Mineral Oil Dilemma

[ChloeDharma]

Right, where to start....

I've always been a bit anti mineral oil in products, mainly because in terms of experiences any conditioner with it in leaves my hair in a terrible state. My hair feels like cheap plastic wig hair after using conditioners that have contained it.
However, i decided that i fancied trying some jasmine scented oil for body massage when i was with my ex and he used to pour out so much of any oil used that it wasn't worth using the good stuff. Anyway i tried the Hesh one and found he got it in my hair every time but i didn't have any problems from it. I started to think maybe for me it was only a problem in conditioners and even then maybe it was something else in them doing it.

So, my dilemma....

As anyone who knows me from a couple of years ago may remember i absolutely loved this hair oil that Hesh used to make called Bhringraj oil. It was a base of coconut oil with herb extracts of, yes....bhringraj but also a list of other herbs too....some of them i couldn't even find translations for with hours of googling. It was great, massaged into my scalp before bed it gave me a really good nights sleep, when used for headaches it relieved them with an almost magical soothing tingly feeling but here is the exciting bit.....if i used it regularly it really did help my hair grow faster and thicker.
I posted about it here and i admit i was also exclusively herb washing at this point but when i maintained it my ponytail circumference increased and my hair grew faster than it ever usually does. The hair loss i'd been suffering from started to reverse.

Hesh in their foolish evilness decided to discontinue the product and yes, i bitched about this to any poor soul who made the mistake of seeming sympathetic.

Anyway, finally my point....Hesh have a Mahabhringraj oil they replaced it with. It's not the same exactly and though it contains coconut oil the first ingredient is sesame oil. It does contain mineral oil though, well....here are the ingredients:


Ingredients: Sesamum Indicum (Til) Oil, Paraffinum Liquidum (Mineral Oil), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Oil, Eclipta Prostrate (Maka, Bhrigaraj) Extract, Extract Of: Adiantum Capillus Veneris (Hansraj); Abrus Precatorius (Gunja); Trichosanthes Cucumerina (Patola); Murraya Koenigii (Curry Leaf); Plyllanthus Emblica (Amla); Terminalia Bellerica (Behda); Centella Asiatica (Brahmi); Vetiveria Zizanioides (Cuscusgrass); Terminalia Chebula (Harde); Citrullus Colocynthis (Indrayan); Curcuma Zedoaria (Kachura); Ocimum Basilicum (Murwo); Cyperus Rotundus (Nagarmotha); Rosa Damascene (Rose); Trigonella Foenum-Graecum (Methi); Psoralea Corylifolia (Bawachi); Nardostachys Jatamansi (Jatamansi), Hedychium Spicatum (Kapurkachri), Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Ocimum Basilicum (Sweet Basil) Oil, Chamomilla Recutita (German Chamomile) Oil; Thymus Vulgaris (Thyme) Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (Mct), Ethylhexyl (Octyl) Methoxycinnamate, BHT, Cl 47000, Cl 61565, Cl 26100.

I really like a lot of those ingredients and am even thinking that i'm not worried about the mineral oil having a negative effect now, possibly because i use actual shampoo these days.
My dilemma is, given mineral oils use is to protect, so it sits on top of the skin and doesn't absorb like some others do i wonder if it would block the absorption of the herb extracts and other oils used. Given it's the 2nd ingredient after sesame oil then coconut oil and castor oil are listed i know it's proportion would be much less than the other oils combined.
I'm kind of already decided that i'm going to buy some but i wondered what the clever people here at LHC think.....do you think it would prevent the beneficial herb extracts and oils from penetrating or do you think those might get through and the mineral oil would just kind of be left behind?
Bear in mind i'm talking about the scalp, not the hair shaft as the scalp is where i want the benefits.....and my scalp loves oils, when i don't oil it i get awful problems.

So, thanks in advance for any replies and this thread doesn't have to be just about that product but the idea behind the effect mineral oil can have in a formulation in general :) xxx

[ChloeDharma]

Well no replies anyway but a conversation elsewhere reminded me of something. I used to use Navratna oil on my fathers shoulder and sometimes in head massage on men as it is quite a masculine smelling oil....medicinal almost. It's first ingredient is sesame oil and i think the 2nd is mineral oil. Despite this it gave great relief to my dad and when used for headaches on the people i tried it on. They always reported tingling etc so it seems the mineral oil didn't prevent the other ingredients from absorbing.

I'm now just curious as to why.

Anyway, i'm glad i remembered this as i really do want to try the oil i copied the ingredients to in the post above.

[wavykisses]

I don't have a concrete answer for this, but could it be that mineral oil is semipermeable?.
I think it would work as silicones they coat the hair and protect it but still let your hair breathe.

I would use it on my hair before my scalp, if my hair feels to coat it and uncomfortable chances are the scalp will too
and not much of the other oils will be absorbed. Some herbs smell very pleasant and by the scent only can give you some relief
and also are quite strong that you can feel some tingling but that doesn't say that they are been absorb, like peppermint I can smell some peppermint and my eyes would get watery.

I guess that mineral oil acts as a coating but some of the oils can get thru it, I have an oil that has some MO on it with a combination of herbs and my hair feels like cheap doll hair but if my hair wouldn't feel like that, I would use it on my scalp

[ChloeDharma]

Thanks for the reply :)

What you say makes sense, luckily it's not an expensive oil so i suppose i'll have to just give it a go and see how my hair reacts to it. If it doesn't absorb but my hair still likes it i can always use it as a styling aid. My hair does like cones so i'm hopeful.

[theodora]

Will you let us know how you get on with it? I'm curious about this oil, and the effects of mineral oil used on scalp. I've had bad experiences with the Hesh (I think it's hesh) Hibiscus oil on my scalp which had mineral oil in it, but it also happened to have some silicones too.

Also, I might be deluded, but I thought I read somewhere (maybe something on Ktani's blog) that mineral oil does penetrate the skin and moisturise it. But maybe I imagined reading this!

[furnival]

Here is Ktani's page about mineral oil:
http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/mineral-oil-and-hair-care-and-skin.html?m=1
Hope that helps! :)

[sakuraemily]

Well, from the chemistry I know, mineral oil will just sit there doing nothing. Whether the good stuff will seep in or not depends on which of the component oils they are present in.
I forget what the concept is called, something like fractional differentiation or preferential something. Anyway the point is that if you shake some solute in two solvents both of which it can dissolve in it will be in a much larger proportion in one of the solvents. Even if you start out with the same concentration of solute in solvent for both, the solute will eventually go into the solvent it is more soluble in if it has the choice.
So it all depends on the individual components(meaning all the compounds present in the herbs). Currently there is no data on what kind of oil the nutrients in herbs prefer. But the above concept also applies to the solvents not being able to dissolve in each other, so you should be fine.

[jojo]

I second reading ktani's blog, mineral oil has really helped my hair and rescued my daughters badly damaged hair over the past year.

[ChloeDharma]

Thanks for all the replies :)

I went to buy some today but nowhere had it. I ended up getting the Pune Mahabhringaraj oil but i'm now determined to get the Hesh one. I'll maybe have to wait until after xmas to go to East London where there are much better Indian grocers and cash and carrys than Croydon.
On the plus side i did get some castor oil too so that's something :)