What is a Castor Oil Pack?
Castor oil is applied to the skin by means of a pack. The first step in making a pack is to soak a piece of cloth in castor oil. Next, the oil-saturated cloth is placed on the skin and covered with a sheet of plastic. Then a hot water bottle is positioned on the sheet of plastic to provide a source of heat.
What You’ll Need by Way of Materials
- Castor oil
- A piece of undyed wool or cotton flannel that’s big enough to cover the relevant skin area in three layers
- A piece of plastic (even a plastic bag will suffice) that’s one or two inches larger than the area covered by the three layers of cloth
- Hot water bottle
- A container with a lid that’s large enough to hold the oil-soaked layers of cloth
- An old set of clothes and bed sheets that you don’t mind getting stained
Assembling the Pack
- Take the cloth that you’ve prepared and place it in the container.
- Saturate the cloth with castor oil, but not to the point where it’s dripping wet.
- Place the oil-soaked cloth over the part of the body that’s being treated in a triple fold.
- Cover the cloth with your piece of plastic.
- Prepare the hot water bottle and place it over the plastic sheet.
- Leave the hot water bottle in place over the pack for 45-60 minutes. During this time, you can rest and relax while your body absorbs the soothing goodness of the pack.
- After that, you can remove the pack and clean the affected area with a solution of water and baking soda (in a ratio of 3 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 quart of water).
- Then place the pack back in the covered container (or a baggie).
- Store the container (or baggie) in your fridge until the next time you need to apply the pack. When you’re ready to use the pack again, take it out of the fridge first for a couple of hours to bring it to room temperature.
How Frequently You Should Use the Pack
If you have a specific health problem, you should use a castor oil pack once a day anywhere between three and seven days a week. An individual pack can be re-used as many as 25-30 times.