Hair Care-Naturally!

I used to have really thick hair in childhood when all my mother did was put a lot of oil on my head and use shikakai soap to wash it off every alternate day. But then I grew up,got in the fashion world of ponytails, no oiling, using all the big shampoo brands in the market and today I have got hardly 1/4th of my original hair left on my head :( My mother on the other hand still has thick,long hair till her waist! She STILL does not use a single shampoo available in the market.

1. Oiling is the savior of our hair. My mom oils her hair every night with coconut oil and my grandmother oils with Amla hair oil. Every Night! They do not care if their pillows get stained. They massage it vigorously and go to sleep peacefully.
2. For washing off excess oil,both of them use only natural concoctions involving amla, shikakai, reetha. Nothing else. Curd is used as the base and amla/ shikakai/ reetha powder is mixed, a thick paste is made, applied all over the hair, let it seep in for 2 hours and then washed off. Yes it takes about 3 hours altogether and a big mess is created in bathroom too,but again my mother does not care. She does this religiously 3 times a week and still has completely black,naturally thick head of hair.
3. Hibiscus flower and aloe vera gel are very important additions to my mother's hair care routine once a week. She would pluck flowers and then crush them and make a fine powder,mix with aloe vera gel and loads of curd and applies on hair. Then washes off after 2 hours,again it creates a big mess and hibiscus is very difficult to remove also as it becomes very sticky. But after that hair becomes so soft,no conditioner or hair spa in this world can achieve that!