Coconut oil is great for hair – Learn how to use it here
Coconut oil is incredibly popular at home both for cooking but not least as a body and hair care product. As coconut oil has become more popular, it also means that you no longer have to go to the health store and pay dearly for the product.
Instead, you can just walk into any supermarket and rip it off the shelf, at a different and much more budget-friendly price. It also means that you don’t have to scrimp on the product, but can easily afford to use the delicious oil as part of your hair care routine.
And coconut oil IS an excellent hair care product. It’s not without reason that almost all luxury brand hair products contain coconut oil.
In this article, I take a closer look at all the benefits of using coconut oil as part of your hair care routine. Of course, I also give you a detailed guide so you know how to best use coconut oil as a hair conditioner, as a scalp care, to tame frizzy hair and to give your hair shine and care.
It doesn’t matter what type of coconut oil you put in your hair
As consumers have woken up to the many benefits of coconut oil, both for cooking but especially for body and hair care, manufacturers have responded to the demand, meaning there are more different coconut oils to choose from.
You can roughly divide them into 3 types:
- The pure organic coconut oil
- Refined or otherwise processed coconut oil
- Crude coconut oil
Use a pure organic coconut oil in your hair if you want the best results
I would definitely recommend you to use a completely pure organic coconut oil for your hair. By choosing a pure organic coconut oil rather than a refined or otherwise processed coconut oil, you ensure that you retain all the oil’s good properties.
There are many great benefits to using coconut oil as part of your hair care routine, I’ll go into those later, but I can’t fail to mention already the 3 with amazing benefits for me:
- Coconut oil is a great moisturizer
- Coconut oil can make hair shiny without weighing it down
- Coconut oil gives results you can see and feel after the first treatment
Raw coconut oil weighs hair down and is hard to wash out
Coconut oil is popular for more than body and hair care: it’s also used in cooking. So you may well already have a delicious raw coconut oil lying around that you’ve picked up off the supermarket shelf or bought dearly at the health food shop. It’s a great product – just not when it comes to its properties as a hair care product.
The raw coconut oil is simply too rich or too greasy you could call it. This means that it is incredibly difficult to dose into the hair without the hair appearing excessively greasy and the hairstyle clumping.
The raw coconut oil is also really hard to wash out of your hair and it can take several shampoos in a row to get it out – which counteracts all the good properties of the coconut oil and can instead give you an irritated scalp from the frequent washing.
I would therefore strongly recommend that you leave the raw coconut oil in the kitchen for cooking and instead choose an organic coconut oil that is made for body and hair care.
6 amazing benefits of using coconut oil in your hair
Coconut oil is able to penetrate deep into the hair fibers – Coconut oil is one of the oils that has the easiest time penetrating the very fibers of the hair and developing its miracles there. So this is not an oil that just coats each hair, but an oil that brings moisture and nourishment into the hair shaft.
The reason why coconut oil is so popular in hair styling products is to be found in the composition of coconut oil. In fact, coconut oil is incredibly high in lauric acid, which is known to prevent protein loss.
At the same time, coconut oil is also a low molecular weight oil that can easily penetrate the hair and condition it without weighing it down and making it feel unwashed and unkempt.
Coconut oil for shiny, healthy hair – If you suffer from dry and worn hair, you will find that coconut oil can transform your dry and dull hair into shiny and vibrant hair in a very short time.
Coconut oil cannot repair a damaged hair strand, nothing can. But the oil can go in and make the remaining hair stronger and less porous which reduces the risk of broken hairs and at the same time the large amount of moisture that the coconut oil contributes will make the hair shiny and lustrous again.
Coconut oil soothes sensitive and dry scalp – Many people suffer from sensitive or dry scalps. This can result in a sore and itchy scalp and, in the worst cases, dandruff. There may be several reasons why you have a dry scalp. But very often it’s something as simple as washing your hair too often.
In fact, our scalps produce important oils that keep the scalp and hair roots healthy. When we wash our hair, we remove these important oils. If you wash your hair every day, you can risk one of two things. Your scalp could become dry and sore because you’ve washed away the natural oils. Or that your scalp panics over the frequent hair washing and instead chooses to mass-produce oil, leaving you with greasy hair that flakes.
Using coconut oil as part of your hair care routine will help your scalp maintain its natural oil balance without your hair feeling greasy. You can also give your scalp an actual treatment with the coconut oil. You can read more about that later.
Coconut oil is super good as a conditioner – If you usually finish washing your hair with a conditioner, then you can benefit from using a coconut oil as an alternative to a regular conditioner. You can quickly tell from your hair if it likes coconut oil every time you wash it, or if it’s more ideal to swap out the conditioner for oil every other time you wash your hair.
Coconut oil contains a lot of moisture and at the same time the coconut oil has a composition where the molecules are so small that they can easily penetrate the hair. If you use coconut oil as a conditioner, you don’t have to leave it in your hair for long before washing it out.
In addition to moisturizing your hair, it also makes hair easy to detangle and gives hair a beautiful shine and a scent of summer.
Coconut oil tames frizzy hair – If you have hair that tends to frizz, you’ve probably already spent a fortune on products to tame the locks. These are usually not cheap and far from all of them have a real effect.
If you have curly hair and you want to define your curls or you just want to prevent your hair from frizzing, you can use coconut oil in your hair. Coconut oil nourishes and moisturizes your hair while making it manageable.
If you have straight hair with small flyaway hairs around the face that curl and are difficult to tame, then a single drop of coconut oil warmed up in your hands will easily tame and control the small hairs.
Coconut oil protects your hair from the sun – If you spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer or love to go on holiday down south, you’re probably familiar with hair that feels dry and lacklustre because the sun has dried it out.
Hair is just as affected by the sun’s harsh UV rays as your skin is. In the hairdresser’s sale you can find several hair oils that have UV factor. These are great when you’re on holiday or spending long hours in the sun. But they are also often really expensive.
If you want to protect your hair in a cheap but effective way, you can do so by using coconut oil to protect your hair from the sun. Put coconut oil in a spray bottle and spray your hair very lightly with coconut oil before you put it up or go out in the sun. Remember, you only need to use a little. Do not soak your hair with oil.
Guide – How to use coconut oil as a conditioner, hair treatment or leave-in conditioner
If you’d like to use coconut oil as a conditioner, hair treatment or leave-in conditioner, there are several ways you can go about it. You can choose to buy a ready-made product that contains a large amount of coconut oil. It could be a conditioner, hair treatment, or leave-in conditioner from your favorite brand. If you choose this option, simply follow the instructions on the packaging.
You can also choose to buy a hair oil, which contains a large amount of coconut oil. I would recommend choosing an organic version, which ensures that you retain all the good properties of the coconut oil.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s not a good idea to use the raw coconut oil as it’s simply too rich in good stuff and unmixed is going to smother your hair in oil which can be difficult to wash out.
You can apply coconut oil to both wet and dry hair. However, I would recommend you to use the coconut oil in the damp hair as it gives the best result.
How to: It’s always a good idea to warm up the oil in your hands before applying it to your hair. Once the coconut oil is warmed up, it penetrates the hair strands even faster and boosts your hair with moisture.
Remember: A little goes a long way…
If you have long, strong hair, you don’t need more coconut oil than the equivalent of a teaspoon. If you have shorter hair – considerably less.
Apply the oil to wet or towel-dried hair and let it sit for a while. After a short time your hair will be easy to comb out and you can now choose to wash the coconut oil out again with lukewarm water or to leave it in your hair as a leave-in conditioner. Your hair will quickly tell you which it prefers.
Coconut oil is perfect for taming frizzy hair – If you suffer from frizzy hair, coconut oil is perfect for relaxing your hair. For best results, massage a tiny amount of coconut oil into damp hair. Set your hair as you groom and let it air dry.
Guide – How to use coconut oil to soothe a dry and sore scalp
Many people experience periods of dry scalp. It can be caused by anything from fungal infections, psoriasis to too much hair washing. In fact, too much hair washing is the cause of many cases of sore and dry scalp. Experts recommend that we wash our hair with shampoo no more than 3 times a week, if you do it more often than that, you risk upsetting the natural balance of the scalp.
If you have a dry scalp that is either itchy or tender to the touch, you can successfully treat it with coconut oil. You can use a hair oil product with a high coconut oil content or even better than outright scalp oil with a high coconut oil content.
While treating your scalp with the coconut oil, you are actually boosting hair growth as well. You do this because the massaging motions not only cause the oil to penetrate the scalp and add moisture, but also boost blood circulation which promotes hair production.
Here’s how: Take the equivalent of a teaspoon of oil and warm it well between your palms, then spread the coconut oil on your scalp. If you have long and/or thick hair, it may help to divide your hair into sections. This can make it easier to get to the scalp.
It’s important that you don’t just rub coconut oil on your scalp. The coconut oil should be massaged into the scalp, the longer the better. It should not be a harsh massage but a massage in gentle circles.
Then let the oil sit for a few hours. You can do this before you go to bed. If you leave the coconut oil on overnight, it’s a good idea to put a towel over your pillow so you don’t ruin the cover and pillow.
The next morning or after a few hours, wash your hair with shampoo as usual. In just one or two treatments you will notice a noticeable difference.
Coconut oil protects your hair from drying out on holiday – The sun dries out our hair, damaging it and making it porous. If you want to protect your hair on holiday, or on a day at the beach here at home, you can do so by spreading a tiny amount of coconut oil on your hair. Especially at the lengths and ends. However, you should avoid the roots of the hair as this will cause the hair to slap.
Guide – How to tame curls with coconut oil
Curly hair is beautiful and the envy of many, but if you have curls, you also know how much care it takes to make them look beautiful and not like a frizzy mess. Curly hair or hair with a lot of fall tends to frizz, especially if the weather is humid. Curly hair is incredibly sensitive to moisture.
That’s why many curly-haired people also choose to use a hairspray for curly hair, which protects the hair from moisture. You can actually get the same effect with coconut oil. In fact, coconut oil goes in and replenishes the hair with natural moisture so that it is not affected by the environment in the same way.
Here’s how: If you want to avoid frizzy hair, wash your hair as you would normally and gently squeeze the water out of your curls. It’s important to let the curls keep their shape. Once you’ve squeezed as much water out of your hair as you can, it’s time for oil.
Warm up a teaspoon of coconut oil in your palms and squeeze your curls by turning your head down and squeezing handfuls of curls so they all get a really thin coating. Avoid hitting the scalp.
Turn your head back up and let your hair air dry. This treatment gives you beautifully separated curls with a great shine and you avoid frizzy and unruly hair.