Oil won't saturate my hair?

[JadeTigress]

I'm trying to do a heavy oiling tonight (on dry hair) before I wash my hair tomorrow. I'm using coconut oil. Before when I've used it I just put a bit on the ends (also while dry) or spread a little through my hair after washing.

But tonight I was wanting to saturate my hair as much as I can. But it just doesn't seem to want to happen. I used a ton of oil; I made a pretty significant dent in my huge jar of oil. If I have to use that much oil or more every time I do a heavy oiling, if I did it once a week the jar would maybe last me a couple months. It was a bunch of oil.

But no matter how much oil I was putting, it just wasn't feeling like there was much of anything in it. I eventually just gave up. It's been about an hour or so, and now it really doesn't feel like there's much in it. I'm going to try putting more oil on it before I go to bed and see what happens.

If I had thick, coarse, super dry hair, this would make more sense to me. But as it stands right now, I'm thoroughly confused as to why my hair is apparently soaking up that much oil (I guess that's what's happening). My hair on a normal day doesn't feel dry. If anything, it feels oily. Tonight it was already getting greasy before I put the coconut oil in my hair.

I'm not really sure what my question is. :o I guess it's, "Why am I having to use such a huge amount of oil on hair that isn't even dry, and what can I do about it?"

[RitaCeleste]

Wow! That is odd. I wet my hair with Vitika coconut oil today, then added AOHR to deep condition, Waited, rinsed, stuck Aphogee 2 min keratin reconstructor on it, rinsed, washed with Trader Joe's Nourish Spa conditioner and stuck more AOHR in. When it dried, I had to add more oil again because it was too dry. The treatments helped as it isn't a fluffy frizzball right now. I guess I'd oil it and comb it threw until the hair looked damp with it and maybe sleep with it up in a plastic cap and let it work overnight if it seems to be drinking it up??? I can't imagine it would do this every time.

[RitaCeleste]

Did you have products of any kind on your hair prior to oiling? Sorry, I'm really curious. I have porous, dry, damaged coarse hair and while my hair will drink up some oil, but its not drinking up tons of coconut oil. Do you use products for oily hair that may be there helping soak it up? Is it pure coconut oil?

[JadeTigress]

I washed my hair two days ago, and other than the shampoo and conditioner (sulfate and cone free) that I used then, I havn't used any sort of products on my hair, except for the little bit of coconut oil I used immediately after I washed, while my hair was still wet. I have Spectrum Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil. I don't know if that makes a difference.

[RitaCeleste]

It doesn't seem like it would. Its odd that it is drinking it up like that. Does your hair feel okay after it soaks in?

[battles]

I washed my hair two days ago, and other than the shampoo and conditioner (sulfate and cone free) that I used then, I havn't used any sort of products on my hair, except for the little bit of coconut oil I used immediately after I washed, while my hair was still wet. I have Spectrum Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil. I don't know if that makes a difference.

My hair really seems to soak up the coconut oil, also. We have similar hair types and use the same brand/type of oil. :shrug: I have no idea what it might be.

[Slinks]

good luck .. :-)

lol .. ETA I just read the "you're cone free" I can't help then ..

[RitaCeleste]

I have got to get that brand and try it now. I always end up looking greasy if I'm not careful with my coconut oil. That stuff sounds amazing to go into the hair that well.

[JadeTigress]

It doesn't seem like it would. Its odd that it is drinking it up like that. Does your hair feel okay after it soaks in?

I guess it feels fine. I'm not sure. The weird thing is that to look at it, it looks like how my hair looks when I havn't washed it in a few days, which it was already like that before I put the oil on. But if I feel my hair right now, it doesn't feel like there's any oil at all. Like, it feels less greasy now than it did before I put the oil in, especially my roots. I would never guess that there was oil in my hair if I hadn't put it in there myself.

[RitaCeleste]

I'm using Vatika coconut hair oil. It has lots of other ingredients besides just coconut oil. I'm assuming its a cheaper kind of coconut oil than organic too. I'd keep trying to do the heavy oiling once a week and leave it on over night if mine would soak it up like that. Is it the food grade or the hair and body grade? One is cheaper and I want to make sure I order the right product to try this out.

[Anje]

I think some of it comes from coconut oil being fairly light and thin when it's melted. It seems to take a couple palmfuls for me on the rare occasions when I heavily oil with coconut. You could always switch to something cheaper, like the Luann coconut oil, if you're worried about the speed you go through it and the cost.

Have you tried olive oil? It seems easier to slather on, and it's also supposed to penetrate hair.

[virgo75]

My hair also takes A LOT of oil to become saturated.
A "heavy" oiling can take half a bottle or more and my hair is only APL, baby fine, and medium thickness. I literally have to pour it onto my head from the bottle to have any effect. Pouring it into my hands then onto my hair is not enough.

Here is an example of what I consider and have to do for a "heavy" oiling. *WARNING* - this may be kind of a fet!shy type of video(or at least that posters other videos are like that. this one seems more straight forward to me) but it shows an Indian woman having her hair heavily oiled with Parachute Coconut Oil and they empty an entire bottle of oil onto her hair until it's wet with oil.

http://youtu.be/cV4Q4l_FgZ4

[teela1978]

Huh. A teaspoon or two and my hair looks wet with oil :shrug:

[Anje]

Huh. A teaspoon or two and my hair looks wet with oil :shrug:
Well, a teaspoon or two will definitely make my ends and lower length look wet. But to get it oily to the scalp takes a LOT for me, and I'm low-ii thickness. Doesn't take much to make it clumpy, takes gobs to make it dark.

Maybe silicones are also playing a role here?

[teela1978]

Well, a teaspoon or two will definitely make my ends and lower length look wet. But to get it oily to the scalp takes a LOT for me, and I'm low-ii thickness.

Ahh, I don't often bother with the scalp too much. I figure that hair is pretty healthy and new :)

[ArienEllariel]

I have to use 1/4 of a cup or so of coconut oil when doing a deep treatment (think scalp too) in order for it to saturate my hair. I could use more than that really but I understand it takes quite a bit to get everything fairly oily.

[RitaCeleste]

Okay, now I'll try my scalp, I usually figure it has enough oil so I've been just doing the ends. Mine gets wet pretty quick but I haven't measured. I bought plain coconut oil at Walmart to try but it didn't seem too different from Vitika on how much oil it takes.

[JadeTigress]

Thanks for the replies, peepz.

RitaCeleste, I think mine's the hair and body grade. I looked on the container, and it didn't say which one it is. But it does keep talking about using it on your hair and body. So I'm just assuming from that. ETA: This is the one I have: http://www.takeherb.com/product.asp?PID=30880&gdftrk=gdfV21061_a_7c270_a_7c3767_a_7c30880

And that is video is how wet I was trying to get my hair. Now I'm curious, and I want to find out exactly how much it would take to do that. I think that may happen whenever I do my next oiling.

I havn't tried olive oil yet, I've been wanting to. I just reached for the coconut since I ran out of olive oil and I havn't had a chance to go get a new bottle.

[kitschy]

Last night I put a cup of mayonnaise on my hair. It wasn't enough to make a dent toward saturation. So I added a half cup of coconut oil - put on a plastic cap and slept all night. This morning I CO washed with Tame Creme Rinse and still I'm not oily at all.

My hair laughs at oils.

[RitaCeleste]

Well, I tried to get my hair wet down to my scalp. It took quite a bit and it isn't really soaked. I thought it was pretty wet but an hour later I had to put more on it. How long should I leave the oil on? I'm willing to sleep with it in since it used so much. I've got a cap on over it. If this doesn't kill the frizz, nothing will.:D I've never used this much oil on my hair. I'm learning something today!

[JadeTigress]

I just got done COing mine out. It was in for probably 17 or 18 hours. I was going to go for 24, but I was bored and decided to go ahead and wash my hair. I guess I'll see how it turned out once it's dry, since sometimes my hair can feel really weird while it's wet when I've used stuff on it, but feel perfect once it dries. Right now, it feels kind of stiff, and bordering on crunchy, but not quite there yet. But that's just up around my head. My ends feel like they normally do after I wash. However, I did use a different conditioner this time (Suave Naturals Juicy Green Apple) since I'm out of my regular one (which is the Suave Naturals Aloe & Waterlily), and I did feel like I was having a harder time washing it out than I usually do. So I don't know if that's due to the oil or the conditioner or both.

[Vanilla Mint]

I find olive and other vegetable-based oils do nothing as far as penetrating my hair. Even coconut oil barely does the trick, but jojoba oil? God send! Maybe try different oils and see how your hair reacts to them.

[feralnature]

I have my head oiled and wrapped in a plastic bag as I type this.

I use LuAnna coconut oil from the baking section at Walmart. I use palmfuls of it to saturate the middle of my hair on down the ends. I do not put oil on my scalp or head hair. It is warm here and the oil is no longer in a solid form, but completely liquid now.

I think when a person starts using coconut oil for the first time, the hair is very thirsty and it sucks up more oil than it does later on when it no longer needs as much oil. I visualize each hair shaft with cuticles peeling and sticking up, now with oil under each raised cuticle, making it closer to what it used to be.

As far as oilings between washings, I use a tad rubbed into the ends, eliminating the look and feel of damaged ends. This is especially good for non-trimmers.

[Emmental]

This happens to me with coconut oil, but it doesn't happen with olive oil. I also get much better results with olive oil. I do; however, still like to use a tiny bit of coconut oil on my ends, but overall, I have to go with olive oil because it just works better for me.

I would try different oils and see if any of them help.