CYW asks…I have been pre-pooing my hair with coconut oil for several months. I recently read an article that mentioned coconut oil’s ability to remove dye from hair. I’m questioning whether this is true and if so, just how does the oil removes hair dye. Finally, are you aware of another oil I can use that won’t cause my dye to fade?
The Right Brain responds:
Thanks for a very interesting question! We’ve blogged a lot about the benefits of using coconut oil because it can penetrate into the cortex of your hair where it can help strengthen and protect it. But does that cause any problems for haircolor retention?
Why hair color fades
We’ve never seen any specific test data on coconut oil affecting haircolor but we do know that shampooing and rinsing is the main reason that haircolor fades. Therefore, just putting oil on your hair shouldn’t cause the dye removal. But since coconut oil penetrates deeply into your hair it could help “loosen” the dye molecules and make them easier for the shampoo/water combination to remove.
You could try other oils that don’t penetrate the hair as much, like mineral oil. They may cause less color loss but they also won’t provide the same strengthening benefit as coconut oil. So which would you rather have: great-looking hair with some faded color or great haircolor with more damaged hair?
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39627870@N07
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Oooh! I’ve actually tested this very question at home. I bleach my hair about every 5 or 6 weeks and put in a vegetable-based semi-permanent color (Pravana Vivids). As a result of all the lightening, my hair is a bit damaged. I was worried about conditioning treatments pulling the color out of my hair, so I did a little experiment. I put a shea butter-based conditioning mask on my hair overnight, then shampooed as I normally would (with Aveda Color Conserve). The color was significantly faded after just one treatment/shampoo. Later, after reapplying color, I put on coconut oil overnight, shampooed as normal, and the color hadn’t faded visibly at all. I have continued to use food-grade coconut oil on my colored hair 1-2x weekly for months, with no deleterious effects to my color (and really pretty amazing results for my hair texture). My best explanation is that the short chain lipids in coconut oil don’t stick to color as well as larger fats, like in the shea butter mask I tried, and so less color is shampooed away after treatment.
Wow, Kerry nailed it. Thanks for all the tips!
this is a very interesting article. I would like to know if olive oil would as beneficial for the hair as coconut oil, or if it is beneficial at all?
@Anne: The test data we’ve seen shows that coconut oil does a better job of penetrating and strengthening hair.
@Kerry: You’re right about shea butter having a great proportion of longer fatty acids than coconut oil. That’s an interesting theory to account for the differences you observed.
I forgot to mention in my original comment that as I applied the shea butter conditioner I could see color depositing into the conditioner (I used a comb to pull it through my hair). I don’t see this same color deposition when I use coconut oil.
This is just my random anecdotal experience: I naturally have blonde hair, and I lighten my hair a few shades lighter. Since I started using coconut oil on my hair (at least once a week,) my hair is ever-so-slightly darker than it once was.
It’s actually a really nice shade, so I’m not complaining. I don’t know if some of the fatty acids are sticking around, or what.
Coconut oil makes my hair darker too. My friends sometimes ask if I just dyed my hair. It looks nice.
I’m wondering if it would it be possible to combine an oil-soluble hair dye with coconut oil. Are there any oil-soluble dye ingredients? And if so, would the oil carry the dye deep into the hair?
^Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
I mean, I can understand the theory of the fatty acids loosening the dye as they penetrate, but in the case of lighteners (like us) what’s going on there? It’s not the coconut oil is making dead hair produce more melanin. It’s odd, like it’s actually sticking around and darkening.
And since we’re on the subject of hair friendly oils–when I mix my coconut oil with soy oil, my hair is shinier than when I mix it with olive oil. Everyone on hair care forums is always praising olive oil as the ultimate shine-enhancer, but I guess my hair is weird.
You’ll have to forgive the strange way this post is worded. I am currently on pain killers and everything is kinda rainbowy and stuff.
/spam
I think the darkening is like when you oil wood with clear oil, and it looks darker. Or like when a rock gets wet, it looks darker. It has something to do with how coconut oil changes the texture of each hair.
I still want to know if there’s a way to use coconut oil to darken hair. What if you infused tea in coconut oil–would it turn brown and then would it work as a hair dye? Has anyone tried this?
Thanks for addressing my question.
I still have colour fading from my hair – just dyed it a dark brown last week and the colour has now settled to a medium brown. I typically wash my hair every 4-5 days. Curious if it is the Nice n Easy I typically use or if another brand has better staying power.
I have been using coconut oil on my hair for a couple of months now (at least once a week overnight), and I haven’t noticed any change in color. My hair has become amazing though- soft, shiny, and very happy looking.