Honey On Your Face and Hair – Benefits and DIY Recipes

When you hear the word “honey,” you imagine something tasty, sweet, and healthy. Another name for honey is “nature’s gold,” which has numerous benefits. Honey is one of the oldest skincare ingredients currently in use, as testified by many traditional uses in different countries. In East Asia, Japanese women are thought to maintain their hands devoid of wrinkles through the daily use of honey.

This golden nectar has been cherished for centuries for its unparalleled benefits for skin and hair. According to Chinese medicine, honey prevents scars, removes discolouration and freckles, and improves the general appearance of skin. In Arab medicine, honey is used for fungal infections of the skin, while in Burkina Faso, it is used as a skin-cleansing agent by labourers, probably due to its bactericidal and sterilizing properties.

Not only is honey great for the skin but it can also be used as a vehicle to apply other things to the skin. You don’t have to scroll too long on Tiktok on natural ingredients for the skin before encountering honey and it is not complete BS. Honey has a variety of benefits for the skin. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of using honey on your face and hair, along with DIY recipes you can easily try at home.

All About Honey

The major constituents of honey are the sugars, of which monosaccharide fructose and glucose make up around 70% and disaccharides including sucrose make up 10% and water makes up around 17-20%. This is why honey is usually thick to touch.

The shelf life of honey is said to be around 2 and a half years but honey does not go as bad as many foods do; it is still wholesome after decades especially if kept in opaque, tightly sealed containers and cool temperatures (between +4 and 10°C). That way light will not break down the enzymes within. If honey is not kept in this way, fermentation occurs and honey can deteriorate through abnormal chemical reactions.

The colour of honey largely depends on the nectar source. Light-coloured honeys usually have a delicate flavour and more flavonoids while dark-coloured honeys have a strong flavour and more polyphenols. Honey contains up to 0.3% vitamins and minerals. There are some traces of vitamins C and B complex. For minerals, you will find potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, chromium, selenium, magnesium, molybdenum, sulphur, iodine etc.

Other compounds like polyphenols heavily influence honey’s properties. They are accountable for the anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic features of honey. These compounds are mostly seen in dark-coloured honey compared to light ones, which have more flavonoids.

Benefits of honey for your face

1. Wound Healing

Several studies and evidence have established honey as a treatment for wounds and burns since ancient times. The physicochemical nature of honey makes it an ideal wound dressing, able to moisturize injured tissue, contrast microbial infections, soothe inflammation, and prevent gauze from sticking to wounds.

2. Moisturizes Dry Skin

Honey’s humectant properties act as an optimal moisture regulator to help retain moisture, leaving your skin soft and supple, increasing elasticity, and the velvety smoothness of skin.

The easiest recipe for dry skin using honey is to first wash your face with warm water before going to bed, and pat some honey water solution on it to moisturize your skin. This method is a simple and effective way to deal with dry skin.

Precaution: Honey can be sticky and uncomfortable and if you are allergic to bees, do not use it.

You can get a medical grade manuka honey to moisturize your skin if you don’t like the stickiness. A product that I will recommend for you is First Honey on Amazon. They are made in cream, ointment and gauze bandages that have manuka honey in them.

3. Improves Skin Barrier

Nearly all honeys are acidic, with a pH value under 7, generally varying between 3.4 and 4.6. This low pH allows honey to nurture the skin, and contribute to regulating the mildly acidic pH of the upper protective skin layer. This will help your natural oils stay intact and your skin barrier healthy.

You can either apply honey as instructed above or use the manuka cream by First Honey for a great skin barrier.

4. Great For Sensitive Skin and Rosacea

Honey has great demulcent and anti-irritant properties that make it a great fit for babies’ skin and sensitive skin/rosacea. It is also great as a UV protectant against sun damage due to its antioxidant properties.

Precaution: Please do not give honey to babies under 1 year.

5. Treats Acne

Honey, especially manuka honey, has strong antibacterial activity and can even inhibit methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. Manuka honey’s bacteriocidal effect depends not only on the presence of hydrogen peroxide but also on methylglyoxal, a highly cytotoxic metabolite.

The higher the methylglyoxal, the better the bacteriocidal effect of manuka. This is why manuka honey should have a UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) for labelling. That helps consumers know they are getting authentic manuka honey

6. Reduces Signs of Aging

The antioxidants in honey combat wrinkles and fine lines by neutralizing free radicals and boosting collagen production. In addition to its moisturizing properties, you might expect to see a smoothing out of fine lines and wrinkles when using manuka honey.

7. Reduces Hyperpigmentation

Honey reduces pigmentation due to its direct activity on melanogenesis without signs of irritation. Scientists suggest the use of unfermented honey meaning honey that does not contain hydroxy acids. You may also get raw manuka honey to improve the overall brightness of your skin tone and areas of discolouration.

Benefits of honey for your HAIR

1. As a Hair Conditioner

Hydroxypropyltrimonium honey is considered a good conditioner for hair and scalp. It is able to penetrate deeply into the hair shaft and restore hair elasticity and flexibility. You can use honey as a hair conditioner.

This recipe I am about to share is from “A Book of Honey” by Eva Crane. In her book, she wrote that the beautiful Duchess of Marlborough, Sarah, had the finest hair imaginable by the constant use of honey-water. Honey water is made by mixing 2 tablespoons of honey with a litre of warm water to condition your hair.

2. For Hair Growth

Due to the conditioning properties of honey, applying honey to your hair may boost hair growth. An anonymous Anglo-Norman treatise on body adornment, written in the XIII century, describes the use of honey mixed with parsley juice, pig blood, and white wine, for the preparation of a conditioner to make hair grow.

Side Effects of Honey

Honey is generally well-tolerated. However, it should be noted that honey is a highly dense sugar suspension making microbes unable to grow in such an environment. Despite that, there are some bacteria which live in honey, yet the majority are harmless for humans. An exception is Clostridium botulinum, whose spores may land in honey, and theoretically can develop toxin in infants. Such events are very rare but it is advisable not to give honey to infants.

Final Thoughts

I definitely think honey is a good natural ingredient, a DIY skincare and haircare ingredient that I love and favour a lot. I think it is a logical thing to give honey in your skincare a try. It is low-risk and potentially high reward.

I hope this post on honey is helpful to you and comment below if you use it in your skincare or haircare routine. I would love to hear about your experience with honey.

The Alcyone