What Is Oil Washing and How To Do It
Shampooing natural hair (or any hair) is a must to keep it healthy. Dirty hair not only smells but built up dirt could clog your hair follicles, preventing vital nutrients from getting into them.
However, certain shampoos, especially commercial ones with a great deal of chemical product in them, can strip your hair of the necessary natural oils your hair makes. This could lead to over drying of your hair and breakage.
The same goes for your skincare regimen. Harsh soaps and cleansers may do more harm than good, leaving your skin very dry to the point dry patches could develop.
But there is a very easy fix to dry hair and dry skin and that is oil washing.
Oil washing is very simple. It’s often associated with oil rinsing, but is still different.
Oil washing involves mixing oil into your cleansing product to give it a major boost in moisturizing effects. This can be done on your hair or your skin. I’ve done this on my skin and it worked great. I did not even have to use lotion after I got out the shower and my skin stayed pretty soft and lightly oiled for several hours!
For your hair, you could wash your hair completely and then conduct an oil rinse or mix the oil in with the shampoo. You will immediately notice the difference in fresh, clean oiled hair!
If you are interested in oil washing for your hair (or skin) follow these steps.
1. Pick out the oil you want to use on your hair or skin. For a light oil, lavender oil and sunflower oil are great choices. If you want something heavy, coconut oil or melted shea butter or cocoa nut butter are ideal.
2. Warm with the oil lightly in the microwave. You will want to make sure the oil is not too hot as you will be putting this on your hair and scalp.
3. Put the warm oil in a dispensing container that allows it to be easily poured on hair.
4. In the shower, create a lather on your hair and rinse. Then take some of the hot oil and mix it with a small amount of shampoo and lather again in your hair. Or you can just massage the oil on your hair and scalp. Rinse.
5. On towel dried hair, comb through your freshly washed and oiled hair with a wide tooth comb to remove all tangle and kinks. Allow to hair dry so the oils can better settle on your hair in your scalp.
