Olive oil?

[H o n є y ❤]

According to this pre oiling can prevent swelling of the hair? Triumphator probably explained exactly this. But I admit I didn't understand it very well

I should probably do this more often, as I liked olive oil. But I wasn't sure if it did anything.

I'm wasn't sure if it was doing anything for me either .

[triumphator!]

To simplify what umphie is saying - olive oil is more of a protectant than a moisture-maker.

You nailed it, and so simply

According to this pre oiling can prevent swelling of the hair? Triumphator probably explained exactly this. But I admit I didn't understand it very well

I should probably do this more often, as I liked olive oil. But I wasn't sure if it did anything.

Looking back I think I got excited and went overboard, I don't blame you for not understanding my babbling

Olive oil works excellent for me, I also love it mixed with honey before a wash, it really does my hair a ton of good better than coconut oil but olive oil I buy is pretty pricey and I only use it sparingly now T_T

Honey is an excellent choice with olive oil! Honey is a humectant - it attracts water into the core of your hair (or, all that junk I said about polarity earlier). Using olive oil on top of that is like saran wrapping your hair cuticle with that moisture inside of it.

[Cheniaa]

Olive oil is absolutely excellent for a pre-wash end treatment.... especially if you use sulfates still. It's actually the only way i can use sulfates or else my hair gets fried.

[Lavenderhaze]

triumphator,
what oils would you recommend that are extremely penetrating and polar?

[triumphator!]

Coconut oil has some of the highest documented penetration, but some either love or hate it based on how difficult it can be to wash out. Avocado oil, corn oil, babbasu oil, and palm / palm kernel are the other heavy hitters. Also some animal fats, but that... sounds gross. These have 18 or less carbons, and generally a decent polarity. What we want is oils high in saturated fatty acids - so no double bonds in the chemical structure (usually occurring around carbons 9 & 10) - those make it hard to stack the molecules and cause the oil to solidify.

Also dairy products. But I don't recommend those.

Conversely, castor, olive and canola oil have low concentrations of saturated fats.

This is my super casual understanding of it all - please correct me, internet masses, if you think I am wildly off course here.

[Lavenderhaze]

thanks for replying, triumphator!
appreciate it.
interesting, one dose of olive oil used to moisturize my hair for weeks, now it is ineffective. need to change up my hair oil. Maybe I need to go for more of the heavy hitters that you mentioned.
Would shea butter also be considered to be a substance that coats, but does not penetrate, I wonder?
argan?

[triumphator!]

You will get decent results with shea butter - its fats have less than 18 carbons. It is not terrifically polar - but you may find that doesn't even matter! Plus the experimenting is the most fun of it all. Also - if olive is suddenly ineffective, you may simply have build up on the hair shaft that is preventing it from soaking in any further moisture, or may just be causing the shaft to feel stiffer than it actually is. A good clarifying shampoo could fix that.

[Nadine <3]

My hair LOVES olive oil. My hair is super thin and fine in texture but for some reason it absorbs handfuls of olive oil like it's nothing. I'm not joking when I say handfuls either. My hair also loves cocoa butter as a leave in. I wanted to like coconut oil, but even the smallest amounts will leave my hair greasy and then it goes crunchy. My skin doesn't like coconut either, but then again my skin doesn't like anything..

[Lavenderhaze]

thx, triumphator. A clarifying shampoo is a definitely worth a try.
same here nadine, coconut oil gives me the crunchies on my hair, but my skin likes it.

[Arctic]

Try and see how your hair like pre-shampoo olive oil soak. My hair loved olive oil the best of all the oils I tried, but over time it gave me terrible, terrible acne. I mostly used few drops after washing on damp hair, IIRC.