Q: Aloe vera gel from plant VS aloe vera gel from stores？
A: Aloe vera has long been known for its benefit on our skin and hair. It can help moisturize the skin, treat acne, eczema, fungal/ bacterial infection and sunburn. It can speed up wound healing and limits scarring, therefore it is useful in treating first-degree and second-degree burns.
As for the hair, it can strengthen hair and make your scalp healthier. Rubbing aloe vera gel into your scalp and hair and letting it penetrate your hair follicles could condition and improve damaged, dry hair. After letting it sit for an hour, rinse the gel off with a mild shampoo.
A person can use the gel directly from an aloe vera plant or buy a bottled variety from a health store. But be careful of the gel taken directly from the plant as some people may be allergic to it. But this hardly happens with store-bought aloe vera gel. This is because the yellow aloe vera latex that drain out from the freshly cut aloe vera leaf is an irritant that can cause allergic reaction like redness and itciness!
5 major differences between fresh aloe vera gel and store-bought aloe vera gel:
1. Fresh aloe vera gel is much more stickier compares to its store-bought counterpart. You need to rinse off the natural aloe vera gel after application but do not need to do so for the store-bought types.
2. Natural aloe vera gel has a bad smell which not many people can tolerate.
3. It is difficult to prepare natural aloe vera gel from plant as compare to store-bought ones. You must drain out the yellow latex completely first before scooping out the gel from the leaves. And you need to keep it in air-tight glass container and keep away from sunlight
4. Shelf life for natural aloe vera gel when kept refrigerated is only 2 weeks at its max!
5. Storage: Natural aloe vera gel needs to be kept refrigerated and cannot be carried around freely.
