It’s been long since the use of coconut oil has been touted to help our overall health. But have you ever heard someone telling you that using coconut oil is beneficial for the health of your hair as well? Well, yes, that’s the truth. Coconut oil comes with lots of benefits to offer for human hair and can be used as a natural remedy to treat many hair conditions.
You can even use coconut oil on your kids’ hair right from their childhood and make their hair grow stronger and livelier so that you can give them just about any kids hairstyles you’d like. Let’s try to find out in detail how coconut oil can benefit your hair.
Rubbing Coconut Oil On Hair Before/After Washing Is Helpful In Damage Prevention
You can apply coconut oil to the hair in a few different ways and it will help in damage prevention quite effectively. First of all, applying it to the hair before washing can be helpful in reducing the damage sustained during the washes and also while your hair is wet.
What’s more interesting is that your hair is the most vulnerable to any kind of damage when wet and that’s due to the subtle changes in the structure of your hair when water is absorbed. As your hair get wet, the thick cortex in the center soaks up all that water to make the hair to swell up and that leads to structural change of the hair cuticle.
Your hair cuticles are made with flat and overlapping scales which are attached to your hair’s root end and are pointing towards its tip. When water is absorbed by the cortex and the hair swells up, the scales get pushed outward ensuring that they just stick up. As a result, it becomes much easier for water to damage your hair, particularly when you do all the styling or brush through it.
The application of oil to the hair prior to washing with shampoo can be helpful in reducing how much water is absorbed by your hair shaft as well as the extent to which your cuticle scales tend to “stick up”. As a result, the chances of getting your hair damaged are reduced to a certain extent.
Furthermore, when your hair is coated with oil after the wash, it’s helpful in making your hair smoother and softer. Due to that, any kind of friction that is caused in styling gets reduced significantly and the likelihood of your hair snagging and breaking is reduced significantly.
Coconut Oil May Help With Hair Growth
It is common for all of us to wish to see our hair growing longer, sleeker and shinier. Routine wear and tear, however, can result in hair damage. And, all sorts of things we expose our hair in routine are responsible for that including grooming, styling, pollutants and weather.
As a result, growing our hair longer becomes much more difficult and the hair can get more tired and worn as it continues to grow. When you are using coconut oil on your hair, it helps the hair grow by:
- Moisturizing the hair as well as reducing any kind of breakage
- Protecting the hair against protein loss as well as damage when it is wet
- Protecting the hair against environmental damage that comes from smoke, sun, and wind
For taking full advantage of this natural oil, you’d have to include it in your regular beauty regimen.
Some Other Common Coconut Oil Benefits For Hair
There may be some other benefits of using coconut oil for hair as well. Remember, however, that many of these have not been examined through controlled studies in a proper manner. Some of these possible benefits can include:
- Lice Prevention: A small study revealed that combining coconut oil with anise into a spray can make coconut 40% as effective in treating lice as chemical permethrin.
- Dandruff Treatment: We usually experience dandruff when yeast or fungus overgrows on our scalp. Even though there haven’t been any studies that suggest coconut oil as a remedy, it comes with antimicrobial properties which may prove to be helpful in treating dandruff.
- Sun Protection: The UV filters are helpful in protecting hair against sun damage. There have been a few studies to suggest that coconut oil carries sun-protection factor at 8.
- Prevention of Hair Loss: Grooming your hair excessively can be damaging for your hair shaft and in extreme situations it can lead to hair loss. The use of coconut oil can be helpful in protecting the hair and keeping it in perfect condition.
The use of coconut oil is also claimed to be beneficial to maintain good hair health because of all the nutrients contained inside. Little evidence exists for that, however.
So, overall, coconut oil turns out to be a great solution for maintaining perfect hair health and preventing hair damage that comes from different sources. Try including it in your regular hair care routine and see the benefits it brings.