Hair Oiling has been around for more than 5,000 years. Originating in Ancient-India, from the centuries old practice of Ayurveda, hair oiling is a practice that involves not just cosmetic benefits but spiritual ones as well. It’s thought that when massaging the top of the head, also known as the crown chakra, it brings you peace and promotes healthy sleep.
Many cultures have adopted hair oiling into their own practice, such as the Egyptians and the Black community. Since black hair usually tends to have kinky or thick curls, the hair dries out quicker, hence the practice of hair oil into their routines.
To apply hair oil, it is suggested that you do not put the oil directly onto the shaft of your hair. Instead, you should section your hair into 4 sections, and massage the oil directly into your scalp and roots. After finishing that, then rub the leftover oil into the shaft of your hair. It is also suggested to leave the oil in for at least 30 minutes, but leaving it overnight is the best option, then washing it out the following morning.
Besides learning the history of hair oiling, what benefits does hair oiling have on your hair? Read below to find out:
- Hydrates Scalp
As humans go through day-to-day life, such as going outside regularly and getting exposed to the outdoors, our hair and scalp lose hydration, which over time leads to dry hair and excess hair fall.
Oiling at least twice a week will lead to your scalp becoming healthier and your hair less likely to excessively fall out.
- Improves Hair Growth
Hair growth is important to a lot of people. In this case, using the massaging method we mentioned in the intro, the massaging of the oil helps to increase the circulation of your blood to the scalp and helps bring more nutrients to the roots, resulting in the hair growing faster.
- Prevents Frizz
When you oil your hair, the type of oil matters. Using an oil that is rich in fatty acids and vitamin E is known to create a barrier on the hair’s shaft. That barrier prevents the hair from losing moisture, which prevents humidity from entering the hair shaft, thus preventing frizz.
- Prevents Dandruff
There’s nothing more annoying than finding those cute little dandruff flakes on your clothes. Luckily, there are plenty of simple home remedies that anyone can use. As you’ve read this article, you can guess that hair oiling is one of those hair dandruff remedies.
With dandruff being caused by an imbalance of sebum in the scalp, hair oiling can help make dandruff less severe. By massaging the scalp and adding the oil, the sebum levels will get better and cause less dandruff.
- Protects hair from Hygral Fatigue
Hygral Fatigue is damage done to your hair strands caused by the repeated swelling and unswelling of the hair. With excessive swelling and unswelling, excessive moisture may penetrate the inner cortex of the strand, leading to frizziness, dullness, and brittleness.
With oiling, the oil has two preventative measures. The first one, oil is hydrophobic, meaning it doesn’t like oil to be near it and therefore will not let water sit near it. This prevents too much oil to be absorbed into the hair, thus preventing that damage. Second, the oil “fills in” the hair where there are abnormalities, thus not allowing there to be direct entryways into the inner cortex.
- Protects hair from UV rays
With prolonged exposure to the sun, which gives off Ultraviolet Rays, the outside layer, called the cuticle, can get damaged. This damage can lead to dry hair, brittle strands, broken/split ends, and thinning of the hair.
Hair oiling helps with this by adding a protective layer on the outside of the hair, thus not letting those UV rays penetrate the hair.
