Mineral/Baby Oil

[snowyx]

Hello everyone,

I read that many LHC'ers put a couple of drops of baby oil on their hair. I want to start doing this too, but the only baby oil I have at home is with lavender. The ingredients say 'mineral oil, fragrance'. My question is if I can still use this, or if the lavender fragrance is bad for hair.

Has anyone tried it?

Thank you!

[Nadine <3]

I think all the baby oil has fragrance in it, since the regular stuff smells like baby powder. I had some of the plain mineral oil they sell for constipation, I tried a small drop on my hair and didn't like it. It was way to heavy and didn't seem to soak into my hair at all like the olive oil I like to use does. You might have better luck with it having thicker hair than I do, mine is very thin and easily weighed down. I think that added fragrance should be okay.

[Madora]

Hello everyone,

I read that many LHC'ers put a couple of drops of baby oil on their hair. I want to start doing this too, but the only baby oil I have at home is with lavender. The ingredients say 'mineral oil, fragrance'. My question is if I can still use this, or if the lavender fragrance is bad for hair.

Has anyone tried it?

Thank you! As long as your mineral oil contains ONLY the MO plus the fragrance, then your hair will be fine. Just use it very sparingly and never apply it directly from the bottle on to your hair. Apply the drop on to your palms, then run your palms through your hair several times.

[meteor]

Unless you react to lavender or whatever else is in the fragrance, it should be OK. Just keep it off your scalp and skin if you are worried about the additive. :)

[lunalocks]

I use generic baby oil. It has fragrance. Wish it didn't but they all do. Johnson's baby oil seems to be the strongest so I get the generic. Pure mineral oil is too thick.

[snowyx]

As long as your mineral oil contains ONLY the MO plus the fragrance, then your hair will be fine. Just use it very sparingly and never apply it directly from the bottle on to your hair. Apply the drop on to your palms, then run your palms through your hair several times.

Thank you Madora!
Do you usually use it on damp hair, as a leave in? Does it make tangles easier to comb through?

[Madora]

Thank you Madora!
Do you usually use it on damp hair, as a leave in? Does it make tangles easier to comb through?

You're welcome, snowyx. From what I learned from former LHC member, Ktani, mineral oil works best on hair that has been clarified first. That being said, it is best used on damp hair (not sopping wet). Try 2 drops to begin with. Yes, it definitely helps with detangling! That's exactly why I use it, after shampooing. I use 5 drops and don't wash it out. It's a great moisturizer and also helps tame frizzies. I just love it! You can also put it on dry hair, but again, use it sparingly.

If you have tangle trouble, you might want to experiment with MO on your comb tines. Get a q tip (cotton baby swab), dip it in a tiny bit of MO, then take the oily swab and apply it to both sides of your comb's tines, then gently begin to detangle your hair, working in thin, pencil width strips, from the bottom of the strands up to the roots. MO also washes out easily in your next shampoo..and best of all, is very inexpensive! A bottle will last for ages!

[lunalocks]

I have my baby oil in a tiny spritz bottle and do one spritz on my hand, rub hands together and gently apply to ends. I do this on dam[p hair after washing and at night on dry hair on the ends. This with catnip tea rinses and leave on the ends has dramatically cut down on splits.

[Nadine <3]

So wait, is baby oil different than the mineral oil they sell for constipation? Now I am wondering if I should try some baby oil instead and see if that's different.

[lunalocks]

Nadine, it is still mineral oil, but thinner and, unfortunately, has a bit of fragrance. The good news is that you can buy it in small travel bottles. It lasts for a LONG time.

Some people like the fragrance. My family love the smell of my hair. I would rather not have it.

[lapushka]

So wait, is baby oil different than the mineral oil they sell for constipation? Now I am wondering if I should try some baby oil instead and see if that's different.

Yep, definitely different. Baby oil is thinner. And the fragrance should be fine. No worries there.

[snowyx]

Thank you everyone for all of the responses. Now all that is left for me to do is to find a way to work baby oil into my routine!! I really need to cut things out of all the stuff I put on my hair... I need to simplify, and learn that less is more!

[arr]

I love using baby oil. I shampoo, condition, rinse and towel dry until damp. Then I mix a dime sized amount of conditioner with about 6 drops of coconut/olive oil mix and comb through. Then I divide my hair in half and seal everything in with 1 drop of baby oil on each half. I concentrate on the ends and then work it through to about ear level. Use it very sparingly. I never use more than two drops, mostly 1 drop for all my hair but I switched to 2 drops because of the winter weather. At your length you definitely don't need more than one drop, especially if you use other oils and leave ins. My method is basically a variation on the LOC method which I highly recommend.

[snowyx]

I love using baby oil. I shampoo, condition, rinse and towel dry until damp. Then I mix a dime sized amount of conditioner with about 6 drops of coconut/olive oil mix and comb through. Then I divide my hair in half and seal everything in with 1 drop of baby oil on each half. I concentrate on the ends and then work it through to about ear level. Use it very sparingly. I never use more than two drops, mostly 1 drop for all my hair but I switched to 2 drops because of the winter weather. At your length you definitely don't need more than one drop, especially if you use other oils and leave ins. My method is basically a variation on the LOC method which I highly recommend.

I've heard about the LOC method! Could you please explain your variation? From my understanding first is a leave in (spray from a store maybe?) then oil, like (baby oil or coconut) and then cream? I don't have any ideas on what I could use for cream, though. I sometimes use a curl enhancing smoothie on my hair from sheamoisture, which is creamy.

Thanks for your help.

[Nadine <3]

Nadine, it is still mineral oil, but thinner and, unfortunately, has a bit of fragrance. The good news is that you can buy it in small travel bottles. It lasts for a LONG time.

Some people like the fragrance. My family love the smell of my hair. I would rather not have it.


Yep, definitely different. Baby oil is thinner. And the fragrance should be fine. No worries there.

Thank you, maybe I will pick up a travel size bottle of baby oil. I need to find something to put on my damaged layers, I S&D them weekly, deep condition, sleep on silk, and I use olive oil as a leave in but I'm still getting splits.

[arr]

I've heard about the LOC method! Could you please explain your variation? From my understanding first is a leave in (spray from a store maybe?) then oil, like (baby oil or coconut) and then cream? I don't have any ideas on what I could use for cream, though. I sometimes use a curl enhancing smoothie on my hair from sheamoisture, which is creamy.

Thanks for your help.

I'm not tech savvy at all so I can't give you the link but there is a very popular thread on the LOC method here in the first few pages. Basically it stands for Liquid, Oil and Cream. For me the liquid is the water left in my hair, the oil is my conditioner mixed with the olive/coconut oil, and instead of cream I use baby oil to seal everything in. Because unlike coconut and olive oil, baby oil doesn't penetrate the hair, it coats it, trapping all the moisture in the hair for longer. Maybe lapushkawill be by again and can give you more info since I believe she started that thread.

[Nadine <3]

I've heard about the LOC method! Could you please explain your variation? From my understanding first is a leave in (spray from a store maybe?) then oil, like (baby oil or coconut) and then cream? I don't have any ideas on what I could use for cream, though. I sometimes use a curl enhancing smoothie on my hair from sheamoisture, which is creamy.

Thanks for your help.


I'm not tech savvy at all so I can't give you the link but there is a very popular thread on the LOC method here in the first few pages. Basically it stands for Liquid, Oil and Cream. For me the liquid is the water left in my hair, the oil is my conditioner mixed with the olive/coconut oil, and instead of cream I use baby oil to seal everything in. Because unlike coconut and olive oil, baby oil doesn't penetrate the hair, it coats it, trapping all the moisture in the hair for longer. Maybe lapushkawill be by again and can give you more info since I believe she started that thread.

Here you go, I think this thread will be helpful for you, Snowyx!
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=118167

[snowyx]

Thank you everyone! Nandine, I will take a look at that thread. Thanks again. :)

[hendy]

I got mine from a pharmacy :) just pure liquid paraffin (refined mineral oil) without perfume and it's much cheaper than the baby oil bottles
just transfered it into a spray bottle (it's more convenient, I do it for all my liquid oils)

[kitcatsmeow]

I love the lavender BO :) Been using it in my hair for years....

[catasa]

As others have said, I dont think the fragrance should be a problem at all!

I also use MO from the pharmacy, pure liquid paraffin, and am very happy with it. Contrary to most others I use it on streaming/dripping wet hair though, straight from a last dunking in the shower, and I also use a bit more than usual. I use it as my only leave in, spreading a couple of drops on my palms and between my fingers and distributing/raking it through my hair mostly concentrated on the lengths, with most on the ends. I repeat this two or three times, giving me 5-6 drops in all, and then I end by scrunching my hair. Then I fold it up in an old t-shirt for a while to soak up some water (which will also soak up some of the oil I suppose).

I suggest trying it on damp hair first according to how Madora and most others use it, but if that doesn´t work maybe you could try also to use it on wet hair. I have personally never had good results with using it on top of leave-in conditioner or anything else, but there are probably many others for whom that works also.

[lapushka]

Here you go, I think this thread will be helpful for you, Snowyx!
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=118167

That's so sweet of you for posting the link! Thanks! :flower: