Your lengths shine, they’re soft under your fingers, and they stay dry. So you switch oils, you use more. What if the oil wasn’t the problem, but what you expected from it?
The problem rarely lies in the oil you’ve chosen. It lies in what you ask of it, and where you place it in the week. Three light oils do this job very well on coily and curly hair, as long as you know what the job is. To see where this step sits in the bigger picture, our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.
In the house I grew up in, oil was never a treatment on its own. We added just a little to the hibiscus treatment, enough to coat it, and it was the treatment that did the work. I stick to that in the salon: oil comes last, in a very small amount, and only when there’s something to coat.
Ghana Elin, founderWhat we wrongly ask of an oil
A plant oil leaves a fatty layer on the surface of the hair. This film smooths the scales, reduces friction between strands and slows the evaporation of the water held in the fibre. It’s a surface effect and a brake, not something added: we’ve detailed what each family of oils can do in our oil comparison, and we won’t repeat it here.
One word is enough to explain the misunderstanding: seal. You read that you should seal in moisture with an oil or a butter after every wash. In the Rituel Texture®, this sixth step really does exist, it’s called Lock in moisture, and it’s done with The Styling Cream, not with an oil. A light oil comes afterwards, as an extra, on the ends, between two routines, when they feel rough after a few days.
The nuance isn’t just about vocabulary. Oil applied to hair that received nothing at washing has nothing to hold in: it locks in the dryness instead of correcting it. That’s what explains hair that feels greasy to the touch yet behaves as if it were dry.
One common belief needs clearing up before you choose, because it shapes everything else: “light” doesn’t mean “penetrating”. An oil’s ability to enter the fibre doesn’t depend on how fluid it is, but on the shape of its molecules and their affinity with keratin (Keis et al., Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2005). Among the oils compared on human hair, only whole coconut oil significantly reduced protein loss, thanks to its lauric acid, a short, linear chain that passes through the cuticle (Rele and Mohile, Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2003).
You don’t choose a light oil for what it might bring to the inside of the hair, but for what it leaves on the outside: a thin, even layer that doesn’t build up from one week to the next.
Oil 1Jojoba oil
Let’s start with a point that matters, and that you rarely see written down: jojoba isn’t an oil in the chemical sense of the word. It’s a liquid wax, made of wax esters rather than triglycerides, which explains both its remarkable stability and its very superficial behaviour on the fibre (Pazyar et al., Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia, 2013). The pages that present it as penetrating have the wrong product in mind.
That doesn’t make it a bad choice, quite the opposite. Its composition is close to that of human sebum, which is why it blends into hair without the greasy shine you see with heavier oils. It hardly ever goes rancid, which matters when a bottle stays open for months in a bathroom.
It particularly suits fine or less dense hair, hair that falls flat at the slightest excess of product, and scalps that don’t tolerate oily substances well. Two drops worked between your palms make the ends supple without weighing the strand down. It’s the safest of the three when you don’t yet know how your hair reacts. What not to ask of it: deep nourishment. It coats; it doesn’t feed.
Oil 2Sweet almond oil
Richer than jojoba without being heavy, it’s the one you keep for comfort. Its main use is a dry scalp, the kind that feels tight the day after washing and itches all over, without thick flakes. A few drops spread parting by parting and massaged in with the fingertips usually soothe that discomfort over two or three washes.
On the lengths, it softens hair that’s a little stiff, the kind that detangling wears out. Like any plant oil kept in light and warmth, it eventually deteriorates: a bottle that’s been open for months and smells stale should be thrown away, not finished.
One important caveat, and it isn’t about comfort: avoid sweet almond if you have a known nut allergy, and test it on a small area for forty-eight hours before the first full application, as with any new product.
Oil 3Fractionated coconut oil
Fractionating coconut oil means removing its long-chain fatty acids and keeping only the medium chains. The result is fluid in every season, no longer sets at room temperature, isn’t sticky and keeps for a very long time. For hair that regular coconut oil weighed down, it’s an immediate improvement.
You do need to know what you lose along the way, though, and this is where the first two sections come together. Lauric acid, the very compound to which the 2003 study attributes whole coconut oil’s penetration, is among what gets removed. Fractionated coconut is therefore an excellent, very comfortable surface oil, but it doesn’t share the property that made coconut oil famous. The two aren’t interchangeable, and neither is better than the other in absolute terms.
It belongs on the ends of dense hair, as a finish, and on the lengths before a protective style, where you want slip rather than substance.
When light is no longer enough
Choosing light isn’t a principle; it’s an answer to a situation. Very dense hair, ends worn out by months of styles, hair that drinks everything and turns rough again the same evening: in these cases, a thicker fatty substance goes the distance better, as long as you keep it for the last ten centimetres. We’ve covered rich oils elsewhere, such as carapate oil, the Caribbean name for castor oil, and the three plant butters that do a similar job.
To work out which family you need, a single observation is enough, and it takes no equipment: watch how water behaves when you wash, and how long your hair takes to dry. Water that beads on the surface and slow drying point towards light. Immediate absorption followed by quick drying allows for richer. That’s the principle set out in our article on the porosity of coily hair.
Where, when and how much
The right moment is when your hair has already received something. After the Rituel Texture®, The Styling Cream helps maintain the moisture brought by washing; the light oil comes in afterwards, over the following days, only where it’s needed.
The amount is counted in drops, not spoonfuls. Two or three in your palm, warmed between your hands, applied to the ends one section at a time. If your hair looks flat or greasy the next day, you’ve used too much, and the fix is to halve it rather than change oils.
In the evening, before redoing your plaits and tying a silk scarf, a drop on the ends keeps the comfort going from one routine to the next. It’s the only truly daily use that makes sense. On the scalp, however, oil only goes on when it’s clearly dry, and never when it’s oily or flaky: there, it keeps the imbalance going instead of calming it.
Four habits that don’t hold up
- The weekly oil bath. Once or twice a year at most, and we explain why in the article devoted to it. To prepare for washing, Chadian finger detangling on dry hair is more than enough.
- The water-and-oil spray every morning. Wetting your hair every day wears out the fibre. A full routine every seven to ten days holds moisture better than twelve mistings.
- Oil instead of a treatment. On a fibre that’s received nothing, it locks in the dryness instead of correcting it.
- Oil on the roots out of habit. Between washes, this residue keeps sweat against the skin and ends up itching.
Not sure whether your hair needs light or rich?
Our experts go through your routine with you online, look at how your hair behaves with water and tell you where oil belongs, if it belongs at all.
Book a consultationFrequently asked questions
How much oil should you use?
Can an oil replace a moisturising treatment?
Does jojoba really penetrate the fibre?
Can you use oil every day?
My hair stays dry despite oils. Why?
Further reading
Sources
- Rele A. S. and Mohile R. B., “Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage”, Journal of Cosmetic Science, vol. 54, no. 2, 2003.
- Keis K., Persaud D., Kamath Y. K. and Rele A. S., “Investigation of penetration abilities of various oils into human hair fibers”, Journal of Cosmetic Science, vol. 56, no. 5, 2005.
- Pazyar N., Yaghoobi R., Ghassemi M. R. et al., “Jojoba in dermatology: a succinct review”, Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia, vol. 148, no. 6, 2013.
