Before the western beauty world started slathering coconut oil all over themselves, my mother was persuading me to put coconut oil on my hair for a couple of hours or night before I washed my hair. Needless to say, that never really happened, and at the time I was severely uneducated about my hair type (wavy-curly) and was brushing my curls…BRUSHING. Not a good idea.
Anyways, it’s about time that I myself took the age-old benefits of coconut oil into my stride and routine. While a good remedy for dull and dry hair (as well as dandruff), there are other uses to coconut oil. When you can, try virgin and cold pressed olive oil.
1.Haircare
Dull and damaged hair is never really anyone’s thing. What I do is heat a little bit of the oil in a bowl in the microwave, and put it all over my dry, unwashed, right upto the scalp. I concentrate especially on the ends of my hair. You can either wrap a towel over it and wash the towel later, or use a shower cap. I actually go with a plastic bag as I don’t really want my shower cap to be oily….
I leave it on while I’m doing other things, maybe it’s a pamper day and I want to put a face mask on or paint my nails. After maybe 2-3 hours, I shower and wash my hair out. It may take 2 washes for you to get the oil out of your hair. I use my normal conditioner, dry and style my hair as I’d normally do. You’ll find it’s a lot more pliable to styling and has a healthy look to it. This treatment can be used once a week.
2. Shaving
Exfoliate your legs as you would usually do and let the steam from your shower or bath open your pores. Then slather coconut oil over them and WASH YOUR HANDS otherwise you’ll drop your razor. You’ll find it gives an easy and clean shave, and the coconut oil actually gunks up your razor less, and lessens the dryness you’d normally get post-shave.
3. Moisturising cream
Post-shower, massage some coconut oil on your damp limbs (always when damp). It really helps to absorb the oil in. If you need some extra hydration, do like the celebrities do with their serums and stuff, and add a couple of drops of coconut oil into your normal body lotion. Feel the difference and smell like a tropical island everywhere you go.
4. Chapped heels
Dampen your feet in warm-hot water and let the pores open for a bit. Massage a couple of drops of coconut oil over the chapped areas. You can do this at night, post-shower, and pull on a pair of old socks. In the morning you’ll wake up with feet fit for the gods.
5. DIY Masks and scrubs
Coconut oil provides an excellent base for a sugar scrub. For an oily skin like mine, olive oil is probably a better fit for my face. But here are some sugar scrub recipes, which I would vouch for to be pretty safe to use coconut oil.
- Luxurious sugar scrub recipe from from the Wellness Mama
- Coconut oil salt scrub from the Coconut Mama.
- Antioxidant coconut oil coffee scrub from the Coconut Mama
- Chocolate coconut sugar scrub from How Sweet Eats
How do you use your coconut oil? Do you have any go-to natural remedies for beauty and skincare that you swear by? Let me know!
LIPSTICK ON MY WINE GLASS 