The Hair Oils Thread

[mira-chan]

Camellia oil (aka tea seed oil or camellia seed oil) and safflower oils are high in monounsaturated fatty acids, similar concentrations to avocado and olive oil.

Palm kernel oil is similar to coconut oil in composition.

[pariate]

Silver&Gold, this is great! I have one that you could add to your list. Broccoli seed oil sits on the hair (like jojoba etc) and is good for giving shine and gloss.

[Silver & Gold]

Camellia oil (aka tea seed oil or camellia seed oil) and safflower oils are high in monounsaturated fatty acids, similar concentrations to avocado and olive oil.

Palm kernel oil is similar to coconut oil in composition.

I've added your oils to the list. I had already added the Palm Kernel oil, I think at the same time you were posting your response. The palm kernel oil makes sense since it and coconut oil come from the same plant source.

Silver&Gold, this is great! I have one that you could add to your list. Broccoli seed oil sits on the hair (like jojoba etc) and is good for giving shine and gloss.

I added the Broccoli Seed oil information to the list in my first post. Thanks.


It's great to see so many responses. Evidently we all want a thread to compile this information. It should help a lot of newbies to sort things out as well.

[Silver & Gold]

Oh, great thread idea

I'd like to offer up some of the hair oil polls I made, where users voted on what worked long term and what didn't work. If we come up with a substantial list of new oils that I don't have on the polls, I can always make another one and add it to the index of polls

Great idea, and thanks for helping to put this all together in one place!

[Silver & Gold]

Perhaps you can speak to the MODS of this board and get this info added to the Hair Article that I authored initially but that quite a number have been adding to over the years in the ARTICLES section of this site.

I think this useful info.

I heard a rumour that Coconut Oil can help to preserve color. Who knows if this is so????


heidi w.

This sounds like a good idea. I'll check into this.

[freznow]

In a thread I posted a long while back, this link was offered up and was extremely helpful.

(And I find it really strange that I was JUST looking into this this morning, and rediscovered my old thread, and now there's a new one! Cool!)

[Silver & Gold]

In a thread I posted a long while back, this link was offered up and was extremely helpful.

(And I find it really strange that I was JUST looking into this this morning, and rediscovered my old thread, and now there's a new one! Cool!)

Well clearly we were on the same wavelength today. Thanks for adding this. Perhaps someone wiser and more ambitious than I will one day take all the information and links that are being added and make a comprehensive article on all the findings offered up.

At least with everybody throwing in their information and links there is one thread where a person can go to find a lot of information on oil for hair. Yay! The thread you linked has a lot of information to keep me busy reading for a while.

[wintersun99]

Well, well - this explains (in theory) why I never really liked jojoba oil but love coconut oil! I think going forward I will use my jojoba oil for face and skin and stick to coconut oil on my hair.

[Velouria]

Looking at my chemistry book, it appears that "straight chain glyceride" is another term for saturated fat. Coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, babassu oil (just another variety of palm, but you may want to add it to the list) etc.
Actually, the monounsaturated oils (olive, avocado, camellia etc.) are not really straight chains, though they are straighter than the polyunsaturates (sunflower, etc.). Perhaps their (monounsaturates) penetrability is a bit less than the saturated fats/oils?

ETA: It's a simple matter to google any oil in question to find out whether it's saturated, mono, or poly....

[Silver & Gold]

Looking at my chemistry book, it appears that "straight chain glyceride" is another term for saturated fat. Coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, babassu oil (just another variety of palm, but you may want to add it to the list) etc.
Actually, the monounsaturated oils (olive, avocado, camellia etc.) are not really straight chains, though they are straighter than the polyunsaturates (sunflower, etc.). Perhaps their (monounsaturates) penetrability is a bit less than the saturated fats/oils?

ETA: It's a simple matter to google any oil in question to find out whether it's saturated, mono, or poly....

How true, Google is a powerful tool for finding information. Much of my research into any topic begins with a Google search and some online reading. From there I end up borrowing books from the library or buying books for continued reference depending on how immersed I wish to be in the topic.

Concerning the ability of any particular oil to penetrate the hair shaft, I'm still not certain if all saturated fats penetrate the hair fiber or if there is other criteria involved. For instance, coconut oil might penetrate the hair shaft because it is high in Lauric Acid. Butter is also high in saturated fat but I have no information that butter penetrates the hair shaft. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm just not sure I understand what gives an oil the qualities it needs to get inside the hair fiber.

I think we need someone with a microscope, lots of hair and various oils. Once we determine how/why some oils penetrate and others do not I might have to re-categorize my list of oils. But until I know more, this is the best information I have at the moment.

So where are our scientific longhairs? Come on, I know you're out there!