What's the purpose of oiling and then washing it out?

[jaine]

I apologize if this is a silly question. What's the purpose of doing a deep oiling overnight and then washing out the oil in the morning ...doesn't the effect go away as soon as the oil is gone? Or when you do it does some of the oil stay in your hair somehow after you wash it? I guess I never understood because the oil all comes out when I wash my hair and then my hair looks exactly the same as before.

[julliams]

I think some oils like coconut and jojoba are supposed to penetrate the hair - I'm not 100% on that though. I just wanted to say that you have absolutely gorgeous hair!

[Barniie]

its something to do with the oil contains the moisture in the hair all night, letting it absorb or something. and washing the oil out you are left with the extra locked in moisture... not sure

[christine1989]

I often wonder that too. The way I think of it is it may not do your hair any good but it sure won't harm it. I usually leave oil on for a good 1-2 hours so I'm sure it soaks in all the way before washing it out.

[fleurinc]

For me it allows extra condition time & my hair is softer and more manageable afterwards. I do jojoba oil the night before I CWC.

[missfortune9335]

Aha, this one I can answer! :) There are some oils, coconut oil being one of them, that can actually penetrate the hair. It needs to be left on for a while for this to happen though, at least an hour or two, or overnight.
But also, for some people (like me!) washing can be tricky. My length does not like water, and is always poofy and 'floaty' after I've washed it. My scalp however, needs to be washed every other day. So I oil the length from the ears down quite liberally before I wash to protect it from the water. That way my scalp gets nice and clean and my length stays soft and moisturized. ;)

[jaine]

For me it allows extra condition time & my hair is softer and more manageable afterwards. I do jojoba oil the night before I CWC.

What do you mean by "manageable" ... Less tangly? Or less slippery so it's easier to put in an updo? Or something else?
(this is another thing I've always been confused about...to me my hair is easier to manage when it's less slippery because it stays in an updo easier ... but I'm not sure if that's what it means to other people)

[luluj]

Hmmm?? Good question. I am very new to using oils for deep conditioning, in fact I just purchased my first jar of coconut oil a few days ago and still haven't done a deep condition treatment with it just yet. However, I have always been a big fan of deep conditioning treatments (small packets from Sally's and such) which I apply and leave in overnight. I rinse them out the following morning (no shampoo, just warm water) and they leave my hair feeling and looking just awesome! Perhaps I'll give the coconut oil a try tonight, although I suspect I may need to use shampoo rather than just water in the morning. Somehow I think ktani just may be able to explain how it all works!;)

[estherbeth]

I can say that my hair definitely soaks up the olive oil I put in it. I've been just getting into putting oils in my hair, but I oil my braid tassel almost dripping wet, then roll it up in basically a rag curl with a piece of plastic lining the cloth so the cloth doesn't soak up all the oil. When I take the cloth off after leaving it overnight, the piece of hair has soaked up enough to be just barely able to tell there's oil in it. And my ends stay very soft even after washing. I'm convinced of the good in oiling, now! :cheese:

[ericthegreat]

I apologize if this is a silly question. What's the purpose of doing a deep oiling overnight and then washing out the oil in the morning ...doesn't the effect go away as soon as the oil is gone? Or when you do it does some of the oil stay in your hair somehow after you wash it? I guess I never understood because the oil all comes out when I wash my hair and then my hair looks exactly the same as before.

Actually, even after you have washed your hair after you have oiled it, a small amount of oil has already been absorbed into the hair.
As for what benefits oils give to your hair, an oil helps to make hair softer, more flexible, shinier, and it helps prevent moisture loss by locking in the natural moisture that is already present in your hair.

And certain oils like coconut oil have been proven to help strengthen hair because they can penetrate deeply into the hair.

[Dragon]

I find it helps to not strip out as much natural oils why shampooing and some oils penetrate into the hair as others has said.

[Dragon]

And coconut oil helps to prevent protein loss.

[TrudieCat]

For a detailed answer, I would check out the first post of the "hair care of movie stars from the past - oil shampoo" thread. LHC treasure ktani has compiled some really interesting research re: the ability of coconut oil to penetrate the hair. When you put oil on your hair and then shampoo, the process of shampooing actually allows some of the oil to be absorbed more fully into the hair than if you had just let the oil sit on the hair. I would highly recommend some of the links ktani has posted in the first post of that thread for a much more detailed description - they are really fascinating. :) See especially ktani's links to 2003 research on pre-wash oiling.

ETA: Both the movie star shampoo thread and the uses of coconut oil thread, also featuring fabulous info compiled by ktani, can be found in the herbal hair care/recipes section of the boards.

Er... can you tell I think ktani is awesome? :o

[WhisperingMoon]

Thank you very much for asking, because I was wondering myself. I need to research which oils penetrate the most...i heard avocado oil does, but cannot seem to find it in any of the stores near me.

[Darkhorse1]

for me, I always do an olive oil treatment on the ends to soften them up. Coconut and olive oil have been proven to penetrate hair shaft to strengthen it. However, at least for me, I could never go out in public with oil in my hair--it would look stringy and feel gross. I find that I can wet my hair, put on olive oil on the ends, wait and then clarify and my ends are super soft and shiny. :)

[McFearless]

The oil acts like a buffer to protect the length/ends from shampoo.

[Nera]

Getting out tagnles, ohhhhh my. I oil my hair as a lubricant to get out tangles in the shower. Then I wash it out again.

[torrilin]

Step 1 in oiling for me was trying oil as detangler. Jojoba and olive oil have both worked for that. Coconut oil doesn't work as well, tho it does work if the house is nice and warm. The idea here is to use the oil to provide more "slip", so that tangles work out easily and there's less mechanical damage from detangling.

Step 2 was trying deep oiling, on both wet and dry hair. Jojoba didn't particularly work for this, since it left my hair rather coated. Olive oil worked a bit better. Coconut oil works a lot better. My hair is pretty dry, and wet oiling seems to work better at locking in moisture.

For both of these, the benefits are most noticeable towards the ends of my hair. At BSL length, my hair's natural dryness starts to get the best of it, and I get split ends a lot more easily. This is also the length where your hair will start to fight with chair backs and car seatbelts and backpack straps. That means if I'm going out, my hair is at least in a braid, and oiled braids look pretty. Oiled updos aren't particularly noticeable.

The downside of these techniques is they make a normal haircare routine a lot more complex. More steps, more fussing. I don't like that.

So... I moved on to step 3. Oil shampoo. The idea is to use an exceedingly plain shampoo that is mostly cleansers, add oil (mostly coconut oil, tho others may work), and get a fairly simple routine that lets me dodge as much fiddling as possible. My hair is long, so putting it up already demands fiddling. And I'm pretty intolerant of fuss.

Two products vs five+, and two steps vs scads more. Mix shampoo and oil in the shower to wash hair. Oil while wet if the ends feel dry. The oil shampoo provides a very light and even oiling, so detangling (in theory) should be easy.

Dunno yet if the oil shampoo idea will actually be a winner. It usually takes a couple months of using a given shampoo or conditioner for me to have a clear idea of how well it works. Right now, I'm at the start of 1 bottle's worth of experimenting. I count an idea as working if I want to just rebuy at the end of a bottle.

[Avital88]

I thought oiling was more for the scalp especially indian oils with herbs, so you leave them overnight to work.

[Vercelli]

I thought oiling can preserve hair, especially the ends. At least this is what oiling does to my hair, and I oil a lot and regularly (though I only wash once a week). Depending on the type of oil the oil can penetrate the hair as it has been said in this thread before.
Well, I kind of like oiling my hair, I don't know why. Try it out, maybe you like it too.

[SpinDance]

My hair tends to be very dry, although my scalp does not. Before LHC I used various coney serums to try to make my hair feel soft, not tangle and break, and be shiny. It gave me mixed results. Since coming to LHC I've been trying oiling, first as a leave-in instead of coney serums, later as leave in and deep treatments, and now, as so many are doing, I'm also experimenting with oil shampoo.

I find that I no longer need or get good results with cones. I have switched completely to using oils. I do a heavy application from about the ears down once or twice a week, the day or evening before I'll wash. I often do CO washings, as I find that to be best for my hair. It leaves enough oils that I have shine, smoothness and easy detangling, but not so much that it looks at all oily or greasy. I sometimes still use some oil or Panacea on the ends and length as an after wash leave in, but have been finding that to be unnecessary as my hair slowly gets in better condition from the oil saturation.

Oil shampoo has given me mixed results so far, but I am still in the early experimentation steps with it. I am recording details in my LHC blog. My current theory is that I will end up using a combination, mostly CO but when I need shampoo I'll use oil shampoo instead of CWC.