What Are the Best Ways to Use Oil for African American Hair?

Natural hair is quite special and comes with its own guidelines for proper care that will keep it full, healthy, and beautiful. The best thing you can do for your hair is to get to know it. You want to know more about your particular hair type and what textured hair needs in order to be at its best. Knowing all of this will help you to treat your natural hair well, use the best products for it, and have a great consistent routine set up. Black hair care typically involves certain types of products used to get the best results from your hair every step of the way from washing and treatment down to styling and refreshing.

One of the most commonly used products for Black hair is some form of natural oil or a blend of oils. Applying oils to textured hair is an absolute must for many people trying to keep their curls and coils in good condition. There are a number of ways that you can use oil for African American hair to get optimal results, you just have to find the right oils and the right method of application in order to make it work best for your tresses. In particular, there are a few ways we would recommend you try using oil for African American hair to get your hair and scalp feeling incredible. Once you know what oils your hair loves and how it wants these oils to be applied, you will already be in a much better position to protect, style, and treat your hair well.

Moisture Sealant
One of the most common ways people will use oil for African American hair is to lock in moisture after a wash. Oil can act as a sealant, coating the strands and preventing moisture from getting out through the air. This makes oil a great product for those with perpetually dry hair, an unfortunate but common occurrence in natural hair. After washing your hair and starting on your styling routine, you can use oil to seal in the moisture from the products you are using in order to hydrate your hair well, which is critically important for the health of textured hair.

The exact placement of this step will vary from person to person, as people have very strong opinions, but just keep in mind the LOC method (liquid, oil, cream) vs the LCO method (liquid, cream, oil). The LOC method suggests applying your oil right before finishing with cream products like styling cream, whereas the LCO method suggests using oil at the very end of a routine to seal it all in. You can try out both ways to see what works best for your hair, but both are shown to give great results when executed properly.

Scalp Treatment
If you want a more targeted approach to using oil for African American hair, then you should definitely consider using it as a scalp treatment. Even if you concentrate the application to just the scalp and roots rather than the hair strands, you can get some great benefits from oil. Those who deal with dry hair, may also know the frustrations of a dry scalp as well. It is frustrating, but very common, so you are certainly not alone in this.

Many deal with dry scalp, which can cause itchiness, flakiness, and even stunted hair growth. The good thing is you can use oil pretty easily to directly treat your scalp and reduce dryness. Apply oil to the hands and rub them together to warm up the oil a bit, then massage it straight into the scalp.

Take your time with this and gently work your hands across the scalp to stimulate the follicles as you go. This is great for promoting healthy hair, a moisturized scalp, and even some hair growth if that is a goal of yours. It is a great habit to apply an oil scalp treatment after shampooing your hair to really let it sink into the cuticles, especially if you warm up the oil first.

A scalp treatment is also a great way to provide some relief to your scalp if you are wearing your hair in a protective style and feel some tension or itchiness. A little oil applied right onto the scalp and carefully massaged in can reduce the tightness and itchiness you might feel, making your scalp feel much better.

Finishing Product
When we simplify things as much as possible, hair oil can be used over dry hair on any given day throughout the week to help maintain the look of your hair in between washes. Massage a small amount of the oil between your palms and warm it up before applying it to the strands.

This quick step could help you achieve a smoother, neater look that reduces frizz and adds some shine to your hair. You will also note that it is the easiest way to work oil into your hair care routine and shows just how versatile natural hair oils can be. You can use oil for African American hair during just about any stage of your hair care routine, as long as you do so thoughtfully with an idea of what you want to see from it.

All of these methods for applying oil to textured hair show just how useful and versatile natural oils can be for your hair. Throughout all of these different stages in your hair care routine, you can utilize the naturally beneficial properties of oil to improve the condition of your hair through hydration, strengthening, relief, and growth.

Once you get your hands on some high quality natural oil blends for hair, you will be able to play around with it and figure out what your hair responds to the best. We are quite proud of the vegan hair oil we were able to formulate at Llhomd, which largely consists of argan oil, an amazing plant-based oil for hair and scalp. Give it a try yourself and see what oil blends can do as a part of your hair care routine.