Gram Flour/ Chickpea Flour - BESAN

Namaste!

These days we all want to use products that are chemical free. There are brands available in the stores but few are expensive to afford and for the rest there is no surety if it is a genuine product or not. So instead of using them we should be going for home remedies with the products that are easily available in our kitchens. Gram flour- besan is one such wonderful ingredient which is easily available, cheap and easy to use. It can be used in so many ways as a pack, scrub and even for bathing. It's so hassle free you just need to mix your favorite other ingredient that suits your skin and you are ready with your own home made product.

In India gram flour is very famous and there is no kitchen where it cannot be found. It's such an ideal ingredient that any one can use it, whether they have a dry, oily or normal skin, it is suitable for every type of skin. There is even one ritual in India known as "haldi", that before the marriage a pack which consists of haldi(turmeric) and besan(gram flour) including other ingredients like rose water, yogurt, saffron, etc. is applied on the bride and the groom so that they can have a glowing soft skin. In the past also the elite men and women used to bath after applying besan pack as it worked as a natural body cleanser, but now the chemical based soaps and body cleanser has taken over such products that does not even cleans the body properly and is of no use- except making lather and foam :D
I use the gram flour pack only on my body as I am already using other pack for my face these days.I like to use it with yogurt as it makes the skin soft and removes the tan. When you will apply the pack you will notice that it becomes really dry and tough to remove so you will have to scrub the pack by putting some water over it. My skin is extremely sensitive so I avoid applying besan on my face as it leads to redness while removing it, even I get some redness on my body when I remove this, but this depends person to person, everybody has different skin type so do a patch test before applying it on your face. But overall it is safe to use.

Different and easy ways to use it-

• Removes tan- mix yogurt in it and apply the pack
• Skin lightning and bleaching - mix lemon juice, turmeric and yogurt in it
• Reduces oil and skin lightning- mix tomato juice or potato juice in it
• Hair reduction- mix honey and lemon in it

All the above ways can be used on the body or on the face, only thing to keep in mind is that do check it by applying the pack on your hands before applying the pack on your face. One more good thing about gram flour is that the packs can be used a s scrub as well but this pros becomes a cons when the pack gets dry and we have to remove it by scrubbing it too hard, by doing so the skin can become little red. Otherwise it's all good to use :)