Types of Oils and Their Usage
First of all, you have to understand that hair oils can be very different. In general, they can be divided into basic, essential, and industrial. Basic oils can be applied right from the bottle, which means that you don’t have to mix them with any other products or oils. These include coconut, peach, olive, burdock, castor, almond, and jojoba oils.
Essential oils are used in combination with other products since they are a highly concentrated mixture and serve as a kind of additional component. They can be mixed with base oils or with shampoos and masks. They are not used in their pure form for hair or scalp care. Essential oils include tea tree, lavender, lemon, grapefruit, and ylang-ylang oils.
Industrial oils are cosmetic products made of one or more types of oils. They are designed to perform the same function that natural ones do but they may contain dyes, preservatives, silicones, and sometimes vitamins or glycerin.
In case you would like to try any type of oil, you need to understand a few things:
- You cannot take the first oil that you see in a store and start actively using it.
- All oils have their own level of permeability (the time it takes for the oil to penetrate into the hair structure) and chemical composition.
- The following oils have the highest permeability: coconut, argan, shea, avocado. Sweet almond, grape seed, castor, and olive oils have a good permeability too.
How to Use and Apply Hair Oils?
Obviously, using these masks has a lot of benefits, so let us take a brief look at those:Everything, of course, depends on your hair type and the problem that needs to be solved. But in general, oils are applied either to the hair or to the scalp. In the first case, oils are used to nourish, heal, and soften dry hair or to protect it against external factors. It is important to take into account the fact that the molecules of any oil differ from water molecules in their size. This is why it will take oils 4-12 hours to penetrate the hair cuticle. It’s best to apply oils to wet hair and leave them overnight or at least for 3-4 hours. After that, you need to wash your hair using your shampoo.
How to Choose Good Oil?
If you have dry hair, you want to try coconut, macadamia, argan, olive, or castor oils. For oily hair, we recommend linseed, grape, soy, and almond oils. Normal and damaged hair can be nourished with highly permeable oils. If you use oils to help your hair recover, you need to apply them 1-2 times a week. In case you simply want to keep your hair healthy, do oil masks 1-2 times a month. At the same time, applying oils or oil-based products to split ends is allowed on a daily basis. However, if you struggle with hair loss, you should select the products for your hair and scalp only with your doctor.
Final Thoughts
Hair oils are great products for those people who want to have shiny and healthy hair, so if this is your goal, you definitely want to give these products a shot.
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