Women in India and the Philippines regularly treat their hair with coconut oil to keep it shiny, healthy, and strong. Virgin coconut oil is an antioxidant and can be used for beautiful skin, as well.
Beautiful Hair
Coconut oil softens the hair and strengthens it, delivering minerals including calcium, magnesium, and iron. It can be used as a preconditioning treatment or as a leave in conditioner.
For dry hair or an itchy scalp massaging the oil into the hair and scalp before bed, leave in overnight and shampoo it out in the morning. Lay a clean towel over your pillow to protect it form the oil. If you don’t want to wait overnight, apply the oil half an hour before shampooing. To keep your hair warm and increase the penetrating power of the oil, pile your hair or form a loose bun under a shower cap. Dandruff sufferers often find this treatment to be more effective than a medicated shampoo.
To keep hair shiny and tame frizz by using the oil as a leave in conditioner, simply rub a tiny amount between your hands, apply to the ends of your hair, and comb through if desired.
Coconut oil is also a safe and natural way to get rid of head lice in children. Massage a liberal amount into the roots of the hair and the scalp, leave overnight, and shampoo out in the morning. Then every other day for three weeks, part the hair down the middle, apply a few drops along the part and just above the ears and leave in.
Beautiful Skin
Coconut oil is a wonderful moisturizer for the skin. A natural antioxidant, the oil will soothe a sunburn, speed healing, and help repair the long-term damage. It can protect your skin from wrinkling and age spots. Coconut oil can be applied to chapped lips and makes a wonderful massage oil, too.
Cooking oils can be replaced with coconut oil for many health benefits and to nourish the skin and hair. It is solid at room temperature, but melts with just a slight amount of heat, making it a great replacement for butter or margarine and in cooked foods, but not appropriate for salad dressings.
Beauty Products
Virgin coconut oil is a wonderful base oil for making beauty products. Coconut oil based treatments for the hair and skin combine the benefits of coconut oil with other natural ingredients for an even more powerful effect. Perfumed body oils, massage oil, hair, and skin treatments can be made at home using coconut oil and your favorite scents, or you can purchase a wide variety of coconut oil based products.
Shine, made by Global Goddess, combines coconut oil with alma, henna, grape seed oil and neem oil. Alma, or Indian gooseberry, is rich in vitamin C. Unlike many hair products, this leave-in treatment is good for your skin too.
Read more articles about skin care.
