Hair oils

I bang on about hair oils and their benefits to anyone who will listen. I was brought up in an Indian household so hair oil was always being bandied about the place willy nilly. I used to HATE having oil put on my hair because it stank but I was still forced to use it.

Fast forward a good few years and I'm glad I was forced to use it because it gave me great hair, my hair was, and still is, super thick thanks solely to oil.

This post is solely about the different types of oils I use on my hair and what they do for the hair.

Lineup:
These are the oils I currently have in my bathroom cabinet and the ones I buy again and again.

Going from left to right we have:

• Cactus oil
• "Blood" (kakai) oil
• Castor oil
• Blood oil x2
  
• Amla oil
• Olive oil
• Amla and almond oil
• Coconut oil

My hair washing routine is thus:

Oil hair up with any of the aforementioned oils. Wait an hour or so. Blast hair with water to get most of the oil out. Wash and condition hair. Spray hair with leave in conditioner if hair is to remain curly. Spray hair with heat protectant if hair is to be straightened.

The traditional Indian way of using hair oil is as a styling aid but I don' think anyone really does that anymore, even my grandmother who used to do this now uses serum.

I should point out that you should ideally use this oil at least once a week or whenever you wash your hair for maximum results.

Cactus oil

• Used when I've got a headache
• Nice and cooling
• Easy to wash out
• Doesn't smell
• Makes hair super smooth and shiny

Blood oil

• Nice and cooling
• Easy to wash out
• Doesn't smell
• Makes hair smooth and shiny
• Easy to tell when you've washed it out as water runs clear
  

Castor oil

• MUST BE DILUTED
• If not diluted, it will burn your scalp
• Even when diluted it makes your hair grow really quick so I love using it for when I've miscut my hair at home
• Not much of a smell
• Easy to wash out
  

Amla oil

• Smelliest oil in the world
• Makes your hair stronger, longer, shinier and smoother
• Hard to wash the smell out so it's recommended that you mix it with something
• Nice and cooling though the smell drives you mad

Olive oil

• The shine giver, use this and watch your hair dazzle like glass
  
• You can't keep it on your hair for too long because it starts to smell like plasticine
• Easy to wash out

Amla and almond oil

• You already know what amla does but the almond smoothes your hair and makes it stronger
• Almond oil doesn't smell at all, regardless of how long you keep it on

Coconut oil

• Oldy but goody
• Godsend for damaged hair, don't bother with any treatments which say they will heal you hair, this badboy actually will
• Can be used warm or cold, warm is best if your hair is really damaged
• No smell, not even coconuts

All the oils are pretty cheap, they all come in at under £2 and considering how long they last you, they are well worth it.