Editor’s Note: This list is SUBJECTIVE and based on the experience of the author. It serves as an EXAMPLE of how to critically assess products in your hair regimen.
By Jc of The Natural Haven Bloom
In general, having many products (product junkies) many of which you do not use is not encouraged. However, without trying several products, you may not find what really works for you. My rule is to buy small sample pots whenever possible, this allows you to have enough to test and little to waste. Over the years, I have used many oil and many oil combinations. I have loved some, felt indifferent to others and outright hated some. In the end by trying out these out I have ended up knowing which oils work for me and those that do not. Here is my grading system:
Coconut oil – A
Did you guess the top grade would go to coconut oil? I did not really start using coconut oil until about 3-4 years ago when I read scientific papers on how useful it could be (prevention of hair breakage). It remains my permanent favourite for everything from pre wash treatments to the final step in moisturising. Some people do not like the coconut scent but I love it. I also like light and easy to spread oils as my hair is fine strandwise but plentiful. Coconut oil fits the bill as it melts easily and not much is required.
Jojoba oil – A-
Jojoba oil is another favourite given. It is actually a liquid wax and it is actually easier to apply than coconut oil. It is slightly more viscous, which means that it is easier to spread over a strand as one column. This makes it quite useful for the ‘sealing’ step in moisturising. I do not purchase it anymore as I have streamlined my purchases but would do so if I could not find coconut oil.
Avocado butter – A-
This oil is remarkably similar to coconut oil. It is normally solid at room temperature but melts easily in your hand. It is slightly heavier than coconut oil but is not particularly greasy. The main differences are that it generally does not have a strong scent and it has a very pale green colour. This butter is often assumed to have the same protective properties of coconut oil. Although there is no firm evidence, I do think that they do behave in a similar way. The reason for the lower grade is because it is a speciality product and is harder to find.
Shea butter (processed) – B+
I like white processed shea butter mainly because it does not have a nutty smell. It is a heavy butter for my hair and I only use it in combination with coconut oil. I find it greasy and hard to spread on its own. It requires a lot of fiddling so I do not purchase it anymore but it does work well enough, in the event that I cannot find my favourites.
Olive oil – B
Although I like light and easy to spread oils, olive oil is not one my favourites. I found that it has a tendency to cause my scalp to flake and it is not that effective for sealing hair as it has a tendency to rub off hair. Many naturals use olive oil because it is widely available and generally cheaper than other oils. If it worked better for me, I would select it too for those reasons but it does not. I would use olive oil if I ran out of oil or was away from home and had to improvise.
Shea butter (raw) – C
Raw shea butter is similar property wise to avocado butter in my opinion but it has a very strong nutty scent. Personally, the scent of raw shea butter is really off putting even though it does fade away after an hour or so. I have never repurchased it as a result even though it was the only butter/oil that had a softening effect on my hair.
Castor Oil – D
Castor oil is a huge favourite for many naturals. Many love the thickness of the oil but it is actually this property that makes it difficult to love for me. I like light spreadable oils and castor oil is the antithesis of this. I adjusted to using a small amount and applying it on wet hair but this did not work for me either as after the hair dried, it still felt sticky.
Mango butter, Coffee butter and Cocoa butter – D
I purchased these butters simply because I liked the sound of them. Coffee butter and Cocoa butter both have enchanting scents but mango butter is much more subtle. However, all of these really did nothing for my hair. I found them all to be quite greasy, overly shiny on hair and it took effort to spread evenly. Interestingly though, they do work quite nicely on legs despite failing on my hair. To finish the jars I would combine them with coconut oil which helped to get over the heaviness of the indivual butters.
Sunflower Oil, Mineral Oil and Silicone Serums – E
Although these three oils get a failing grade, they only do so because I do not use any heat on my hair. If I used heat I would consider silicone serums for protection prior to heat application and mineral oil to help with resisting humidity afterwards. For normal regular washing, conditioning and moisturising, I do not rate any of these oils highly.
Ladies, what would your list look like? Which are your most and least favorite oils and butters?
my hair hates coconut oil, it never fails to make it dry and brittle, no matter how much I use and unfortunately it’s in almost every product marketed towards naturals. I had consistently dry brittle hair for months because I didn’t accept the fact that coconut oil (among other things) wasn’t doing it despite what I heard about it all the time.
Jojoba oil does nothing for my hair but it’s nice for the skin.
My hair likes EVOO and Grapeseed oils but not for sealing. They have to be mixed with heavier butters like shea butter and mango butter which my hair loves.
I co-sign your thoughts on coconut oil. I never leave it on my hair, especially by itself. I do use it as a pre-poo though for all the other benefits. I like olive oil as well….just bought grapeseed oil recently- I look forward to giving it a try.
Avocado butter and oil are fantastic. I make a mango, avocado & oils mix that works great for those days when my hair is like a dessert.
My strands are medium to fine, with plenty of them, so heavier products like Shea butter and castor oil don’t work for me at all.
My hair also hates coconut oil. I’ve been using EVOO recently and will try Grape seed oil. I like refined shea butter on my ends. Castor Oil is ok near my scalp but is too sticky for the rest of my hair.
+1 on the coconut oil. My hair just isn’t down with it
I couln’t understand why my hair was dry and brittle either. Coconut oil, shea butter, castor oil, EVOO, cocoa butter are too heavy for my hair. Whereas mango butter, grapeseed, sunflower, sweet almond oil are just great. Goes to show all heads are indeed different.
Wow. I thought I was the one with the issue,until I read your comments. My hair does horribly with coconut oil. It stands on top and makes it dry/crunchy. However, cocoa butter,almond and olive oil do wonders.
I use coconut oil regularly. I have used it to make blends, but now use it directly. I wonder if the discussion of these oils means pure, raw, organic, cold pressed or what is found on the common store shelf.
It is very dry here, so I used shea butter last night before bed. Today my hair feels softer. I love amla oil. It is generally in a blend and found at Indian (SE Asian) stores.
When purchasing pure cold pressed oils, there are likely to be essential oils available as well. It is easy to soften butters and add your favorite scent or tea tree and lemongrass (sparingly).
I have worn natural hair most of my adult like and raised my daughters into adolescence with natural hair. Both my son and I lock. We are all about coconut oil.
I love the prices on line at Lucky Vitamin.
I guess this is proof that products work differently on everyone’s hair. My hair hates coconut oil but it loves Olive Olil, raw shea butter, and Castor Oil. My hair type if 4b and it reached bra strap length with these products.
I totally agree with you, depending if your curls/coils are course or fine your hair may react diffently to certain oils. My hair(4a, 4b, and 4c) adores olive oil, black castor oil, and one that was left off the list grapeseed oil. I have tried coconut oil and I just never could get into it I guess I will give it another try.
I have to agree with you…my hair does not like coconut oil. I tried using it for like two weeks and my hair just wasn’t moisturized enough for me. On the other hand my hair loves EVOO, tea tree oil, castor oil, and raw shea butter. Those are four things that must remain on hand at all times for my hair to act right :)
Grapeseed oil is great! It is similar to Olive Oil but without the scent and not as heavy.
what do u think of grape seed oil???
+1
I love using grapeseed oil. I use it after I wash to seal moisture in. I only use olive oil if I’m out of grapeseed oil.
Grapeseed oil is also very good for the skin. It keeps the skin moisturized without being heavy or greasy. I am very pleased with it because my skin is very sensitive and easily breaks out but I have had great results with grapeseed oil. I will eventually add some to my shea butter to see how my hair likes it as well!!
I use grade seed oil as a heat protectant for when I do tension blow-outs.
I am not too fond of coconut oil… I now just use it as a pre poo. My knight in shining armor is Castor Oil… used in moderation. Castor oil aided in growing my edges back and then some. Also, (you all are gonna faint), but I have used Castor Oil on my face at night to moisturize my face, which is is generally oily. Lemme tell ya that this stuff made my face clear as a bell, not a blemish to be seen! It didn’t make my skin extra oily.. I just washed my face in the morning, put on my moisturizer and went on my way… But this post is about hair… sorry.
My other oil faves are olive and sweet almond oils. Almond oil is light and should be on this list for it’s moisturizing abilities. I love to mix Almond, coconut, olive and jojoba oils with peppermint oil and use that as a scalp massage oil and hot oil treatment.
No fainting here! Castor oil and avocado oil are magnificent on my super oily skin. I’ve had great results and a lot of others on skincare boards I frequent really like them for blemishes or as a daily or nightly moisturizer as well. I wet my face and add either one, I’m using Tropic Isle’s JBCO right now.
Meant to add that both are great oil cleansers for me as well.
Wow, I will have to try this!
I’ve also used Castor Oil on my face at night, I wiped off the excess with a warm rag.
Rosehip seed oil does what castor oil does for you. That stuff is like liquid gold for skin…
I just bought some yesterday! I heard it works great on acne scars. My skin is looking really fresh already:)
Yes it’s amazing for fading scars, evening skintone and plumping the skin (it proven to help promote collagen and elasticity in skin). It will literally give you flawless skin if used consistently. I don’t know why more people don’t know about it.
Anyway, it’s extremely rich so if you are prone to acne, I recommend not using it everyday. My mom who never gets acne or skin bumps used it everyday without ever using a mask like bentonite clay and developed bumps under her skin about a month later.
I am very prone to tiny bumps and acne although i have dry skin and I make sure to use a bentonite clay mask on my skin before I use it (which is 2-3 times a week). It’s best to rub it into slightly damp skin in circular motions. Anyway just my recommendations but everyone’s skin is different.
Thanks for the tips df! It’s very nice of you. I will use it with moderation since I get a few pimples every now and then. I will also mix it with a few drops of tea tree oil, it really helps to prevent bumps. And I will definitely give bentonite clay a try. Thanks again!
Her grades pretty much match mine. Coconut oil is my absolute go-to. Olive oil is okay, but I don’t care too much for the smell. I know its not strong, but I SWEAR I can smell it when I use it on my hair.
Shea butter is hit or miss depending how it’s prepared. I like it better “soft” and already prepared. When its made from its raw state it tended to leave little particles in my hair. No bueno.
Castor oil, avacado butter, etc. haven’t tried it yet.
Jojoba oil is ok but usually I mix it with other oils I’m using. RARELY use it alone.
You are so right about shea butter. If its too rough it doesnt saturate my hair and there are def ‘particles’…lol.
For real for real silicones and mineral oils aren’t that bad. I’ve used both and they’ve done better for me than products that natural rave about.
I’m trying to curb my pjism and use all the stock of products I currently have before I buy more (and I have a long way to go)….However (lol) I do need to invest in some oils as team natural always proclaims the benefits of them. And I want to start doing hot oil treatments. I’m surprise tea tree oil and rosemary oil were left off the list. But this (and the comments of course as always) is a helpful guide.
Indeed! I always hot-oil treat (or pre-poo, whatever) my hair with coconut oil before I wash.
I oil cleanse with castor oil too, though I think you’re supposed to mix it with a carrier oil. WOnderful. My skin is dry, but my greasier skinned friends have found it really works too.
I like coconut oil but my favorite oil is castor oil. My hair is thick so I need something thick to tame my hair. I use it as a hot oil treatment, seal the moisture after dampening my curls a little bit and I even use it to detangle and retwist my hair. It makes my hair supersoft. At first I thought I couldn’t use heavy oils because EVOO use to break me out but castor oil has not done that. My mother also shared with me that they use to use it back in the day. I’ve even heard stories where people use to drink it for home remedies (I know crazy). All in all I love it and out of the products I use castor oil has to be in my closet.
“. . . People use to drink it for home remedies (I know crazy).”
Not where I’m from, it ain’t! I went to a boarding school for children with visual impairment, while my siblings went to public school, but when it comes to castor as a cold remedy, we all have a very similar story of being made to drink it by the adults who had charge over us. In their case, our mother’s youngest sister used to force it on my sibs when our circuit-preaching parents went on weekly out-of-town (sometimes out-of-state and even out-of-country) revivals and left them in her care. She was bound and determined that nobody was getting sick on her watch, and if you had just a little tickle in your throat, you better not let her hear you cough or sniff. She also forced it on her daughters.
In my case, it was the housemother, as we called the attendants who lived in the dormitories with us as surrogate parents, who made us line up at the door of her room every night and watched us, one by one, try (in vain) to figure out how to suck the orange juice out from under the icky, greasy, NASTY oil slick we had no choice but to swallow. All it needed was for one or two girls in the dorm to get a cold for all of us to get dosed. And for those of us who suffered from chapped lips, some of the housemothers would also slick a coating of Vaseline on our lips after we wrestled the castor oil down our little gullets.
Those were the days of the black girls among us sleeping with drawers on our heads if we had no scarf to tie on so as to protect our pressed hair from getting too messed up before it was each girl’s turn to get washed and pressed again by the black housekeeper who doubled as our hairdresser to free up the black houseparents from doing it and because the white ones didn’t know how, most probably. I don’t know how she did it; she had heads to wash and press every weekday in two different dorms.
Since I’m doing all this jawjacking (okay typing), I may as well talk about the oils and butters I use. I like a mixture of almost equal parts coconut and jojoba oils together, with a few drops of castor added to give a little weight for the winter but without the castor oil in the summer. Olive oil goes into my homemade conditioner mixes, whether it’s cassia/henna for coloring or Greek yogurt for moisturizing protein. That’s the only time my hair sees olive oil. I just bought a new pound of raw shea butter, and I’ve been playing with putting it on my damp hair as a seal. After doing that for a few days, then switching to Yes To Carrots conditioner as a moisturizer on my hair, my hair has started scrambling to escape the twists I have it in, which my hair will do when it’s optimally moisturized.
I’d like to try mixing some shea, cocoa, and mango butters together with some oils just to see what I end up with. Maybe one day . . . :-).
Yeah my mom use to take castor oil when she was younger it has a laxative effect.
It’s been long used in the south, people fear and respect the awesome power of castor oil. It’s a great laxative and detox but….stay close to home :)
#1,hands down- Coconut oil, Sonnie drinks this up like it’s nothing.
#2- EVOO
#3- jojoba oil
any straight thick butters or oils has my hair feeling oily,sticky and looking limp. I like to usually melt or mix with above named oils and do a scalp massage or a hot oil treatment.
It seems to me that my hair doesnt like coconut oil by itself. Though i do use it to mix with my raw shea butter and its then a good moisturizer. I find that my hair stay moisturized well i
apply my cantu leave in
mixture of raw shea butter and coconut oil
and then seal it with my castor oil all on wet hair…
ive never seen so much improvement in my life.
my hair is 4a.
I use Argan oil and love it! I wonder how that would rank. It was left off the list…
Me too! I was surprised it was not on the list! O_o
Same here! Argan oil is great for my hair!
I haven’t add any issues with coconut oil. I’m now trying castor oil. My hair strands are also thin, but I have a looooooooooooooooottt of hair (can’t put it in a ponytail if it’s dry). I mixed the castor oil with jojoba oil to lighten it up. I don’t like the thickness in my hands, but once I took out my twists, my hair didn’t feel greasy. I’m trying to base my purchases on what I need, which is some shine/sheen, moisture, strength, and no flyaways.
OMG! I love that you said “can’t put it in a ponytail if it’s dry.” I thought I was the only person who had A TON of fine strands that nonetheless can’t be gathered into a ponytail if dry. If I try to pony my hair, only the back will stay gathered. The front poofs out immediately and simply won’t be contained!
I for one looooove coconut oil, but mostly in the winter when its more of a solid than a liquid.
I love castor oil.
I’d love to try avocado oil, but at this point there is really no need to invest in more oils/products.
Raw shea butter is a personal no for me. did not a thing for me.
I despise olive oil, it makes my hair feel oily, brittle and gritty.
Love the Coconut Oil. Grapeseed made my hair oily, Castor oil is too sticky and Evoo, I couldn’t get into. I’ve read that Coconut Oil shouldn’t be used in harsh weather, like winter, have any of you found this too be true?
This is my rating: coconut oil (A), avocado oil (A+), castor oil (A), jojoba oil (B), olive oil (B), almond oil (B), shea butter (C), wheatgerm oil (A-), and monoi oil (A-). I mostly like shea butter on my body, not my hair, unless it is mix with lighter oils to reduce the greasy feeling. I love silicone in my rinse-out conditioners for added slip, but it is not always a necessity. Additionally, I like a little mineral oil when rocking two-strand twists because it helps to keep my scalp and hair moisturized for a long time, as opposed to natural hair oils that leave my scalp dry and flaky within a day or two. I have never tried any of the other butters mentioned on my hair. For the most part, I prefer to use butters on my body, not my hair. I prefer oils. I like to mix all my favorite oils together, rather than using them alone. Doing this has helped my hair retain more moisture. Although I love coconut oil, I prefer to use it as a pre-poo, rather than to seal, because it leaves my hair kind of dry. But, when I add coconut oil to my oil mix, it is wonderful!
You know whats funny, I had some two-strand twists unravel at work, and the only thing I had on hand to seal it together was Vaseline – I had to do what I had to do! But I noticed my twists stayed softer longer, and it kept the twists together! Still wouldn’t use it on the daily, but just an observement.
While this article was informative, I am not convinced to use coconut oil again because of prior experiences. Someone brought a bottle for me from Trinidad – and I all but gagged as I left in my car for a few days. Let’s just say the scent over powered the air refreshener.
I too would like to know grapeseed’s rank. I have been using it since Feb ’11 and my hair loves it.
Coconut oil earns an A+ for pre-poo’ing and adding to my hair before applying gel. It leaves my hair well moisturized and sheen-y.
Castor oil is earns an A+ for sealing (ends and edges) and pre-poo’s when mixed with aloe vera gel. It makes my hair feel super soft and supple.
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Jojoba oil smells funny, feels funny and doesn’t do much for my hair. The price is not great as well.
Olive oil is too fragrant and doesn’t leave my hair as soft in pre-poo’s(especially as compared to coconut oil and castor oil).
Unrefined/raw shea butter (and shea butter mixes) are not good for my hair (hard to spread, attract lint, dulling, etc). With that said, they perform phenomenally as body butters.
co-sign.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….ALL OILS ARE THE SAME TO ME…don’t see a difference. what makes the difference for me is the leave-in/moisturizer I use.
Olive and coconut oils are my favorites. Avocado oil is fine; but, it’s too heavy.
Also, my hair detests shea butter alone.
My hair does NOT like coconut oil it smells nice but does nothing for my hair but my go-to is definitely shea butter it makes my hair soft and manageable after washing and I can always put in a different oil just for the scent so coconut is great for that