Castor Oil on Hair?

A friend of mine was talking about hot oil treatments. She claims she gets great results with castor oil. I have never heard of this before. I know that olive oil works really great but castor oil?Has anyone ever used this before and what does it do to your hair?Jody

> Hi Jody,> Well castor oil will work to add moisture.> There are a few warnings. I found it to darken> my blonde hair and I also had a very hard time> getting it out of my hair. I would recommend olive> oil or a lighter oil unless you are willing to> do several shampoos to get the castor oil out> (I had to do 3 rounds of suds).> Best wishes,> KarenGood Morning Karen,Here's a surprise, I have a hair care question. Can you explain the difference for me, and maybe others, between a oil/hot oil treatment and commercial conditioners, like Curessence. I'm not real informed about some of this, but it seems to me that if someone uses an oil treatment and you have to wash the hair two or three times to get the oil out, you have just negated all the benefits the oil may have provided. Is the oil better or just a different way to moisturize the hair from conditioners that are rinsed out. Does the oil condition deeper? You know that I have short hair, but I am concerned about the health of what I have and want it to look and feel good.I find this hair care info very interesting and informative even if it all doesn't apply to me. Thanks for your time. BTW, you were up quite early yourself to answer Cher's post. Ha! Y'all have a great day.Neil A

Hi Neil,Well I have been thinking about your oil question all day and could not rest until I had more detailed info to provide. So here it is:Castor oil - Is diluted and used in a lot of hairdressings designed for me. It is adequate at lubricating the ends of hair but tends to be very oily, sticky and difficult to shampoo out. Prolonged use will make some scalps become flaky.Olive Oil - Best oil for conditioning the hair. Still used by some professional salons as part of their deep conditioning process. Heavy enough to penetrate but light enough to wash out easily. Works very well as a base oil that other oils can be added to and blended successfully (Vitamine E, rosemary oil, etc.)Jojoba Oil - Works better on hair than skin. Can cause skin rashes especially on the face. It is very popular in hair care products. It is known for removing hardened sebum from the scalp. More expensive than the other oils and harder to get.Coconut Oil - Very thick and rich in forumlation. Very popular in the Caribbean and Mexico. Tends to harden when it cools so not good for use on scalp. Can cause hair to feel sticky and cause tangles.Almond and Sesame Oil - Next best thing to olive oil for hair. Good and light carrier oils. May not penetrate the hair shaft quite as good as olive oil. Easy to wash out and non sticky. Will not dry the scalp.Sage Oil - Very clean and pungent smell. Distilled from the sage herb. Has an astringent qualtiy that will soothes an itchy scalp. Inexpensive, can be purchased at a health food store and easy to rinse out.Rosemary Oil (One of my favorites). It is distilled from the rosemary herb. It is known for removing tangles from the hair and to help manage the hair. Best used in an olive oil base to diffuse the strong aroma. Great hair oil.OK...that is it for the oils. I also did not mention all the oils that Aveda has like Beautifying Oil and Energizing Oil. Each oil has a combination of different oils and properties like jojoba (Beautifying Oil) or rosemary and sage. The Aveda oils are the commercial versions of the homemade versions of all the oils.How did I do?Karen> Neil,> Yes, if you have to wash your hair a lot> to remove the oil, it negates the whole purpose> and in that vein, a commercial product like Curressence> works best. However, some of the oils are so light,> that they wash out in 1 shampoo and therefore> you maintain the benefits. Olive, sesame and almond> oils are light and will wash out with one shampoo> only.> Castor oil is very heavy and very oily like> coconut oil. Castor oil is made directly from> the castor bean and tends to be heavy and very> oily and greasy.> I have always found it very hard to wash> out. Therefore, like you said...the benefit if> lost with all the shampoo that is needed.> Olive oil with some rosemary oil works really> great for me an leaves my hair even silkier than> Curressence does. That is the benefit, in my opinion.>> Karen> PS. I was not up early Neil. I stayed up> all night working on the site. :-) We are going> to be adding about 30 new book reviews as soon> as Jeff gets them linked and we are getting ready> to unveil some gorgeous custom hand made hair> jewelry by Dawn.> We also added 3 new hair links and more Hair> News will be added today or tomorrow (Monday)> depending on how tired I get. :-(> Jeff and I have been busy getting the credit> cards & secure certificates, setting up the> CyberCash forms and laying out the order forms.> Stay tuned. Lots of great new things will be happening> soon at Hair Boutique. :-)

> Hi Neil,> Well I have been thinking about your oil> question all day and could not rest until I had> more detailed info to provide.> How did I do?> KarenHi Karen TR1 (The Real 1),You are totally amazing. You were up all night working, probably all day too, and you had time to do some research on the hair moisturizing oil question. I'm sure you helped to answer a lot of peoples' questions with your info. I did notice though that many of the oils that may help your hair can also be used for food and food prep, good for inside and out. Thanks for a very complete job.Myself, I'm going to buy some Shampure and Curessence and try those before I try any of the oil conditioners. I will let you know how I like Aveda.It looks like you have some neat things coming up on the site. Did I miss some announcements in Hair News? I have to check that out more frequently.I was looking at the very large number of posts to Hair Talk in the last week. There have been a lot of "new" people posting too, the word is spreading that this a great hair site. Even though it was a somewhat trying week, the kind, concerned, helpful, and supportive words from people like Cher and Dawn, to name just two of many, hopefully makes you and Jeff feel it is worth all the effort. I certainly hope so.Please take care of yourself, Jeff too, get some rest, and Be Careful Out There, with all the oil around, this website was a little slippery today.Thanks again,Neil