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Sunday 11 May 2014

Hair Myths 101: Hair Oils


Long time no see everyone! I thought I'd get back into the swing of blogging with a second edition of Hair Myths 101 :). We're going to be discussing a very much loved topic in the beauty world: Oils. Hopefully this post will clear up a few misconceptions, which unfortunately I have seen floating around the beauty community.

Before we get on with the myths, I just want to quickly explain what hair oils are meant to do. Sounds like a silly thing to explain to most people, but there have been a few misconceptions about them lately. Hair oils are to be used to nourish and hydrate and repair your hair. Now I know some of you are thinking: "but doesn't my conditioner do that?". Nope. Conditioners are designed to coat your hair to prevent tangles and keep moisture in, so in other words they help prevent your hair from drying out, but don't actually put moisture into your hair. For further details, check out my last Hair Myth 101 post here. So let's move on to the actual myths!

Myth #1: "Just leave it in your hair for 15-30 minutes". You hear this phrase in almost every youtube hair mask tutorial unfortunately. But luckily I'm here to tell you that this is absolutely pointless! Oils do not soak into hair immediately. It occurs gradually, ranging from a few hours to up to 24 hours or more! Therefore, leaving a hair oil in for half an hour will do pretty much nothing for your hair. My best advice is to apply your oil before going to bed and leave it in overnight. That'll give you a good 7-10 hours to properly penetrate and hydrate your hair. Also, more is more when it comes to how much to apply.

Myth #2: "All oils hydrate your hair". Nope! Only a few types of oils actually penetrate your hair, the top few being Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, and Castor Oil. Coconut Oil is the most effective. These oils are the only ones that deeply hydrate the hair, to the very cortex of a hair strand.

Now, the rest of the oils kinda, sorta hydrate/penetrate the hair, but only the very outer layer/cuticle of the hair strand. Examples of this type of oil include: olive oil, argan oil (which always made me wonder why people call it the holy grail oil for hair...), avacado oil, shea butter, etc. These type of oils are ok to use to prevent split ends and knots, but don't do a good job at injecting moisture into your hair.

And there are two oils that don't do anything to your hair: Mineral Oil and Jojoba Oil (too big to penetrate the hair).

As always, this Hair Myths series is meant to educate the world about proper hair care so please spread the word by sharing this post and letting your fellow girlfriends know! :). If you wish to read more on this particular topic (as well as have the full list of oils) or just do some general research on haircare, check out this blog (link here). It's written by an awesome female scientist who examines haircare with scientific experiments and shows you the results through an actual microscope!

Next week's Hair Myths 101 will be on Sulfates :).

1 comments:

  1. I found this extremely helpful! Thanks you!
    -Annette

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