I remember when I was a young girl (around 8 years or so), one of my classmates was from India and her mother use to make her put coconut oil on her hair on a regular basis to condition it. Intrigued, I asked my mom if I could try it. We did it a couple of times but found it too messy to keep it up. My hair is (and has always been) very fine and lightweight so it really sagged under the weight of the oil (plus we were probably unwittingly applying way more than we needed to). My classmate’s hair, by comparison, was a lot coarser and a bit drier so she really benefited from the treatment.

So it was no surprise to me that recently, while researching the many benefits and applications of coconut oil, I discovered a little factoid: The number one reason why people in India buy coconut oil today is to condition and nurture their hair. Studies in India have been done on how effective various oils are in treating damaged hair. One study compared mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil because these are the three most commonly used oils in hair treatment products in India.

Among the three oils, coconut oil was the only one found to reduce the protein loss for both undamaged and damaged hair when used as a pre-wash and post-wash grooming product. Both sunflower and mineral oils did nothing to reduce protein loss from hair. It turns out that coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (its main fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins. Because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain (again being a little technical here …), it’s able to fully penetrate inside the hair shaft. Due to their chemical composition, the other oils were unable to penetrate the hair shaft and as a result, failed to protect the hair from protein loss.

I imagine that the thicker and coarser your hair is, the more it can benefit from a coconut oil treatment. You probably don’t even need to apply much to see some results. You Tube abounds with videos of women who swear by it! I would start by massaging a little into your scalp before you wash your hair. Let it soak in for a while (10 minutes or so) before shampooing. See how your hair feels after it dries. If it’s still a little dry then you might want to try adding a little to your hair after it dries and see if that works better.