You may not know it, but coconut oil is among the best natural hair treatments around. Most people prefer to drink the milk or put flakes in treats, however, across the world in coastal areas oil has been used for years to improve hair and scalp skin. It’s ideal for sensitive and easily-irritated skin because it’s completely natural and doesn’t contain any chemicals.
The oil extracted from coconuts acts as a natural antifungal agent. This property alone makes it a reliable treatment for dandruff and dry, flaky skin. Apart from that, high-quality coconut oil can help postpone grays, strengthen your hair naturally, and prevent dead split ends in longer hair.
According to WebMD, it can also be applied as a skin moisturizer, or to treat eczema, psoriasis, and lice, among other things. Coconut oil produces a cooling effect on your scalp and skin which can be invaluable if you’re suffering from small pimples caused by sweating.
Those seeking an effective toner and conditioner for their hair will do go to try coconut oil, especially people who tend to have rough and dry hair, susceptible to splits. While a lot of hair care products only stay on the surface area of your hair, coconut oil can penetrate in helping to nourish and revitalize it. This is due to lauric acid – the main component of this oil – having a molecular weight, which helps it seep into the shaft of each hair it comes into contact with. Better yet, this organic oil maintains moisture longer than most products and prevents dry hair.
Free tip: To apply coconut oil as a hair styling product, all you need to do is rub a little bit of it between your fingertips. This will melt it making it easier to apply, but after a while, it will harden somewhat just through exposure to air.
If you need proof of how effective coconut oil is as a hair treatment, you should know that millions of people in India use it from childhood on and end up having strong and thick black hair, even as they enter old age. In fact, this is where cosmetics manufacturers got the idea and started adding this ingredient to their shampoos and other beauty products. With 40% of women showing visible signs of hair loss by the time they are 40, there’s probably no simpler way to preserve a full head of hair than to start using coconut oil early and often.
Just know that to get the best results for your hair, you should learn how to apply the coconut oil correctly. For starters, if the oil is in solid form and hard, you can melt it by rubbing it between your hands like mentioned above.
If you need to melt a larger amount or don’t have time to do it by hand, you can place it in a microwave or put a jar of oil into another container that’s half full of hot water. If you heat the oil too much, don’t worry; just let it cool down a bit – a high content of lauric acid makes this organic oil highly resistant to oxidation otherwise caused due to high heat.
Then, once you find that the temperature is cool enough to handle, put a couple of tablespoons of oil on washed, still-damp hair, and put more oil close to your split ends. You can then let it stay in your hair for half an hour or even until the next morning. To prevent staining on your pillows and sheets, use a shower cap, cling film, or even an old towel or t-shirt. After that, you can wash your hair and dry it as you normally do.
Once everything’s done, you will feel that your hair is softer to the touch, but that it also looks smooth, moisturized, and easier to take care of. That is the power of this humble tropic fruit!
Whatever your hair needs in terms of treatment, this oil can help you out with. However, you don’t have to use it by itself. Instead, feel free to combine it with other hair nourishing products.
For example, you can also add virgin olive oil to further strengthen your hair. Furthermore, mixing in vitamin-rich egg yolks as a form of hair rejuvenation can do wonders. Natural yogurts can soften and cleanse your hair. To prevent split ends and hair loss, add some almond oil to your recipe. To combat gray hairs, add False Daisy leaf juice to your oil. You can mix many different things with this organic compound and do wonders for your skin and hair in a relatively short amount of time if you’re persistent enough.
REFERENCES:
- “Coconut Oil,” WebMD,
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1092/coconut-oil - “Lauric acid,” Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauric_acid - “Female Protein Baldness (Androgenic Alopecia): What You Should Know,” Healthline, Stephanie Watson, 14 February, 2017,
https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/female-pattern-baldness - “Hair Loss in Women,” WebMD,
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hair-loss/hair-loss-medref