Best oil for dry curly ends?

[Fluffy01]

I'm thinking of trying argan oil again but the last brand I tried did nothing . Thanks!

[Emanuelle]

You would need moisturizing, penetrating oils like coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, etc :) most other oils just ''sit'' on the hair without penetrating it. Good luck! :)

(Oh, and make sure the oil is 100% pure).

[Fluffy01]

Thank you! I tried coconut oil, and it didn't do much either. :( Olive oil works pretty well, but does leave my hair a bit greasier than I like since I do mostly WO.

[Firefox7275]

What do you want the oil to do, penetrate or coat the surface and provide protection? Have you tried a chelating wash? Might just be hard water or even oil build up. Are your ends porous? If so anything rich in lauric acid (coconut, palm kernel, babassu, tucuma butter) or oleic acid (argan, olive, avocado, sweet almond). Oils are not moisturising, they repel water/ act as anti humectants.

Do you need to do a hydrolysed protein treatment? Gelatin is the only rich natural source. If your ends are damaged (even if that is through normal 'weathering'/ ageing) ceramides, 18-MEA and panthenol can be of use and are all natural. Komaza Care Matani repair treatment spray should work with water only.
"Distilled Water, Aloe Vera, Allantoin, Bamboo Extract, Pro Vitamin B5, Sunflower Oil, Olive Squalene, Ceramides, Vitamin B6, Cystine, Hydrolyzed Silk Amino Acid, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Citric Acid, Phthalates-Free Vegetarian Fragrance, Gluconolactone and Sodium Benzoate(natural preservative)."
http://www.komazahaircare.com/matani-repair-treatment.html

[Leeloo]

Firefox, would oils like emu, coconut and olive actually penetrate the hair shaft and moisturize?

[Anne10]

In my opinion/experience: jojoba.

[chen bao jun]

you want to use oil to seal the moisture in. so you need your hair to be damp when you apply the oil. I've had luck using a spray of rosewater, aloe vera gel and a tsp of glycerine on my ends and then sealing with a very slight amount of olive, coconut or avocado oil or else a mixture of cocoa butter and shea butter (but that might too heavy for someO

[Firefox7275]

Firefox, would oils like emu, coconut and olive actually penetrate the hair shaft and moisturize?

Penetrate yes: emu oil is rich in oleic acid, coconut in lauric acid, olive in oleic acid. Only small straight chain fatty acids like oleic and lauric acid can easily penetrate, consider everything rich in long chain or polyunsaturated fatty acids non penetrating.
http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2005/cc056n05/p00283-p00295.pdf

Moisturise not as such: that would imply adding or increasing or attracting water, oils alone generally cannot do that they repel water, they are sealants/ anti humectants/ occlusives. Hair doesn't necessarily need more water, in fact too much water can be damaging. Feeling dry or brittle is not necessarily the same as being dehydrated, that feeling can be down to product build up, cuticle being raised or damaged, excessive cleansing stripping the surface fats, lack of elasticity and so on.
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/mineral-oil-versus-coconut-oil-which-is-better
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2010/09/dry-hair-is-normal-part-2-of-2.html
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/curlchemist-porosity-and-curly-hair?page=2

[melusine963]

I use coconut oil. Because it soaks in, it never leaves my ends looking greasy (unless I've used too much, of course). It definitely makes my hair more manageable and less dry-looking and flyaway.

[spirals]

My ends are damaged from color. I am really liking grapeseed oil on them overnight. I have no idea why it works, but it does.

[Anne10]

http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2005/cc056n05/p00283-p00295.pdf

Thanks, Firefox7275, that was an interesting read. The study used Indian (from India) hair - hair completely the opposite of mine. I know from past experience that hair products marketed for Asian/SE Asian hair don't work on my hair. How can we know if hair type makes any difference as far as oil absorbency?

[Firefox7275]

Thanks, Firefox7275, that was an interesting read. The study used Indian (from India) hair - hair completely the opposite of mine. I know from past experience that hair products marketed for Asian/SE Asian hair don't work on my hair. How can we know if hair type makes any difference as far as oil absorbency?

Good question!

Structurally hair is hair, it's made of the same molecules and there are the same 'diffusion points' between the cuticle scales, the vast majority of us respond in a similar manner to permanent chemical treatments for example - some faster or slower/ greater or lesser resistance but the chemicals ultimately penetrate. What is more relevant than ethnicity is arguably your hair properties: porosity, coarse or fine, perhaps curl pattern. Porosity obviously significantly affects penetration (studies show of water, of hydrolysed protein, of other actives), which is why it's not worth focussing on penetrating oils if you have low porosity hair and partly why some of the studies on ingredient penetration look at damaged hair.

Curlier and damaged hair tends to be higher porosity due to the cuticle not laying flat, this damage includes 'weathering' the normal daily wear that occurs to hair that is some years old (so potentially relevant to long hairs). Asian hair is more likely to be coarser straighter and lower porosity, but none of this is universal since we are talking about huge continents and different ethnic groups/ subgroups, there are fine haired and curly haired Asians.

Also be aware that demonstrating something penetrates (objective) is not the same as suggesting it will give a desirable cosmetic effect, since to a greater or lesser extent the desirability of the cosmetic effect is personal taste/ subjective. You might head off to the Movie Star Method (coconut oil shampoo) thread and look at the hair types/ properties/ ethnicity of people appearing to get coconut oil penetration, the negative effects that were attributed to saturation.

A selection of other evidence, sorry too lazy to reread them myself to see what hair was used
http://journal.scconline.org//pdf/cc1999/cc050n06/p00327-p00339.pdf
http://journal.scconline.org//pdf/cc2001/cc052n03/p00169-p00184.pdf
http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2003/cc054n02/p00175-p00192.pdf
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1023666X.2012.638435#.UgTubZKpuSo (abstract only)
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1518537.html (patent often erroneously referred to as a study)

[chen bao jun]

Very interesting, Firefox.
My hair has always behaved in an interesting manner because its highly curly and coarse and low porosity, which is an odd combination, apparently. Black hairdressers always struggled with me because they knew what to do with the curls (that is, if you want to get rid of them) but were not used to dealing with either coarse hair or low porosity hair, though as you say this exists in some black people (obviously, because I'm one of them).

[Neecola]

I'm not sure in what thread it was that she posted it, but I seem to remember pinkycat used a glycerin mix on her ends and bagged it overnight and it worked really well for her. I'm sure if you leave her a message on her profile, she could tell you what she used.

I like coconut and olive oil. I tried argan which was nice but I didn't see enough of a difference to justify the cost. I prefer to do a heavy oiling the night before a wash but since you are WO, that wouldn't help you much. Have you tried diluting the oil with aloe gel?

[spirals]

I think it was an SMT, bagged.

[jacqueline101]

When my perm dried my ends out I used coconut, argan, Brazilian nut, and vitamin e oil. I mix them in small amounts .25 ounce add 8 ounces of water to spray bottle shake well lightly spray on dry ends. I found if you braid your hair then spray it seems to concentrate on the ends.

[spirals]

Oh, yeah; I like to braid before oiling the ends. It makes it easier.

[Anne10]

Thanks, Firefox7275. Good reading. I like to know the science behind hair products.