Are you wondering about the benefits of olive oil on your dreads? Read on to find out why you should include it among your best oils for your locs.
Olive oil is good for both dreadlocks growth and grooming in the sense that olive oil will keep your dreads and scalp moisturized, conditioned, repair damaged dreads, and add shine to your locs. Olive oil can also help with treating dandruff caused by dry scalp.
Table of Contents
Olive Oil for Dreadlocks
Moisturizer
Olive oil is one of the best oils for keeping both your dreads and scalp moisturized. Dreads that are not moisturized look dry and often suffer from dandruff.
When moisturizing your dreadlocks, you should keep off products that will cause build up in your scalp.
A good moisturizer should be made of oil that is capable of penetrating your hair and another one that helps seal in moisture.
When looking for oils that penetrate your hair consider oils that have a high percentage of saturated and monounsaturated fats. They have been proven to penetrate hair strands much better than polyunsaturated fats.
Olive oil is packed with both saturated, monosaturated, and polyunsaturated fats meaning that it will penetrate and seal your hair strands at the same time. Other oils that are good penetrating oils include avocado oil and coconut oil.
Apply olive oil in your dreads combined with these oils if you are looking to keeping them moisturized.
Be careful with leaving coconut oil in your hair for long some people have reported that they experienced build-up after using coconut oil.
Preventing Split Ends
If you have been dealing with split ends in your dreads, olive oil will help prevent split ends from forming and at the same time it will help conceal existing split ends. Note, olive oil does not treat existing split ends.
Treat Damaged Hair
Have your dread locs been damaged by harmful shampoos or other products.
Are they breaking when you do a retouch, using olive oil will help repair your damaged hair and prevent breakage due to its ease of penetration.
Olive oil will also help with restoring the elasticity of your hair and prevent breakage especially when you are doing a retouch.
Be careful not to apply excess olive oil, as it may end up weighing your dreads down as it is a heavy oil.
Olive Oil for Dandruff
There are several causes of dandruff ranging from dry scalp fungi and bacteria. Before treating dandruff you should first indentify its cause, then use the right treatment. Olive oil is an excellent option for treating dandruff caused by dry and flaking scalp.
This because of its potent moisturizing properties. When combined with oils such as tea tree oil and grapeseed oil, they will help you treat dandruff caused by bacteria and fungi.
Olive Oil for Dreadlock Growth
Everyone who has dreads is always looking forward to promoting their growth and increasing length. Olive oil is one of those oils you should include in your locs care to promote growth.
Olive oil will provide much better results when combined with peppermint oil and castor oil. Peppermint oil has been proven through research to help promote hair growth by promoting blood circulation in the scalp and nourishing hair follicles.
Olive oil promotes dreadlocks growth by stimulating the hair follicles, preventing and repairing damaged hair.
Add Shine
Olive oil is among natural oils that can add shine to your locs, you can either use it as a daily loc care oil mixed with other oils that will add shine such as coconut oil.
Using and olive oil aloe vera hair mask once in a while will also add shine to your dreads.
How to Use Olive Oil on Your Dreads
Olive Oil and Honey Hair Mask
If you are looking to moisturize, smoothen, prevent dandruff in your locs, an olive oil honey hair mask will help you achieve that.
Because honey is an antioxidant, it will maintain the health of your scalp and prevent infections due to its antimicrobial properties while locking in moisture in your hair.
To make an olive oil hair mask you will need
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- vitamin E oil [optional]
Mix these ingredients together, vitamin E oil will give you more moisture and prevent the mixture from becoming rancid due to air, heat, and light exposure.
You can mix olive oil with other oils such as coconut oil, avocado oil plus other ingredients depending on what your hair prefers best such as strawberries, banana, aloe vera, and so on. It all depends on what you want to achieve.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a natural oil to moisturize your locs, soften them add shine, and finally promote growth. Olive oil will help you achieve all that, especially when combined with other oils such as coconut oil, avocado oil, peppermint oil, castor oil, and so on. Sometimes it takes trial and error to find oils that synchronize with your hair and stick to those oils by creatine a routine around them.
