Winning! Coconut Oil Has Really Helped My Hair (& Nails)

For someone who used spent most of her early life using only Dax/Lanolin and Blue Magic grease on her hair, I’m definitely playing by a different set of rules nowadays. 

Coconut oil is the TRUTH, ya’ll! 

Source: My Blessed Life

Tell your mama, share it with your friends, and introduce it to your pikin (your “children”). 

I love coconut oil, because it’s so versatile; if I could write a song about it, I would! 

By the way, I only use pure/extra virgin coconut oil. The purer, the better. 

Benefits of Coconut Oil for Me:

• Strengthens AND moisturizes my hair
• Strengthens my nails 

How I Use Coconut Oil:

• As a "pre-poo" (pre-shampoo) treatment
• As a deep conditioner

The pre-poo is a process that I do before I wash my hair where I coat my hair strands and my scalp with coconut oil or a mix of oils. This helps to keep my hair moisturized, even while the shampoo is cleansing my hair. It prevents my hair from feeling hard and dry after the shampoo process.

How it Works:

• As a pre-poo (hair): Coconut oil is the only natural oil that has been scientifically proven to penetrate the hair shaft. Because of its ovalene molecular structure, coconut oil, if it sits on the hair long enough (a few hours or overnight is best), its molecules can twist and turn and maneuver their way past the hair cuticles and into the inner parts of our hair strands, blessing the hair with moisture from the inside out (Amen, oh!). 

Source: Black Girl Long Hair

       Other popular oils such as olive oil, castor oil, and grease/petroleum jelly/petrolatum        have molecules that are way too big to penetrate the openings in our hair shaft, and          therefore just sit on TOP of the hair without giving the hair the thorough moisture            that it needs below the hair’s surface. So even when your hair is so greasy that you          can lean on a chair and leave a grease spot (I've done that before--so embarrassing!),        but the hair still feels hard/rough to to the touch, this is why. That oil or grease you          put on your hair is only disguising the fact that your hair is dry, dry, crunchy dry! 

• As a deep conditioner (hair): Coconut oil has a bit of protein in it. That being said, you can be assured that it’ll give your hair strands some strength it needs to withstand your constant combing, twisting, relaxing, plaiting, weaving, etc. 

• As a moisturizer & strengthener (nails): The health of my nails, cuticles and the skin around my nails has improved dramatically since I started rubbing coconut oil on my hands. And as long as I’m using is regularly, I don’t get blisters, dry patches, or hang nails on my fingers. And my nails (which usually don’t grow passed a certainly length) are now longer than they have been in years. Simply massage a small dab of coconut oil on the tips of your fingers every night before bed. 

• As a skin moisturizer: Recently, I added coconut oil to a bottle of skin lotion. And what a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I was pretty much ready to throw that lotion away (it was a brand I was trying for the first time, and it was not moisturizing enough for my dry skin). But now that I’ve added coconut oil to it, the remixed formula keeps my skin feeling soft and supple all day long. Winning! So ladies, before you throw away that cheap lotion that didn’t work for you, try adding the oil first. 

Bonus Tip: Live in Nigeria? Check out Daytona Pharmacy in Lekki (Lagos), or order online from Natural Nigerian for some coconut oil

For those of you who have had experience with using coconut oil, do you like it?

And to those of you who haven’t used coconut oil before, does this info encourage you to try it out? 

Let me know!