasionally while it simmered. A while back, I used to make decoctions with TCM roots and herbs provided by a trusted practitioner, we used to use one cup of water to one ounce of herbs/roots and boil it down. I remembered that process, how the herbs smelled, tasted, how I used to pour honey in it to try and drink it down as fast as possible and how even though when I first started that brew I hated it, eventually I ended up craving it because I knew it was good for me. These docks roots smelled wonderful while they were simmering on my stove.

The biggest challenge I have with decoctions is knowing when it is finished, when there is enough of the water cooked out of it to have the right amount.

After I decided it was done, I poured it out into my glass measuring cup that was lined with a coffee filter, smashing the roots left over in the pan to get all the fluids out. There was about one cup/8 ozs of decoction.

 I placed the Plantain into my infuser set in a pint jar. Then I poured the decoction over the Plantain and then topped it off with hot water. I let it sit for longer than the instructions called for, probably around 2 hours. The instructions I have followed for making infusions has been one ounce herb to one quart water and sit for 4 hours, so these instructions are different than what I am used to.

I took the finished infusion and put a lid on it after removing all the herbs and disposing of them in the worm composter. The jar is in the fridge. I plan on using it as a hair rinse. I have dread locks and tightened them this morning so my scalp is pretty sore and irritated. My husband also has a dandruff problem that seems to get no where. We have used an antiseptic rinse on it before that seemed to help but it didn’t fully go away. He has used over the counter shampoos, like T-Gel (which the active ingredient in it is coal tar, seriously, why on Earth do people do that?) and tea tree shampoos. So I will update my post later this week with the results of using it on our heads. I think I will warm it up and dilute it a little to make sure we get coverage. 

Here is the recipe but on step one, it should say 2 pints water added to the 2 oz of herbs....