IS AN OIL BATH GOOD FOR YOUR HAIR?

The oil bath is a beauty ritual used by many people in search of nutrition and healthy hair. But is oil bathing really the ideal treatment for dry hair? And how do you reap the benefits of oils? We tell you all about it in this article.

The oil bath: an ancestral ritual

An ancestral ritual, the oil bath is performed with one oil or several, using coconut oil, castor oil, argan oil or sweet almond oil. These plant oils are rich in ceramides and essential nutrients. Leave on for several hours, then rinse thoroughly. No matter how simple, this beauty routine seems effective and beneficial for our hair, and yet...

An obstacle to all other treatments

And yes, the oil bath isn't all that beneficial for your hair. Why is that?

First of all, oil acts as a protective barrier, of course, but above all it creates an obstacle to the penetration of all other daily treatments (creams, masks, serums), as well as deep treatments (Brazilian straightening, hair botox or hair cauterization). Indeed, even if oils have undeniable virtues, they remain a very greasy substance, and because of their viscous texture, they don't have the power to penetrate the cortex of the hair. As a result, oils remain on the surface, providing no deep nutrition to the fiber. It's important to go back to basics: the hair fiber is made up of 95% keratin and 5% moisture, so nourishing and regenerating it means giving it back its constituent components, and oil is hardly one of them. It would be more effective to focus on proteins (keratin, collagen), provitamins (panthenol) and amino acids.

In conclusion, the main action of an oil bath is to envelop the hair, giving the illusion of shine, which in reality suffocates the fiber and ultimately impoverishes it from within.

Using oils wisely

So how do we use oils for our hair?

Vegetable oils are of great benefit to our hair, and will rightly be found in many formulations, but in the right doses. And that's exactly what's at stake when it comes to preserving the health and beauty of our hair. A few drops of hair oil or serum mixed with your mask are all you need to achieve the desired shine and nourishment.

Final tip. When the weather's nice, we tend to put oil on our hair before going out in the sun, thinking we're protecting our hair. But the result is the opposite of what you'd hoped for... Instead of protecting the hair, the presence of oil overexposes the hair fiber to UV rays and dries it out considerably. Forget about oils if you're going to expose your hair to the sun, and opt instead for appropriate care products. You'll find thermo-protective milks on the market, and some of them not only protect your hair from heat and UV rays, but also act against chlorine and sea salt.

Now you know all about oils, it's up to you to use them wisely for healthy, nourished hair!

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