My Current Oil Mix

I love oils!

If you have been reading this blog for even a short period you'd know I incorporate them a lot in my regimen. Today I am showing you the mix I created for sealing in moisture, scalp massages and adding to deep conditioners. This is also great as part of a skin care regimen.

 

 

Love Potion - Simple Hand and Strand Moisturizer

We're in the depths of winter and with that come dry hands, feet and hair.

I have only ever found one product that I loved for moisturizing my hands and that was the Soap and Glory Hand Food. It left my hands feeling really moisturized without a 'lotion-y' after-feel and too strong a smell. It was gifted to me by a friend who went on vacation to America and so I am unable to get my hands on it now. I have tried so many others but nothing left my hands feeling the same.

EVOO to go

Oil it up - Tea Tree Oil

This popular oil has been used for everything from clearing up skin issues to cleaning bathrooms. But what exactly is it, and why has it been called "a medicine cabinet in a bottle"?

Tea tree oil is a steam distilled oil extracted from the Melaleuca alternifolia plant (Narrow-leaved Tea-tree), native to Australia and has a camphor-like smell. It is known to fight bacteria, fungi, and viruses. It also stimulates the immune system.

A dab of this potent essential oil can be used to treat acne or stubborn pimples, apply some to your cuts and burns to help with the healing process, a few drops in your bath can help you fight cold and flu symptoms, add it to your vaporizer for aromatherapy, to treat sinusitis and chest congestions. Awesome right?! But what does this have to do with hair? I'm glad you asked.

Oil it Up - The Essentials { Peppermint Oil}

There are a myriad of essential oils out there with a great many benefits. Some of the more popular ones I've encountered include rosemary, lemon, lavender, cedarwood, sage, peppermint, tea tree and orange. But what exactly is it that makes these oils so 'essential'?

Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of sage. An oil is "essential" in the sense that it carries a distinctive scent, or essence, of the plant. It is very potent and is rarely used by itself for any purpose.

They are used in perfumes, cosmetics, soaps and other beauty products, for flavoring food and drink, and for adding a fresh scent to household cleaning products.

In this series I will refrain from addressing all these oils. Rather, I'll present the ones I've tried and loved. First up,

Peppermint Oil

For a cooling, cleansing treatment for your hair and scalp, try peppermint essential oil.

What is it?

Oil it up - Argan & Jojoba Oil

Since it's Halloween, my treat to you is an "Oil it up" post with not one but two oils being put under the microscope ;-) I've decided to double up this post to include both argan and jojoba oil as these oils have been interchangeable in my hair journey. It also serves as a good opportunity for me to evaluate whether or not these oils are indeed similar and to find out why I felt that they did pretty much the same thing for my hair. Let's take a look.

Argan Oil

Argan oil, also termed "the Miracle Oil" or "liquid gold" (hmmm interesting) is a plant oil derived by pressing the pits of argan kernels. The argan tree grows in only a part of Morocco and is little known outside of that area. This oil can be used for nutritive as well as cosmetic purposes as it contains vitamin E, phenols, carotenes, squalene, and fatty acids. It is said that depending on the extraction method, argan oil may be more resistant to oxidation than olive oil.

Oil it up - Castor Oil

I am tempted to call this the king of all natural oils. After all, I've never seen a grapeseed oil or jojoba oil challenge, but there are plenty of castor oil challenges around. As a matter of fact, I think there is at least one taking place right now, check this link for more details.

So, why all the hype surrounding castor oil?

Oil it up - Grapeseed Oil

This light, non-greasy, odorless oil is loved by many in the hair care world, and who can blame them?! There's just so much to love about grapeseed oil:

• it is rich in vitamin E and linoleic acid, two ingredients capable of strengthening hair.

• It contains ceramides which fill in gaps along the cuticle, resulting in hair which is stronger and less prone to breakage.

• it has been proven to smooth the cuticles while simultaneously sealing in moisture.

• it is able to treat dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis due to its anti-inflammatory properties.

Like many other natural oils, it can be used in various ways. Here are the top 5 uses for grapeseed oil:

Slippery When Wet - Oil Rinsing

This is simply saturating your hair with oil AFTER it has been shampooed, before conditioning. Aside from the obvious benefits that oils provide you hair such as vitamins, moisture or protein, oil rinsing is really effective at providing slip to the hair making it a dream to detangle. It certainly works magic.

How to oil Rinse

Oil it up - Coconut oil

This is another favorite among those on hair journeys and rightly so. Coconut oil provides many benefits to the body and the hair in particular. It too, is one of the few shaft-penetrating oils, thus lodging its nourishing properties deep into the strand. 

It is considered anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial because it contains lauric acid, a chemical that is otherwise only found in human breast milk. Thanks to the anti-fungal and healing properties of coconut oil, it can be used to treat scalp complaints.

Coconut oil contains Vitamin E (an essential nutrient for skin and hair), which along with the previously mentioned lauric acid, help to promote protein regrowth in the hair, making it stronger.

Like all other oils, it is unable to moisturize, but it is very effective at sealing in moisture and leaving hair with a shine that screams health, and it smells good too! You can't beat that with a stick!

Uses of Cocout Oil

• Prepoo
• Deep condition
• sealing 
• scalp treatments/ massages

Are you a lover of coconut oil? How do you use it? Let me know down below.

XOXO,

Abbi

Oil it up - Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra virgin olive oil, affectionately nicknamed EVOO is one of the most popular natural oils used not only by kitchenistas, but by hairlistas as well. Extra virgin is the highest quality and most expensive olive oil classification. It should have no defects and a flavor of fresh olives. It's a nutritious oil, containing both Vitamin E and A. It is also rich in fats.

It is a carrier oil, which means it can be used as a base for essential oils without harmful effects. EVOO is used for pre-pooing, hot oil treatments, deep conditioning, making shampoos a bit more moisturizing, sealing moisturizers and so much more.

Lala-lala-laa Warm it up - Hot Oil Treaments

I love a good hot oil treatment! It gives me the feeling of a hot cup of cocoa of a cold winter day! It has been a part of my regimen since the start. However, I do it sporadically (mostly during the colder months), which I need to change and make it a regularly scheduled event even when it's warm.

What's it it?

oil it up - My favorite Natural oils.

When I first started my hair journey a year and a half ago, I read a lot about natural hair oils and pretty much bought every one that I could get my hands on that had gotten good reviews. 

My stash

Now I have quite a sizable stash, some have finished and I haven't repurchased because they didn't seem absolutely necessary. But this post is dedicated to those that have been good to my hair and that I cannot live without. 

My lucky 7: