All about hair oils, porosity, etc.

It all started with blistering sun. High temperature, dry air and heat for most of the day in the Indian provinces has forced its women to seek effective ways of protection. The most subjected to the sun rays is hair. Contrary to the body, which is well covered by the sari. What does hair oil treatment have to do with it? In spite the appearances, a lot.

Indian women has found the solution to the problem in the traditional medicine. Key role here have natural hair oils, that are usually used also in skin care. Ayurveda assumes four stages: disease healing, prevention, improvement of life quality and consciousness development. The last matter is of the greatest importance.

Do you want to take care of your appearance? Meet hair oil treatment!

HAIR OIL TREATMENT – WHAT IS IT?

Basic hair care method used by Indian and Arabic women is called hair oil treatment. From there the method spread to the entire World. Today the precious properties of natural oils are used by the biggest cosmetic concerns. Oil treatment is the safest, most natural and effective technique for improvement of hair condition. Used for it are hair oil, which are rich in valuable properties.

There is no determined definition for hair oil treatment. Depending on the chosen oils, method of application, needs and hair type, oil treatment can vary. More on this below. In short, you can say that hair oil treatment is a hair care method based on application of natural oils with conditioning, regenerating and protecting properties.

Hair oils can be applied in few different ways, depending on the preferences. Choice of right oil is an individual matter and the multitude of natural oils really does not make the task easier. The answer to the question about what hair oil to choose is also presented below. To determine the treatment it is the most important, what effects hair oil treatment provides and what can you expect from it.

Hair oil treatment: effects

Results of hair oil treatment are as various as the problems that make us reach for natural hair oils. Supporters of oil treatment claim that high quality hair oil can help with anything. Sceptics will try to convince you that even oil can do the harm to hair. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between – it all depends on chosen method and oil.

Advantages of hair oil treatment are:

complementation of essential nourishing ingredients,
regeneration of damages to the hair structure,
control over hydration level (oil retains water in hair),
renewal, rejuvenation and restoration of elasticity to hair,
increase of natural volume,
smoother, softening and gloss,
easier combing and discipline to unruly streaks,
strengthening and hair growth stimulation,
elimination of hair loss problem,
helps with dandruff, psoriasis and irritations.

The greatest advantage of natural hair oils are the effects. Hair oil treatment can effectively replace conditioner, serum and hair mask. It all due to the method combining conditioning, regeneration, protection and hair beautification in one. Hair oils work both on the inner hair structures and its surface. The effect of oil treatment is complex improvement and appearance of every hair.

What hair oil is the best?

Did you know that hair oil treatment works for every hair type? More or less damaged, wavy or nor, blond or brown, short or long, curly or straight – all of them have their favourite hair oil. You just have to find it, which contrary to the appearances can cause more problems than you think.

Hair oils have no special category. You do not have to search for them in the drugstores or specialistic shops, because equally great are these available in the supermarket. Hair oils can be various. To be true these cannot do any harm, so every oil you get can be used for hair oil treatment.

However, if you expect some spectacular effects, you need to match oil with porosity of your hair. First, take a look at the division of oils accordingly to the content of essential fatty acids. As far as every hair oil in most cases contains EFA, insofar their proportion can vary. In hair oil treatment you have to take into consideration these minor, but relevant differences.

TYPES OF HAIR OILS

Saturated oils (so called, drying) are all oils with content of much larger amount of saturated fatty acids (without double binding between carbon atoms; among many lauric, palmitic, myristic, stearic and behenic). This quality makes drying hair oils much better and faster penetrate hair structure, because of small size of the particles. With them hair oil treatment works better on low porosity hair.

Which hair oils contain saturated fatty acids?

babassu oil – lauric and myristic acid
palm oil – 51% of lauric acid
jojoba oil – palmitic acid
coconut oil – advantage of saturated fatty acids
peanut oil – arachidonic and behenic acid
cocoa butter – acids: palmitic, stearic, linoleic

Unsaturated oils, on the other hand, can be divided into two groups, which must be taken into consideration when choosing hair oil.

[1] monounsaturated oils (so called, semi drying) are – analogously to the previous type – all hair oils, that contain large amount of monounsaturated fatty acids (one double binding between carbon atoms; among many palmitoleic and oleic). The advantage of such acids makes this oil have medium size particles and absorb in hair a bit weaker. Hair oil treatment with these oils is a perfect proposition for hair with medium porosity.

What are hair oils with content of monounsaturated fatty acids?

olive oil – 60-75% of oleic acid
shea butter – 50% of oleic acid and saturated acids
rapeseed oil – 62% of oleic acid
mustard oil – erucic acid
hazelnut oil – 78% of oleic acid
sesame oil – 43% of oleic acid
sweet almond oil – 68% of oleic acid
rice oil – oleic acid

[2] polyunsaturated oils (so called, non drying) are these oils with high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (contain more than two bindings between carbon atoms; among many linoleic, linolenic, arachidonic). Such concentration of fatty acids causes oil to penetrate hair much weaker and has definitely larger particles. For this reason hair oil treatment of high porosity hair should be based on these particular oils.

What are hair oils with content of polyunsaturated fatty acids?

castor oil – 80% of ricinoleic acid
linseed oil – 50% of linolenic acid
sunflower oil – 68% of linolenic acid
pumpkin seed oil – 50-60% of linoleic acid, 20% of oleic acid
wheat germ oil – linoleic and linolenic acid
argan oil – linoleic and linolenic acid
sesame oil – 43% of linoleic acid
rice oil – linoleic acid

HAIR OIL TREATMENT – BEST METHODS

There is no doubt that hair oil treatment is one of more cunning hair care methods. More and more women are convinced that hair oil treatment can work wonders. The simplicity of application is a key argument when making the decision about purchase of hair oil instead of hair mask. Do you wonder about hair oil treatment? It’s simple.

Hair oil application

Hair oils can be applied in various ways. There are four basic methods of application oil on hair, but these are no limitations. All methods can be combined, preferably modified and improve accordingly to your own needs. The base for the experiments are four traditional hair oil treatment methods.

Dry hair oil treatment – as the name indicates it is based on application of oil on entirely dry hair; you can do it prior to hair wash or after it, but that depends on how greasy oil is and its absorption; dry hair oil treatment is a method with the weakest properties and is usually recommended for stylisation, smoother and to provide hair with gloss.

Wet hair oil treatment – is performed on damp hair (best), what causes hair cuticles to open and nourishing substances to be better absorbed; application of oil on damp hair can be executed before or after hair wash; this method works best as an intense nourishing, regenerating and strengthening treatment on hair.

Hair oil treatment in the bowl – is presumed to be the most powerful and the most effective method; in wide bowl prepare mix of warm water and chosen oil in the proportion that suit you (usually 2-3 table spoons on the bowl) and dip hair in the prepared bath; temperature causes hair cuticles to open, water makes easier for oil to be absorbed and the treatment is more effective.

Oil as an addition to the cosmetic – is common solution; if you do not want to resign from your favourite hair conditioner or you have no time to wear oil for several hours, you can just enhance any cosmetic with it; few drops of hair oil added to the shampoo, hair conditioner, serum or hair mask will provide it with some valuable properties.

Here we should mention that hair oil treatment methods can be additionally divided in two ways. Hair oil treatment is universal. There are no strict rules, so you tend to wonder over two matters. When to use hair oil? Should hair oil be applied on the entire hair length?

The first matter involves whether hair oil should be left over night or maybe applied during the day. It all depends on your preferences. Oils for stylisation, to fix hair style and with good absorption can be applied during the day. These do not require rinsing and have superficial action. If you care for deep conditioning, better leave oil over night. However, not every oil is suitable for whole night oil treatment, because it can, e.g. irritate scalp. You got to be careful.

The second matter involves the application of oil on hair. Yet again much depends on the preferences, the type of oil or problem your hair deal with. Usually hair oil treatment can be performed on the scalp alone, on the entire hair length or combined. Frequently natural oils are used just to protect hair ends. Each method is effective in its own way.

Rinsing hair oil

Application is one thing. However, do hair oils require rinsing? Yes and no. It all depends on the oil used for hair oil treatment. The one with greasy, sticky and non drying formula will not look aesthetic on hair, so it requires to be rinsed. Nonetheless, light, drying oils are dedicated for, e.g. stylisation and do not need to be rinsed.

If you decide on rinsing oil, you need to have right tools for it. Heavy oils are unfortunately difficult to wash off with delicate shampoo, though these are recommended for hair to avoid excess damage. Hair oils are easier to remove with strong shampoos, with right detergents and best with SLS or SLES in the composition.

The most common mistakes committed in hair oil treatment

ATTENTION! Hair oil treatment is truly a roulette. You can assume which oil will be best for your hair, but on times it will not necessarily work. Absorption and effectiveness of oil are influenced by various factors, that have to be taken into consideration. Not only what oil you choose matters, but also method that should match hair type and its preferences.

Contrary to appearances hair oil treatment is not an easy task. You need to remember that is can be ineffective if not used properly.

Hair oil treatment – TOP mistakes

1. First and the most serious mistake concerning hair oil treatment involves the choice of wrong oil. It is worth to know porosity of your hair (more below) and take care of them with oil matching their structure. Raise of the hair cuticles has significant meaning. Oil with too large particles can weight low porosity hair down, and the one with small particles can cause frizz with high porosity hair. Obviously, suggested content of fatty acids can be helpful, but in fact there can be entirely different oil suitable for you. The rule is simple – if hair react bad, you should stop using it and test different solutions.

2. Beside right choice of oil, important is also dosage. Second mistake is application of too large amount of hair oil. We are convinced that the more cosmetic we apply the better will hair look like. Sadly, in reality excess oil can be harmful, because it, e.g. can cause weighting hair down. Hair oil treatment should be accompanied by the moderation. For hair, it is better to apply too little than too much. It is important that oil is absorbed and does not leave greasy and sticky layer on hair.

3. Hair oil treatment is not only about the choice of the substance you will apply on hair. Another thing of significant relevance is the method. There is this tendency to choose inadequate oil application to the problem. If your hair are sensitive, better decide on hair oil treatment before hair wash, on damp hair and keep it no more than 15 minutes. If oil treatment is expected to make stylisation easier, perform dry hair oil treatment. However, if hair are in need of deep regeneration, consider leaving it over night or dipping them in the bowl. The goal you want to achieve determines hair oil treatment method.

HAIR POROSITY AND THE CHOICE OF OIL

The entire sense of hair oil treatment is based on the porosity. Only by knowing your hair you can choose such care, that is the most effective. What is porosity? This is a condition of the hair, which are covered by the armour made of hair cuticles. If cuticles are sealed then hair is well protected and very healthy. When hair cuticles are open then porosity increases and hair are weaker and more subjected to the damage.

How to determine hair porosity?

There are at least few methods to determine porosity of the hair, though none of them gives 100% guarantee that this is the condition of the hair. The best would be to visit trichologist and ask him to take a look at the hair under the microscope. Unfortunately, not everyone have such opportunity or is willing to invest in this sort of examination. No worries. Hair porosity can be determined also at home.

Coconut test is based on determining hair porosity with use of coconut oil. This is a penetrating oil, that contains a lot of saturated fatty acids and is recommended mostly for low porosity hair. You just have to buy small packaging of coconut oil (this is very affordable oil) and perform hair oil treatment with it. If hair will be smooth, glossy and healthy after its use, then your hair probably have low porosity. However, if your hair will frizz because of this oil, then it means high porosity.

Water test (or water glass test) is probably the most often made, because is more authoritative. In this case is examined how fast can hair absorb humidity. Just take clear glass and fill it with water. If hair stays on the surface of the water then it means that your hair have low porosity and sealed cuticles does not allow water to penetrate it. If hair quickly falls down to the bottom, then your hair have high porosity, because these absorb water really fast due to open cuticles. Very slowly falling down hair is an indication of medium porosity.

Hair type can also be determined by analysing their appearance. Usually there is nothing difficult about that, because porosity has significant impact on how hair present themselves. Low porosity hair are straight and high porosity hair are curly. However, there are an exceptions to the rule, like low porosity hair that are naturally curly. Nonetheless, it usually looks like this:

– Low porosity hair – straight, smooth, easy to comb, glossy, with deep colour, strong, velvety soft, not easy to style.

– Medium porosity hair – slightly wavy, not so velvety, prone to frizz, less healthy appearance, falling out in a greater amount, easier to style.

– High porosity hair – curly, rough, stiff, visibly matte, easy to style, but also really easy to subject to damages, weak, excessively falling out, with dandruff or brittle.

What hair oils should you choose?

As it was mentioned before, hair oils can have various amount of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. This impacts the size of particles and is connected to the porosity. Key to the success is to correctly match oil with the hair type. Not only when choosing natural oils it is worth to pay the attention to it. Porosity of the hair matters also when making the choice about cosmetics such as oil hair mask, conditioner or oil mix.

Oils for low porosity hair

Low porosity hair like oils that contain large amount of saturated fatty acids. These have smaller particles and easier penetrate inside of the hair through their armour. What is more, they do not weight hair down and usually does not leave greasy layer on the hair.

Recommended oils: babassu oil, palm oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, cocoa butter