What sorts of oils and butters are best for your hair?

Written by on Aug 03, 2009

Clearing up some misconceptions

hair oils

Various Oils

Coconut butter, avocado, almond butter and peanut butter are not actually butters, in terms of the nomenclature we are discussing. In these products, the flesh of the nut or fruit is pressed and included with the oil, which provides the food source with proteins and water, as well as fatty acids. This is not a butter in the technical sense THEN WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF BUTTER?, but this is a common usage in food products. Another point to keep in mind is that in some cases, the unsaturated fatty acids in the oils of these fruits and nuts are hydrogenated to create a more solid texture. This can change the properties of the product significantly.

Another bit of confusion on this topic of oils, butters, and waxes is due to misleading terminology in the nomenclature system. It is not uncommon to read assertions that emulsifying is waxy or oily and prone to build-up. In fact, emulsifying wax is not a wax at all, nor is it an oil. It is a group of ingredients (derived from fatty acids ) used as a nonionic surfactant mixture that is highly effective at facilitating mixing of oils and waxes into aqueous solutions. Specifically, it is most often these ingredients: Cetearyl Alcohol, Polysorbate 60, PEG-150 Stearate & Steareth-20. All of those components are water soluble, with the exception of the fatty alcohol. It is possible that people who dislike products containing this ingredient are actually sensitive to the oil or butter being emulsified by emulsifying wax, or they are sensitive to buildup of fatty alcohols (cetearyl alcohol) on their hair.



This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 am and is filed under Chemicals, Curly Hair (Type 3a), Ingredients, Products. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment.

10 comments for “CurlChemist Helps us Understand Oils and Butters”

  1. diana Says:
    August 4th, 2009 at 9:07 am

    Phew!!!!!!! That is going to take some re-reading and studying!!! I”m curious why you didn’t include Castor oil?? Thanks for this!!!

  2. Haj Says:
    August 5th, 2009 at 9:18 am

    Umm this is an amazing article with so much helpful information.

    I’m just curious as to the reason why a picture of refined shea butter was used as an example of regular shea butter. If you see shea butter with that pure white color it means that it was extracted in a why that totally changes the chemical composition of it and depletes all of the natural beneficial properties. Ladies do not pick up shea butter that has a pure white color. You might as well just slather Vaseline on your hair.

  3. kinkykhick Says:
    August 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    Tonya, Wondeful article and just what I needed!

    As Diana said before me I will be re-reading and studying to figure out why my easy to maintain and moisturize hair 4a/b hair has become overly porous, thin, damaged and protein reliant and all without the use of heat or relaxers.

    Thanks for helping me take a big step in becoming knowledgeable in the care of my hair.

  4. curlyhersheygirl Says:
    August 25th, 2009 at 10:02 am

    Wow great article. This explains alot and helped me narrow done my product list.

    Thanks

  5. Karen Stokes Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 7:57 am

    Wonderful article. Little by little I’m learning how to deal with tempermental Fine, Porose 2B to 3B hair. Thank you.

  6. Argan Oil and Ximenia Oil—Ancient Botanical Ingredients Made New Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 8:32 am

    [...] to see similar results from ximenia and argan oil. However, as we discussed in a previous article (Butters and Oils), if your hair is extremely porous, you may experience unpleasant effects from products containing [...]

  7. NaturallyCurlyDee Says:
    September 6th, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    This was a great article…saving this under my favorites as a point of reference!!

  8. Sorting Out the Hair Oil Confusion Says:
    May 29th, 2011 at 7:40 pm

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