Avocado Oil for Hair: 6 Benefits

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Ever thought about using avocado oil for hair moisture? It’s true, avocado oil is the hair secret I’ve been keeping from you.

When I went natural, I read all the blogs and watched all the Youtubers who all loved and recommended coconut oil. We’ve all seen the articles flying around about how great coconut oil is for 101 different reasons and uses.

avocado oil for hair: 6 benefits

The truth about coconut oil however is that it is quite a heavy oil, with lots of saturated fat, which means it is clogging to your skin and your arteries, though it is better to cook with than regular old vegetable oil.

I realised very quickly that though coconut oil may penetrate the hair shaft to moisturise from inside, it made me break out something serious and so I had to search for other oils that had the benefits touted but were kinder to my skin. Jojoba Oil is your best bet since it is closest to the sebum your skin produces but it is quite pricey so I landed on avocado oil for all its wonderful benefits.

Benefits of Avocado Oil for Hair

It can penetrate the hair shaft

Avocado oil is one of the holy grail oils that penetrate the hair shaft. Many oils just sit on top of your hair, never actually getting up in there and moisturising it from the inside out.

That’s OK if you’re looking for an oil to seal in moisture, but I was looking for one to moisturize as well and this is a great avocado oil benefit.

Avocado oil is light enough seep into your hair follicle and so all the vitamins penetrate deeply into your hair for long-lasting nourishment.

It is rich in Vitamin E

Some of the main avocado benefits for hair is the high vitamin content of the oil. Avocado oil is rich in vitamin E which promotes hair growth and is also a good antioxidant. This means while growing your hair, you’re getting rid of toxins from your diet and environment that may be affecting your hair, stunting its growth and luster. Vitamin E also helps to lessen the effects of the sun’s harmful rays on your tresses.

It is light and non-greasy

This is important when looking for an oil for everyday use. Avocado oil can be used to add shine and moisture to your hair, taming frizz without being heavy and greasy. I love to use it to add shine to my wash and go.

Related: Coconut Oil for Wrinkles: Get its Anti-Aging Benefits

Avocado oil benefits those with hair loss

This is as a result of the Vitamin E which helps in blood circulation. Promoting blood circulation helps to stimulate hair growth and prevent hair loss on your scalp. You can boost this by massaging your scalp with a mix of avocado oil and castor oil which is also excellent for hair growth.

It genuinely moisturizes and adds shine

Because avocado oil can actually penetrate the hair shaft, it is one of the few oils that actually moisturizes your hair instead of just sitting on the hair shaft making it heavy. This moisture makes your hair truly shine, giving off a healthy glow.

It helps with dandruff

The Vitamin E and antioxidant properties of avocado oil helps to keep your scalp clear of dandruff by adding moisture to your scalp, not allowing it to get dry and flaky.

Related: The Benefits of Rose Essential Oils That Will Blow Your Mind

How to Use Avocado Hair Oil in Your Tresses

As a pre-poo treatment before wash day

This is my favourite way to use avocado oil hair treatments because it allows the oil the opportunity to get all up in my hair shaft and make sweet love up in there. Shampooing your hair is generally damaging to the shaft as your hair swells with water and becomes susceptible to breakage then dries back out. An awesome way to lessen the damage and increase the likelihood of coming out of wash day with super healthy and moisturized hair is to do a pre-poo.

A pre-poo is a treatment that is applied to hair before shampooing, hence the name. Apply a liberal amount of avocado oil to your hair, getting every strand and making sure your whole head is saturated. Cover with a plastic cap or bag and chill out for a few hours (4 hours to overnight is best) before cleansing your hair. Then wash and style as usual.

In homemade deep conditioner

Avocado oil is amazing inside my favourite DIY deep conditioner for hair. I use it weekly for soft, shiny, moisturized hair. This is a great addition to your curly girl method of moisturizing your hair.

I also use this mix on my skin and it is super luxurious.

As a carrier oil

I like to use a drop or two of tea tree oil on my face and scalp to cleanse and detoxify environmental pollutants that end up on my skin. Tea tree oil or any other essential oil for that matter would be too harsh to apply directly so it’s best to add them to another oil, called a carrier oil, so they are diluted and aren’t as strong. Avocado oil is great for this.

To detangle thick curly hair

Avocado oil is great to apply to your hair to help give it slip so that your fingers or a wide tooth comb can slide through any knots. I love to detangle when I’m about to shampoo after a pre-poo since it would have penetrated my hair.

As an additive to cheap conditioner

If you didn’t pre-poo but need to detangle your hair, then apply lots of conditioner to your wet hair with some avocado oil. This gives the cheap conditioner added slip to help get through the knotting.

You can also simply add avocado oil to cheap conditioner to generally enhance the product overall.

Related: How to Blend Essential Oils

As a scalp oil

If you’re the type to still oil your scalp, especially those of us that suffer from dandruff, the Vitamin E component of avocado oil makes it an excellent oil to use for this purpose. The fact that it is non-greasy and won’t clog your pores helps.

To refresh a stale wash and go

I mix water, conditioner and several oils in a bottle to use as my style refresher on days when my wash and go could use a little plumping. If I’m doing a high puff, ponytail or bun then I like to use this mix to smooth my edges instead of a gel.

Avocado Oil Vs Olive Oil

Both of these oils penetrate the hair shaft and provide moisturizing benefits so which is better? I’ve long been a lover of olive oil in my hair, even when I was relaxed because it adds a brilliant shine to hair after the conditioning process. However I went with avocado oil for the Vitamin E component.

Avocado oil also protects against sun damage and the antioxidant properties of this oil helps to keep my scalp clear and stimulate hair growth. Olive oil is boss at taming flyaways but avocado oil is lighter and more beneficial in terms of nutrients. You can always mix the two if you like them both!

Avocado Oil vs Coconut Oil

This one was a no-brainer for me because coconut oil makes my face breakout so I can’t have it in my hair. Coconut oil also made my hair trashy and brittle. This might have more to do with the porosity of your hair and what oils work best so trial and error will be your friend here. For me, avocado oil hands down.

Avocado Oil for Skin

Because of all the benefits listed above, avocado makes a great moisturizer for skin. I have long used different oils to moisturise my skin, my favourite is argan oil but avocado oil does a great job as well and acts as a superb carrier oil as mentioned above.

You can also use avocado oil to cleanse your face. I experimented with using oils to cleanse my face for a while and loved how soft and supple my skin was after. To do so, warm the oil between your hands and massage it into your face for a few minutes. Then, cover your face with a warm, clean wash rag to break up the oil and lightly steam your face. To finish up, use the rag to gently wipe your face clean, removing all traces of oil, dirt and makeup that this process has lifted.

I need to get back into this, it was amazing and I simply stopped because I got lazy. I bet this would be beneficial even once or twice a week, giving yourself a break from harsh soaps.

Avocado Hair Mask Recipe

I actually like to use actual avocado in hair treatments and regularly leave pieces of the fruit back for use on wash day. I like to mash an overripe banana with avocado, honey, an egg or some greek yoghurt for protein with coconut oil together to create a deep-conditioning hair mask. Mix this all together and work it through all of your hair, saturating each strand and covering with a plastic bag or cap for an hour or two.

You can also use heat like a hooded dryer or a warm towel to allow the mask to penetrate quicker if you only have 15-20 minutes to spend conditioning your hair. The ingredients in this mix leave your hair super moisturized, shiny and healthier than before, ready for a week of styling.

I like to use coconut oil in this way since it will be rinsed out and will not be allowed to stay long on my hair and trickle down onto my face and back.

Exact measurements of the ingredients really don’t matter in a homemade conditioning treatment since you will be washing it out. You just need enough of the end product to saturate your hair.

Avocado Oil Hair Treatment

Mix 1 tablespoon each of Avocado Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Olive Oil and 5 drops each of Lavender Essential Oil, Rosemary Essential Oil to make an avocado oil pre poo.

Warm the mix in a container filled with very warm water (but not too hot to burn your scalp or change the properties of the oils, so you should be able to comfortably touch the oil) then apply this hot oil treatment to clean, wet hair or dry hair (experiment and see which works best for your hair) making sure to massage it into your scalp especially.

Cover your hair for 15 minutes with a warm towel to keep the oil warm then cleanse and style as usual.

Lavender and rosemary essential oils are touted for their hair growth properties but you can switch out these oils for the particular benefit you may be looking for. Some oils like tea tree help to detox the scalp.

I’ve found this to be the best avocado oil for natural hair. As you can see, avocado oil benefits hair in a number of ways. I hope you found the post helpful! Please share with your friends and do tell, what do you use to moisturise your hair?

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