What's the difference between a deep conditioner and a hot oil treatment?

**openeyeddreamer** · May 8th, 2014, 08:30 PM

Sorry for asking such a dumb question, but I've read that you should do both at least once a week. I have also read that a deep conditioner is only for damaged hair, colored hair, etc. and that the hot oil treatment is for split ends. But there has to be more to it than that.

What makes these 2 treatments different from one another? Don't they provide the same benefits?

**Quasiquixotic** · May 8th, 2014, 09:17 PM

Oooo, I'd like to know what the hair goddesses (and gods) opinion on this is too!

**Sharysa** · May 8th, 2014, 09:46 PM

Personally, it depends hugely on your hair-type and care.

I would die if I had to do weekly oil treatments or deep-conditioning every week, because I'm lazy and my hair is stupidly thick and resilient. As long as I trim my splits and keep my hair braided most of the time, I'm fine with post-shower oiling twice a week. I only need pre-shower oiling every one or two months.

There is such a thing as too much moisture--too much of anything is a bad thing.

**Nope** · May 8th, 2014, 09:53 PM

Oil doesn't moisturizer your hair; it penetrates and repairs your hair cuticles, or coats them, depending on which oil you use. I used to heavy oil twice a week, but I haven't done it in a long time because it seeks unecessary to me now. Deep conditioners that are marketed for damaged hair are usually protein-laden to repair damage, or just very thick and heavy. You can use an everyday conditioner to deep condition by just leaving it in for like 30 minutes. You could even use a deep conditioner every time you wash and don't leave it in as long.

**MungoMania** · May 9th, 2014, 12:28 AM

If your hair is on the thick side, a hot oil treatment can really add shine and managablity while helping to prevent and repair split ends. A deep conditioning treatment is what I use for my dry, color treated hair. Protein laden, it seems to rebuild my hair strands. Good for anyone who has dry, thin brittle damaged hair.

**echoofnoise** · May 9th, 2014, 02:45 AM

I am arabic and I have this jar of product which says on english Deep Conditioning and on arabic Hot oil treatment, I am confused.

**florenonite** · May 9th, 2014, 03:08 AM

Originally Posted by openeyeddreamer

Sorry for asking such a dumb question, but I've read that you should do both at least once a week. I have also read that a deep conditioner is only for damaged hair, colored hair, etc. and that the hot oil treatment is for split ends. But there has to be more to it than that.

What makes these 2 treatments different from one another? Don't they provide the same benefits?

Both? Not either/or? A weekly hot oil treatment OR deep conditioning sounds sensible (more than my hair needs, but then, I don't colour or heat style my hair, and it's pretty resilient), but both sounds like overkill. It's true that they're not identical, but unless you've got seriously dry/damaged hair, doing both is probably way more moisture than your hair needs.

**meteor** · May 9th, 2014, 11:11 AM

Hot (it should only be warm) oil treatment is only one popular type of deep conditioning treatment. There are many, many others, most notably protein treatments: either commercial products (Aphogee 2-step, Mega-tek, etc) or DIY (gelatin, powdered hydrolyzed protein, beer, etc).
Deep treatments can be focused on moisture (often humectants like honey, aloe, glycerin) or strengthening (proteins or popular herbs like henna/cassia/amla/etc).
If hair is damaged/porous, it needs both patch-repair, strengthening (proteins) and moisture (humectants and oils). If hair is low-porosity and virgin, chances are it doesn't want anything other than gentle and effective cleansing. Low-porosity hair tends to get easily weighed down and coated by deep treatments. So YMMV.

Oiling is best used as a pre-poo, whereas deep conditioning can often come after cleansing. Of course, there are people who do oil rinses after shampooing, but the convention is to use warm oils on dry hair because of hydrophobic (water-repelling) nature of oils.

Here are some good blog articles on this:
Deep Conditioning: Everything You Need to Know: http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/...-you-need.html
Deep Conditioning: What Ingredients Penetrate hair: http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/...dients-in.html - It talks about penetrating conditioning agents for unprocessed and processed (damaged) hair. More ingredients penetrate and patch-repair damaged hair, obviously.