Natural Health & Beauty Recipes: How to Use Stinging Nettles for Healthy Hair, Skin & Nails
– by Heather Gardner
With most things in life, pleasure is partnered with pain and seldom do we have one without the other. Matters of love, life and wild edibles are no different when it comes to pain, and it is no surprise that one of the most nutritious, wild, superfood heroes of the wild world comes fully loaded and ready to sting us into retreat. Luckily, wild wellness warriors will not be defeated in their quest for nutritious morsels to nibble on.
So with scissors, gloves and dock leaves to the ready we brave the briar patch in search of the pleasures of the stinging nettle.
Nettle Nutrition
According to Sergei Boutenko, Wild Edible expert, nettles are one of natures most nutritious wild foods, they are rich in iron, silica, calcium, vitamins A, D & K. Nettles soothe and prevent hay fever and allergies. Regulates blood sugar and improves circulation. Nettles also help rheumatism and arthritis; in many cultures people would thrash themselves with nettles to help these conditions. Eating them is said to be helpful for stiff muscles after exercise.
Stinging nettles rich in silica, strengthens the hair, skin & nails making it perfect for beauty seekers and the reason why on the Body Enlightenment Beauty program, health heroines are advised to start their day with a nettle infusion. There has been a lot of talk in the forum of using it as a beauty potion and hair helper. Another endearing property beloved of wild beauties is that it has long been used as a spring detox, to help clear out the excesses of winter and get ready for the summer ahead.
Nettles are abundant in iron as well as the chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that helps to build and replenish our blood as well as alkalize and detoxify our bodies. It also contains, manganese, which helps in the absorption of iron, as well as magnesium and potassium, which helps the muscles and heart function.
Picking & Processing Nettles
The best way not to get stung by stinging nettles, is to wear gloves when picking them, or simply snip them into a container (your blender jug for example) with the help of a scissors. They are at their best to eat when young and light green, before they grow tall and start to flower. Pick the top part, not just the leaves; the stem is also good to eat. If you do get stung, don’t worry its good for you, but if you want to ease the pain either apply a crushed dock leaf or some nettle juice. To eat them safely either process them in a blender or boil them.
1. Recipe for Nettle Infusion
According to Susun Weed, a herbal infusion is a large amount of herb brewed for a long amount of time. Drinking an infusion will give you more health benefits than just having the occasional tisane. Nettle infusion is good for everyone to drink daily but particularly good for women who are menstruating, to replace iron. During pregnancy and breastfeeding for its nourishing minerals and effect on promoting milk production.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of dried herb, a big bunch of fresh or 4 nettle teabags
- 1 quart / 1 litre of water.
Directions:
Pour the boiled and slightly cooled water over the herb in a teapot or thick glass jar (be careful that it doesn’t shatter with boiling water), put the lid on and allow to steep for 4-10 hours or overnight.
The following day strain the liquid from the water. You should have a nutrient dense, super elixir beverage. Try to drink this during the course of the day or at least 2-4 cups. It may start to spoil after 36 hrs depending on the room temperature. It can be served chilled or reheated.
You can try adding in other nutritious healing herbs. Horsetail works well with nettle for its beautifying silica rich content, red raspberry is mineral rich, as is oatstraw, a few sprigs of mint can lift the flavour and aid digestion. If you find it an unusual taste at first then a spoonful of honey may well make the medicine go down, and in no time you will start to love it. If you feel brave you could add instead a pinch of salt or spoon of miso.
If messing about with all those jars of herbs and reheating doesn’t appeal to the time stretched wellness warrior well don’t fear! Another option is to just pop your nettle tea bags or loose herb (either loose or in a little metal ball tea strainer), into a thermos flask. Top it up to the brim with boiling water, pop on the lid. If you do this last thing at night and keep it by your bed, you will wake up and enjoy your hot potent potion from the comfort of your bed, a perfect solution for co-sleeping breastfeeding mums.
If you can’t finish it in one day, or it starts to spoil then you can use the infusion as a great hair rinse, wonderful for adding shine, thickening, strengthening, nourishing and reducing dandruff. Or even give your plants a boost by watering them with it.
2. Nettle, Carrot & Apple Juice
Juicing nettles is a great way to get a daily dose of nutrition for free without trying to grow greens in trays. Taking a daily nettle juice for 30 days is a great spring cleanse. You can juice it on its own in little shots or add fruits and vegetables.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of nettles
- 4 carrots
- 2 apples
Directions:
Run the nettles through the juicer, then the carrots and apples.
3. Wild Blender Juice
Collect wild edibles, such as nettles, cleavers, chickweed, and dandelion leaves. Add any of the following–cucumber, celery, apple, lemon or lime pips removed. Clean the greens if necessary and pack into your blender jug filling it to about half. Add in enough fresh spring water to cover or more as you wish and blend until everything is completely broken down. I like to make a pot of fresh herbal infusion such as spearmint from the garden to add as the liquid to this juice for a fresh flavour. Strain through a nut milk bag and serve.
Tips & Tricks
If you would like to make it sweeter and creamier, here’s a little trick. Rinse out the blender jug and put ¼ – ½ a melon flesh into the jug, blend it without adding any water, until it’s a creamy liquid, then stir this into the strained wild juice…delicious (not recommended if you’re avoiding fruit or food combining).
If you’re finding this juice to be too bitter for you then try adding a few drops of stevia or skip the dandelion leaves. The bigger and older the dandelion leaf the more bitter it will be so try switching to young small ones. If you want to give this to your little ones, then add less greens, no lemon and more apples and blend with plenty of water, strain well and add it to a stainless steel beaker that stops them from seeing the colour, hopefully they will love it! If not introduce them to Popeye!
4. Green Nettle Smoothie
Nettles are great to add to smoothies, just snip some nettle tops directly into the jug and add the other ingredients.
Ingredients:
- A few handfuls of nettle leaves
- A mango
- 1 banana
- 2-3 cups of water
- If you want it not to be green add ½ cup of fresh or frozen berries.
Directions:
Blend and enjoy!
5. Nettle Lemonade
Ingredients:
- ¼ – ½ a jug of nettle tops
- 2-4 apples
- Juice of 1 lemon or lime (be careful not to let the pips/seeds into the jug, they taste very bitter)
- A few spoons of your sweetener of choice
- A small pinch of salt if you like.
Directions:
Take your blender jug for a walk and using a scissors snip the tops of nettle plants until your jug. Add all the ingredients to the blender. Fill the jug up with fresh spring water. Most important part – make sure to put the lid on! Blend until completely broken down and strain through a nut milk bag, you can serve as is, or chilled with some ice, a straw and a cocktail umbrella!
6. Nettle OJ
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of orange juice (pineapple is nice too)
- 1 cup of fresh nettle leaves
Directions:
Blend until fully broken down and drink. If you want to make more of a meal of it, add in a banana, mango, pear or apple.
To learn more about how to use wild edibles as part of your natural beauty care practice, register today for an upcoming version of our 30-Day Natural Beauty Makeover. For a complete 4-season dive into wild edible eating and living, check out our Women’s Wellness University program–An Introduction to Wild Edibles and Sustainable Living
About Heather Gardner
Heather is a Raw Food and Kundalini Yoga Teacher. A lifelong 3rd generation vegetarian she began learning about herbs and wild foods at a young age from her herbalist mother while growing up on a remote mountainside in Ireland. Due to numerous health challenges at a young age, she began delving into the world of foraging, potion making, herbs, nutrition, and raw & living foods as a teenager searching for solutions. At 20 while studying Natural Nutrition she began learning and experimenting with the Raw Lifestyle, and at 27 she began to move onto a raw diet and has transitioned to a balanced high raw diet over time. She is qualified in many healing modalities and has over 10 years experience as a Natural Remedies, Health & Beauty manager and Brand manager within the UK Natural Products industry, working to help people to achieve better health naturally. Now she lives in the west of Ireland, devising raw recipes, making beauty potions, foraging, writing, teaching and running her business www.consciousearthcompany.com as well as running after her feisty little toddler! Connect with Heather on Facebook here.