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In
January and February of 2004, we traveled to the village of Nasia,
near Tamale, in the Northern Region of Ghana. There, we studied
the hand processing of shea butter, a natural oil used for
cosmetic and food purposes in the Savannah areas of West Africa.
Because it is solid at room temperature, this natural nut oil has
acquired the moniker of shea "butter". Sandy and I traveled
extensively through the nearby country of Guinea, teaching and
studying the uses and production of shea butter. We visited 11
villages in our journeys, none made shea butter of the quality and
consistency that we found in Nasia. We import shea butter
exclusively from Nasia Village.
The
Savannahs of Africa are harsh and dry. Water is scarce, and there
is only one rainy growing season. Villagers who used shea butter
as a daily skin application had smooth, wrinkle free skin well
into their 70's. Those who did not, well, it was very obvious.
Based on what we saw in two countries, villagers who use raw, wild
crafted shea butter on their skin every day looked 20 years
younger than their counterparts who did not. They also had fewer
skin fungus infections and the scaly "dermatose", so common in
that part of the world (especially in non soap making villages).
Raw,
organic, wild crafted shea butter differs dramatically from the
hexane solvent refined product commonly sold throughout the United
States and Europe. Solvent refining strips the shea butter of it's
natural vitamins and healing properties. Carotene and alantoin are
just two of the healing factors found in natural shea butter (and
missing from solvent refined mass market products). Only properly
made, raw shea butter is suitable for proper use as a hydrolyzing
skin treatment.
Our
soapmaker Steve Bench has a psoriasis condition we use to test
natural products on. We have never seen the kind of results he is
getting from the daily application of shea butter to his
irritation. Formerly, the best results were obtained from organic
aloe. The difference in the speed of healing with shea butter is
dramatic by comparison.
We
recommend applying shea butter at night, so it has time to soak
into the skin. Use as lip balm, ointment, salve base, soap
additive, bug repelling candle base (so we were told - you will
have to test this one for yourself), and personal lubricant.
Useful for burns, all dry and irritated skin conditions (except
for Poison Ivy, Oak etc., which contain irritating oils that need
to be removed with Tea Tree Castile Liquid Soap). Recommended for
wrinkle smoothing and prevention, and for the treatment of sun
damaged skin. |
