questions about oils
Posted by Shirley on October 25, 2001 at 10:44:52: Previous Next
I've seen both tea tree oil and Vitmin E oil in the vitamin/supplement sections of stores lately and I was wondering if they are good oils for use on hair. The description on the labels only talks about using them on skin, but I know that sometimes the labels on stuff like that doesn't always list all of it's uses (for instance, many of us take biotin and/or fo-ti with the aim of speeding up growth, yet if you read the label it doesn't mention that at all). I know vitamin E is supposed to be really good for hair (when taken as a supplement) and I've heard of both vitamin e and tea tree oil being added to shampoos and conditioners, but I haven't heard anyone say if the can be used as oils by themselves. I've read that some oils, although great for hair when diluted in something else (like a "carrier oil"), are much to strong to be used by themselves and can actually be damaging if used undiluted, so I didn't really think it would be a good idea to start "experimenting" with either of these two until I found out a little more. Does anyone know if these should/shouldn't be used on hair?
Also, I keep seeing products in the section that has the african hair products(sorry, I don't really know what else to call them) that claim to be really great deep conditioners or hair oils. Many of them also make claims about preventing breakage/damage/split ends or speeding up growth. Would these products be okay for a white person to use? I don't mean this as a racist comment, but since different ethnicities/ different genetic lines lead to differences in hair texture(etc), a product that works wonderfully for one person may not work well for another (this type of difference can be seen even between people with relatively similar genetic backgrounds), and so I don't know if the products that seem to be marketed solely to blacks would work for other races as well. I just wonder since something that promises "maximum growth" or strong hair can obviously be tempting to try. I've read the ingredients, and most of them contain a lot of the stuff I've read about here like jojoba oil and coconut oil, plus they don't have a lot of silicones, so it seems like they would be really good.