Yes, I admit: I am a converted coconutter!
When a friend of mine exchanged her cooking oils with coconut oil a couple of years ago, I was intrigued by the white solid oil that smells like a mixture of coconuts and shortbread, and turns into liquid oil when warmed up. So, I started to inform myself about this superfood and learnt about the many great uses of CO. And yet, I did not give it a try myself, although I always had it at the back of my mind.
A few weeks ago, I did some serious research on the beauty and health benefits of CO, and ever since I could not stop thinking about it. Completely coconuts for coconut oil, I stormed H&B, purchased my first glass jar of CO, and immediately put it to the test the moment I got home.
Follow me on my expedition to exploring the possible ways of integrating CO to my beauty and health regimen.
Expedition 1: Hair and Scalp Treatment
Having read a lot about the wonders CO does for your skin and hair, I was looking forward to trying the ‘kitchen and beauty all-rounder’ on my scalp and hair first. As I am a proud owner of frizzy hair and struggling with an extremely dry scalp (due to psoriasis), I decided to do a hair and scalp treatment.
When using CO on your hair and scalp, you can either apply the oil on dry or damp hair. Apart from this, it is also up to you whether you want to melt the solid oil before applying it, or use the oil in its solid form. However, as CO liquifies at only 24°C, the solid oil will eventually melt while you are working it onto your hair with your hands). I decided to use the oil on dry hair and melted it before getting started with the treatment.
In order to treat both my scalp and long hair, I used 2 tbsp CO and let it melt in a hot water bath. It comes in handy that the oil melts quickly, as this means that there is not much time involved when preparing the treatment. Perfect!
Although CO is said to not stain your clothes with greasy spots, I throw a towel around my shoulders before working the oil onto my scalp and hair. (And still: Should you accidently stain your clothes with CO, do not worry. It will indeed not leave grease spots after it has been washed.)
Armed with my towel cape around my shoulders and the bowl of melted CO next to me, I first parted my hair inch by inch to ensure that I do not miss spots on my scalp. After that, I moved over to the tub and (head first) applied the oil to the lengths of my hair. When my entire head was covered with the oil, I put my hair into a bun. (Note: To secure the oily bun, I used my beloved plastic ‘telephone cord’ hair tie (Invisibobble), as I could easily clean it with a bit of soap after the treatment.) After leaving the CO in for about 4 hours, I finally washed my hair thoroughly and let it air dry.
Scalp-wise, the result was great, as the CO released its itchiness and feelings of tension. Unfortunately, the oil did not work too well with leaving my hair moisturised, even though I definitely noticed a difference in the hair structure, as it seemed less frizzy. However, my main goal was to treat my dry scalp, so I am really happy with the effect CO has on it.S
Since then, I have been treating my hair and scalp with CO every Sunday. Expedition 1 was a complete success!