Coconut oil, the question on my lips

[LadyHazel]

Hello beautifuls!

I have got some good questions indeed and I'd like a general discussion to brew :D

1) When you apply coconut oil to DRY hair as a leave-in or detangler NOT a pre-poo treatment(which I find really does the trick for both) are you preventing moisture from getting IN and OUT of your hair, thus essentially drying your hair out if you are trapping moisture out?

2) What methods do you have to remove coconut oil effectively without any disgusting residue?

3) What is the difference between refinded and unrefinded coconut oil, my coconut oil is pure however it has no reference to virgin/organic/unrefinded and will this be bad for my hair as a consequence?

4) What methods do you find work best when using coconut oil, do you add it to your shampoo and how does that work for YOU?

5) What other oils are out there that you'd share your positive/negative experiences with?


Personally, I love coconut oil ;):taz:

[Amber_Maiden]

1) I believe coconut oil helps to moisturize your hair, so trapping moisture in.

2) I use my conditioner to make a mask and leave that on for at least fifteen minutes before rinsing, then using diluted shampoo, then using more conditioner. Works for me.

3) It's not bad for your hair, but some do prefer virgin coconut oil. It's unheated, and some think it helps the hair more because it is more natural that way.

4) I oil my hair everyday with A LOT of oil. I'm a bit of a rarity, so you probably don't want to know. lol

5) Love avocado oil, and Triple Moon oil, as well as Neem oil. Still on the fence about castor oil- it's very thick!

[afu]

I've been combining mine half and half with aloe vera gel, which helps to lock in lots of moisture. It also helps prevent me from over oiling on dry hair.

I CO wash and that seems to get coconut oil out fine for me, no shampoo needed even after a heavy application.

Adding it to shampoo and/or leaving it on wet hair over night as a pre-wash make my hair frizz like crazy. I apply it to damp hair after showering or to dry hair combined with aloe vera

[Laylah]

1) When you apply coconut oil to DRY hair as a leave-in or detangler NOT a pre-poo treatment(which I find really does the trick for both) are you preventing moisture from getting IN and OUT of your hair, thus essentially drying your hair out if you are trapping moisture out? I put coconut oil on dry hair often and it doesn't dry out my hair. It just doesn't leave it as soft as when I mist my hair with water first.

2) What methods do you have to remove coconut oil effectively without any disgusting residue? I shampoo and condition once a week, simple as that. The shampoo I'm currently using is non-SLS, although I don't mind SLS shampoo and both work. I'm also not using cone shampoo or conditioner, although I've also used cones in the past and they work with coconut oil. No residue.

3) What is the difference between refinded and unrefinded coconut oil, my coconut oil is pure however it has no reference to virgin/organic/unrefinded and will this be bad for my hair as a consequence? Nah, refined and unrefined are both fine. I've used both and they work about the same. Currently I'm using the refined stuff, and the only difference is that the texture is smoother and there is no coconut smell.

4) What methods do you find work best when using coconut oil, do you add it to your shampoo and how does that work for YOU? I don't add anything in my shampoo - I don't want to get it moldy or anything by diluting preservatives. It may work for some people but I'd rather stay on the cautious side. I incorporate coconut oil in my routine when I want a lighter oil. I'll use it as a pre-wash, a leave in on both damp and dry hair, etc. Sometimes for a leave in I'll mix it with shea butter, especially for the ends. I oil my hair every day. When I want a heavier, softer oil I'll use olive instead.

5) What other oils are out there that you'd share your positive/negative experiences with? My other favorite oil is olive oil. It works great - makes my hair softer than coconut oil and weighs it down (which, for my hair type is a good thing. Triangle head is not good). Also, it soaks in if I oil overnight so it looks soft and shiny in the morning but not oily or greasy. Mineral oil was bad for me because it was too light and didn't weigh down my poofy wurly hair, but at the same time it didn't soak in so it left my hair oily looking. Shea butter is great for my hair. It's heavy and thick (great for the ends) and soaks in well. Cocoa butter is not heavy, so it's better for the length, and soaks in well. It's too hard to use at room temp so it has to be premixed with another oil.

[Danni5173]

Too much Coconut oil can dry your hair out as well as your skin. I'm a soap maker- while it's not bad- in excess Coconut Oil isn't great.

[RitaPG]

1) When you apply coconut oil to DRY hair as a leave-in or detangler NOT a pre-poo treatment(which I find really does the trick for both) are you preventing moisture from getting IN and OUT of your hair, thus essentially drying your hair out if you are trapping moisture out?
I don't believe this theory, I put coconut or avocado oil on my hair daily to every-other day and it doesn't feel dry at all. I oil my hair to moisturize it, and not to keep moisture out. This obviously varies due to hairtype, oil absorption and even humidity levels.
But I've read that some people use oil to keep moisture in, and if oil acts as a sealant on your hair then you may get better results if you dampen it before putting oil on it. I do it when I use Shea butter for example.


2) What methods do you have to remove coconut oil effectively without any disgusting residue?
CO washing.


3) What is the difference between refinded and unrefinded coconut oil, my coconut oil is pure however it has no reference to virgin/organic/unrefinded and will this be bad for my hair as a consequence?
I only use virgin, unrefined oil, but from what I've read from other people, refined works just as well. You can look it up online and try to find out what your coconut oil is like.


4) What methods do you find work best when using coconut oil, do you add it to your shampoo and how does that work for YOU?
I don't add it to my shampoo, and don't have any special methods, I just slather it on, braid it and let it soak for a couple of hours to overnight, and then wash it off. This works best for me.


5) What other oils are out there that you'd share your positive/negative experiences with?
Pre wash: Coconut oil
As leave-ins: Avocado oil, coconut and jojoba oil have all worked wonderfully on my hair. Shea butter is great to keep braids sleek and tamed and Monoi oil smells really nice.
Scalp oils: Jojoba oil and castor oil are my favourites, with a couple drops of Lavender, Rosemary and Tea Tree essential oils.

The only oil I ever got a bad experience with was Argan oil. It works really well both on skin and hair, but I have a sensitive nose and the smell gave me nausea.

[Shaun]

I ditched the sticky stiff hair gel and use 1 part coconut oil to 3 or 4 parts aloe gel. I like the coconut smell and it helps me to cut down on the frizz since I don't have a lot of weight yet. Which is helping me ease me through the awkward stage of growing it out. As far as cleaning it out, CO works fine for me.

[McFearless]

I find oil works best on wet hair for me. It traps in the moisture and dries softly. It doesn't do much on dry hair but sit on the surface.

[LadyHazel]

Oo thank you guys this is just great! So dry hair + oil is fine? Phew!
What is jojoba oil? I have never seen this in my local stores is it hard to obtain or something?
Thank you

[shazzshazshz]

I put coconut oil on my dry hair almost every day, just a teaspoon of it, focusing on my ends and my lengths. The night or hours before wash day I'll put on a bit more.

I shampoo my scalp and condition my lengths every 3 days and as long as I don't put *too* much coconut oil in (so that it looks wet) then it washes out easily and leaves my hair soft and touchable, neither dry nor with a residue.

Coconut oil has helped my hair become sooo soft and smooth, something it definitely was not before :D

FYI I use organic coconut oil, but I pretty much like organic everything :flower:

[RitaPG]

Jojoba oil is a waxy (not sticky) oil that mimics the skin's natural oils, and is often used for scalp oilings, I have also used it on the ends of my hair, and even as a makeup remover. It can be a little pricey but a little goes a long way, so it lasts for a long time. It shouldn't be very hard to find if you have some sort of natural products store or ethnic stores out there.
You can read some reviews on jojoba oil here http://reviews.longhaircommunity.com/showproduct.php/product/12/cat/6

[torrilin]

1) When you apply coconut oil to DRY hair as a leave-in or detangler NOT a pre-poo treatment(which I find really does the trick for both) are you preventing moisture from getting IN and OUT of your hair, thus essentially drying your hair out if you are trapping moisture out?

You're thinking about this in a black and white way, which is maybe not helpful. The environment around us is not uniform, and air does not always have the same amount of moisture.

In a dry desert environment, it's very common for the air to be able to absorb moisture from your hair. In this kind of environment, coconut oil as a leave in to seal in moisture makes a lot of sense, even on "dry" hair.

In a wet coastal climate tho, your hair tends to absorb moisture from the air. In this kind of environment, most of the time you would not want to seal your hair away from that. But! Some curly hair types have a problem with dryness, and the variable humidity can highlight the dryness in the form of frizz. So a curly haired person might choose to use oil to insulate their hair from that.


2) What methods do you have to remove coconut oil effectively without any disgusting residue?

I've never had to remove it. It takes a seriously tiny amount of coconut oil to effectively oil my hair. If I keep the dose at the right level, it just absorbs. Fwoomp!

It's fairly tricky for me to use coconut oil directly, so most of the time I end up using a conditioner that has a lot of it. I do keep food grade oil on hand, but that's as much for cooking as my hair.


3) What is the difference between refinded and unrefinded coconut oil, my coconut oil is pure however it has no reference to virgin/organic/unrefinded and will this be bad for my hair as a consequence?

I'm not sure virgin means anything with coconut oil legally, but industrially it means the oil was extracted without using heat. Organic is a regulated term in Great Britain and you can look up what it means. Then go find a farmer and ask about it. The US has different laws about it, so organic here will not mean the same thing as it will for you. But in general a legally regulated term is really precise and finicky, and a farmer who deals with it in practice can explain to you how it works on a real farm. In general tho, it's a good thing on a label, even if the legal definition isn't perfect.

Unrefined... again, not sure if there's a legal meaning (I'm pretty sure not in the US, since it didn't become a fashionable advertising buzzword here until very recently... but Great Britain has different laws, soo). What it's meant to imply is that the coconut oil hasn't been altered by industrial processes. And if you buy it in a jar or bottle from a store rather than buying a coconut, this is obviously stupid. Of COURSE it was extracted in a factory. Fractionated is a more useful word, since that means it's been made suitable for common industrial uses like making popcorn.

LHCers use a wide variety of coconut oils, fractionated or solid, organic and not, food grade and not. For me personally, I prefer food grade because I use so little on my hair per year and oils can go off. Food grade means I can cook with it and the jar will get rotated regularly long before it'd dream of going off. I choose to buy organic since some of the things it regulates here are pesticide use... it's imperfect, but I consider bugs on a farm to be part of the farm's ecosystem. Since I can't do like my best friend did as a kid and only use coconuts that grew at his house... I do the best I can.


4) What methods do you find work best when using coconut oil, do you add it to your shampoo and how does that work for YOU?

I've tried a lot of different methods including oil shampoo. For me what seems to work best is tiny nail scraping of solid coconut oil melted onto my palms and then smeared onto a braid. Wet, damp, dry, doesn't make much difference, probably because I'm using so little. I focus on the tassel of the braid, but the whole braid will get it. Voila, pretty shiny braid. I tend to leave braids in for several days tho, so the coconut oil is getting a lot of time to absorb.