Rene’s interrogatory: In the past you guys had talked about coconut oil being one of the few oils that can actually penetrate your hair. How many oils are there that can penetrate hair and skin? And which one’s are the most stable?
The Right Brain’s response:
Thanks for your question, Rene. A lot of the Beauty Brains community is interested in coconut oil as a hair and skin care ingredient.
Crazy about coconut oil
We don’t have much new info on the subject, but the scientific study that we blogged about before did show that coconut oil, olive oil and avocado olive were the best at penetrating hair. The other oils studied did not have that ability. So if you’re looking to improve the strength of your hair those are good materials to consider. Skin penetration is a different issue because deep penetration is not necessary to provide moisturization.
Stability of the oil itself is really a separate issue shouldn’t cause you much concern. If oils have unsaturated double bonds they can become unstable and turn rancid over time, but any properly formulated product will contain preservatives and antioxidants to keep the oil from going bad.
But while we’re on the subject of coconut oil, your question gives us a good excuse to mention a recent article from Science Daily that describes how coconut oil is practically saving the lives of poor families in certain East African countries. These women live in areas that grow abundant coconuts, yet their emaciated families are so poor that they can barely get enough food to survive (see picture above.)
Science to the rescue
The exciting news is that student engineers from Brigham Young University have designed a new, low cost device that enables women to easily extract valuable oil from coconuts so they can help provide for their families. Now the villagers have an easy way to make their own oil and sell it locally or to exporters for use in beauty and cooking products. According to the report, the invention can help them earn ten times more money than they could make otherwise.
This is really a heartwarming story which you can read for yourself. And once again, it’s another example of how cosmetic science makes our lives better!
What do YOU think? Do you look for cosmetics that use ingredients that help support developing countries?