The Best Olive Oil for your Hair (and what to do with it)

BY FRANCESCA VAN SOEST ON APR 10 2020

Can you use olive oil in your hair? We get asked this question so frequently we thought it was time it got its own blog post!

The short answer is yes, you can certainly use olive oil in your hair! But we thought we would also add some tips and tricks that our team uses to give you some ideas on where to start.

Cobram Estate would also just like to quickly state that none of us here are hair or beauty experts and our tips here are purely from our own experiences and research we have done. Olive oil is not a cure-all and there is room for more research and studies on its various benefits. We encourage you to see what works for you and your hair and know that what works for some people might not work for everyone.

The first thing is to make sure that you use Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and not refined, light, pure, pomace, virgin or any other oil that is labeled anything other than Extra Virgin. This is because it is the highest quality oil that you can buy and has never been refined or adulterated, meaning it has more of olives natural vitamins and minerals than other types. And the vitamins and antioxidants in the oil are thought to be one of the main reasons that olive oil works so well in hair. We recommend Cobram Estate Classic because it is a perfect balance of high quality and approachable price point. Here is a link to check it out yourself!

Now that you have your EVOO, you can get creative with it! Here are some of our favorite ways to use olive oil in our hair care routine!

• Pour a couple of tablespoons into your conditioner for added deep conditioning. This can help with locking in moisture for super shiny, smooth hair.
• DIY hair mask! With everyone being stuck at home, what a perfect opportunity to spend a couple of hours pampering your hair and scalp with a mask! We like to get hair warmed up either with a blow dryer or in the sun, and then apply warm EVOO to your hair. Spread it evenly from roots to tips and make sure to massage a bit onto your scalp, some people swear that EVOO has helped them with dandruff. Then wrap it up in a shower cap or something similar and then just let it soak for as long as you would like. If you can sit outside in the sun to keep it warm it will help keep the hair follicles open and allow the EVOO to better penetrate into it. Once you are ready to wash it out, just simply follow your regular wash and condition routine. You might have to give it a second wash in order to get all the oil out, but make sure to condition after to help lock in that moisture!

• Everyday hair and beard oil. Olive oil has been used for millennia as a beauty product, as a key ingredient in soap making, skin oil, hair oil, and perfumes. One of the ways we use our EVOO is to take a small vial with a dropper top, like the one below, and to fill it with EVOO and then a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil. Our favorites are lavender, lemongrass, bergamot, cedar, and pine. You can even get creative and mix scents together to make your very own creation! We love EVOO because it already has a naturally green and grassy scent and we find that many scents layer on top very well. Once you have your creation made, you can use it in a variety of ways. You could take a couple of drops and work it through damp hair post-shower for all-day shine (make sure not to use too much as it could weight your hair down, try 2-3 drops to start). You could use it as beard oil, if you use more woodsy scents you are pretty much halfway to realizing your lumberjack dreams.

Well, hopefully this has given you some fresh ways to pamper yourself during this time of isolation. If there are any other ideas or ways to use EVOO in your hair, please leave your advice in the comments below! Again, what works for us might not work for you, everyone’s hair is so incredibly different. But we hope that you have fun experimenting with us and that hopefully you come out with other end with happier, healthier hair!