I can remember hearing about hot oil treatments since I was a kid. I never knew what was so special about them until I started taking care of my hair.

Hot oil treatments soothe dry, itchy, sore and inflammed scalps. The other huge benefit to them is they help nourish and fortify your hair. If you scan books and the internet (and believe everything you read) you’ll find people use all kinds of oils for their hot oil treatments. Now granted, it’s better to have some kind of oil (barring the kind you use in an automobile of course) than no oil to use in your hair. I’ve seen sites that list 10 or so types of oils to use for this treatment as well as promoting the idea of using a mixture of all ten oils.

Really? 10 oils for a hot oil treatment? Maybe it seems more luxurious to do so or  maybe the idea of using 10 appeals better to the brain because we assume the mixture will be strong thus work better. Even if this seems like a good idea you should always er on the side of “less is more”.

When doing a hot oil treatment that focuses solely on your hair strands, opt for olive  oil or coconut oil. Why? Because these two oils actually penetrate your hair shaft. That’s not me talking. There’s scientific evidence tp back this up. I personally love both oils. I  realize some of you will hear both oils perform the same duties but in my opinion I feel like coconut oil acts as a fortifying treatment while olive oil acts as a nourishing treatment.

As for the scalp, three oils come into play: castor oil, olive oil and coconut oil. All three penetrate the scalp. For a more severe scalp problem I would go with castor oil. More on castor oil next time.