The Recipe: Coconut Oil Conditioner
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup coconut oil
- 1 tbsp vitamin E oil
- 1 tsp jojoba oil
- 10 drops essential oil of your choice
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until they are well combined and the mixture is creamy and smooth. Use this after shampooing your hair thoroughly, as you would use any other conditioner; apply it to your hair, paying extra attention to the ends of your hair. Let it set for five minutes, then thoroughly rinse it out.
If your hair is particularly dry, you might want to apply coconut oil to the ends of your hair after you’ve washed and dried it for extra moisturizing.
How It Works
A few studies have been done on the efficacy of various oils for use on human hair, but coconut oil seems to be the biggest star.
One 2003 study compared coconut oil to other oils like sunflower oil and mineral oil. “Among three oils, coconut oil was the only oil found to reduce the protein loss remarkably for both undamaged and damaged hair when used as a pre-wash and post-wash grooming product,” the study concludes(2), elaborating that: “Coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (principal fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins and, because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain, is able to penetrate inside of the hair shaft.”
Other oils are too bulky to penetrate the hair shaft, or have no affinity for hair proteins(3).
So don’t fall for other oil treatments for hair – coconut oil is the only one that has been scientifically proven to fortify hair’s strength, reducing breakage and improving the texture, weight, and color of hair.