Oils are a natural hair girls best friend because they feed your hair some serious nutrients. If you want to see some growth, retain length and seal in all that good moisture, it's important to know oils that will seep into your hair. Oils that penetrate the hair helps to promote hair health, growth and the prevention of hair loss. Natural oils that penetrate the hair shaft contains a high amount of fatty acids like lauric, capric, oleic, linoleic, mystiric, palmitic & caprylic acids. The medium chain fatty acids contain molecular structures small enough to penetrate the hair shaft and scalp. You will be able to deliver much-needed nutrients to the hair to see healthy hair growth.
Why You Need To Use Oils That Will Penetrate Your Hair Shaft?
Oils that penetrates the hair shaft help to maintain a full head of healthy hair and continue growth month after month. A penetrating oil like coconut help to protect your hair when washing from swelling up, so your cuticle doesn't bend outward to form uneven and scaly texture. It contributes to stopping protein loss because your hair is more hydrophobic (water repelling) to protect it during your wash day routine. The natural oils in your hair would usually keep it hydrophobic, so it's important to keep it that way. Natural oils don't just protect your hair from the water they also protect it from environmental and chemical damages. Think of all the pollution, chemical hair products, chlorinated water, weather changes, heat tools everything in between that can render your hair to be dry, dehydrated, frizzy and just unmanageable.
Some of the best penetrating oils penetrate the hair shaft easier and fast to deliver nutrients when applying to the scalp and hair and massage or when indirect heat is applied. Now let's look at carrier oils that can penetrate your hair shaft:
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is one of the tops used oils that penetrate the hair and is popular in Ayurveda practices for good reasons. With its small molecular size, the oil can penetrate your strands and go to work immediately. It is highly penetrating, and it immediately starts seeping into the hair shaft and scalp to feed it its nutrients. Coconut oil will prevent protein loss if use before washing your hair. Your hair is made up of a tough protein called keratin, and you need to protect it to keep a healthy head of hair. Coconut oil reduces protein loss by preventing the loss, to begin with, to stop the damage before it is done to your hair. Hair gets damage from swelling and shrinking of fibers because of its water retention and absorption. Adding coconut oil prevent 'hydral fatigue' and avoid any damage during wash day. Coconut oil comes with Vitamin E and Lauric Acid that both have the ability to penetrate the hair shaft. The oil helps to reduce frizz, boost the shine, reduce damages before, during and after washing your hair. Coconut oil has high anti-bacterial properties and nutrients that are ideal for hair and scalp protection from bacteria, viral infections, and protozoan.
Why Use Coconut Oil
- Coconut Oil Soften Your Hair - Coconut oil helps protect the moisture in your hair - Coconut Oil Prevent hair breakage and any split ends to support hair growth and retain length -Coconut Oil Helps To Promote a healthy scalp that with fight against any lice, dandruff, insect bites - Coconut Oil Stimulates NEW hair growth by penetrating deep into the follicles
Applied coconut oil directly to the scalp and hair and massaged it in for at least five minutes. Warming the oil before applying it to the scalp gives it more penetrating properties. Leaving the oil overnight or even a few days in the scalp and hair helps to nourish and protects your natural hair.
Olive Oil
Olive oil is an excellent penetrating oil; it is one of the heavier oils that will improve your hair health and strength. Olive oil is rich in antioxidants and Vitamin E and A which helps fights DHT ( a hormone that wears down the follicle shaft that causes hair loss). It is rich in fatty acids that will go to penetrate and coat your hair shaft as a sealant. If you have frizz, dandruff and want to add shine to your hair olive oil is the one of the oil to use. It helps with dry hair, minimize damage, add elasticity to stop breakage to prevent damage to the hair. Olive oil penetrates to condition the scalp, fight dandruff while all along preventing hair loss. Olive oil is relatively a good price to buy compared to other oils and has a longer shelf life. If your hair requires moisturizing frequently, olive oil will help to keep the hair moisturized longer.
Why Use Olive Oil
- Restore Hair Strength - Restores the Hair Bulbs - Stimulates Cell Growth - Helps minimize split ends - Provides Nutrients To the Scalp - Olive Oil Relief dandruff on the scalp - Prevent breakage by adding elasticity to the hair
If you want to put Olive oil to some good use, try using it in your detangler and other styling products. It will help make your hair more manageable and add elasticity to prevent breakage. Olive oil is great for conditioning the hair and scalp and to mix with other carrier oils and essential oil to hot oil and treat hair.
Avocado Oil
Avocado oil is a light, high penetrating oil that has a thick consistency much like olive oil when applied to the hair. It is high in monosaturated fatty acid, rich in Lecithin, Vitamins A, D, E, B6, minerals, potassium and Amino Acids. Avocado Oil is rich in nutrients with the ability to not just nourish your hair but protect your growth. Avocado oil is also rich in oleic and linoleic fatty and contains powerful antioxidants that work great to heal any damage to the hair that comes from a heating tool and the UV rays of the sun. Avocado oil is packed with nutrients to feed the hair shaft and scalp to see stronger and longer natural hair. You will have stronger hair strands, even more elasticity to the hair along with more shine.
Why Use Avocado Oil
- Help to Keep Hair Moisturize - Ideal for sealant Hair butter - Conditions Hair and Scalp - Restore the scalp health - Promotes Healthy Cell Growth - Light Weight On Scalp and Hair - Packed With Nutrients For the scalp - Prevent Dry Hair by storing more moisture
Babassu Oil
A rare oil in the beauty industry, extracted from the Babassu palm, native to Brazil is the Babassu oil. It as been use by the locals since ancient times as a natural hair and skin moisturizer because its lipids can penetrate and deliver nutrient along with nourishment. Babassu oil helps to repair damage to the hair while restoring its strength and elasticity to add moisture and shine. Adding babassu oil to your hair in a hot oil treatment before washing will nourish the hair and scalp to leave you with hair that is full of volume and shine.
Babassu oil helps to treat dry scalp to prevent damage and promote healthy hair growth. It will take care of dandruff problem to leave your scalp ready for new growth. With anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties babassu oil is a perfect oil to help promote a healthy scalp. Adding babassu oil to your conditioner helps repair the strands while washing. You will suffer less breakage again with the added elasticity and gain that volume and shine. It absorbs quickly with a non-greasy feeling to promote hydration to the hair. If your hair has an issue with coconut oil or you want to try another oil with similar benefits as coconut oil then look into babassu oil.
Why Use Babassu Oil
- Seals Split Ends - Hair Conditioner - Treats Dry Scalp - Locks In Moisture - Nourish Your Scalp - Light Weight On Hair - Repair, soften, and shine Hair - Anti-Inflammatory Properties
Castor Oil
Castor oil is a thick oil that has a unique triglyceride of fatty acids with ricinoleic acid that is excellent to grow and repair natural hair. Common use of castor oil is to help treat your hair and promote healthy hair growth. You can use it both on the scalp and hair strands. Castor oil helps to improve the circulation in the scalp to help regrow healthier hair. It works great in deep conditioning treatment to help trap even more moisture to the hair. Castor oil is perfect for a sealant to help lock in moisture throughout the week to keep growing longer hair also to prevent breakage and split ends. Castor oil is rich in powerful antioxidants such as Vitamin E & Omega 6 & 9 fatty acids to protect the hair from any environmental damage and any pollution. Castor oil only penetrates the hair about 15%, but its still nourish and repair the damage to the hair and helps it retain moisture. Castor oil is naturally antibacterial and anti-fungal that helps prevent scalp issues that may prevent hair loss. It may be thick oil but once mix with a lighter oil like Avocado oil the castor oil it becomes light and easy to apply to the hair. Castor oil will help to control frizz on your hair, repair bald spot by promoting hair growth and repair hair loss while sealing in the moisture from water or water based products. If you are looking to retain moisture all day in your natural hair castor oil is a great sealant.
Why Use Castor Oil
- Seals Ends - Add Shine - Prevent Hair Loss - Thickens the hair - Seals In Moisture - Help to grow hair - Conditions Hair - Moisturize Scalp - Prevent Breakage - Condition the scalp - Eliminates dry hair - Improve scalp circulation - Regrow thin / Gone edges - Excellent hot oil treatment
How To These Natural Oils For Healthy, long hair?
Pre-Poo Your Hair With Hot Oil Treatment
An excellent way to protect your hair during wash day is to do a hot oil treatment. Hot oiling your hair is important to prevent hair loss and promote new hair growth. Make sure to leave the oils in for at least 1 hour to allow the nutrients to seep in the scalp and hair. If You need a little extra treatment leave the oils in overnight. It will help to penetrate even more and soften the hair. Cover your hair with a plastic shower cap and wrap it with a scarf and go to sleep, and don't forget to protect your pillow. The next morning you just step in the shower and wash your hair as usual with your shampoo.
My Hot Oil Treatment Routine
Scalp Oil Massage
Growing natural hair requires weekly care, and one important part is the nourishing oils you apply to the scalp and hair. An excellent way to improve scalp circulation and feed the strands nutrients is using a mix oil and massage. All you need is to grab your natural scalp oil and a scalp massager to help massage your hair or just use your fingers. Now all you do is section off your hair and apply oil to the scalp and massaging it for at least five minutes to improve the circulation.
My Current Scalp Oil For Hair Growth
Other ways to use oils for healthy hair growth:
- Add oils to your Depp Condition Treatments To improve the hair health and get better results.
- Apply a Cocktail Oil Mix to your strands after washing to help seal in even more moisture. After washing and adding leave-in conditioner use a little oil to the strands to nourish them and keep most of the water lock in.
- Adding oils to your shampoo and conditioner improve the product and add much-needed slip to prevent breakage.
These oils penetrate your natural hair shaft to improve the health and growth, but there are a lot more oils out there to try. Using natural carrier oils is one of the best ways to promote healthy hair growth so you should get into using them today.