Sealing w/ Sweet Almond Oil ?

LoveInBetween

I haven't been consistent with sealing and my hair is getting a little drier faster during the week than normal. I've used shea and olive oil in the past but I want to use something lighter.

Do any of you high porosity curlies have any opinions on this oil?
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beachcurl

I am interested in hearing from curlies who have more experience using Sweet Almond Oil as well. It is readily available and reasonably priced. Anyone want to chime in??

LoveInBetween

I want to purchase one that has a light scent.

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mermaidwaves

I really like sweet almond oil! It makes my hair super shiny and I find it less likely to make my hair look greasy. However my all time favorite is coconut oil, which actually absorbs into the hair and makes it super soft. That said, it is easy to overdo and you have to be conscious of the weather as it hardens in colder weather! For these reasons, sweet almond oil is more "foolproof", but coconut oil is still HG.

sarahthegemini

I'm a fine haires wavey, and out of all the oils I've tried, sweet almond was my favourite for sealing. It's not too heavy, and not too light. For me, it was just perfect It is fairly expensive and I believe it can go rancid quicker so it's best to buy small batches (someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Firefox7275

sarahthegemini wrote: »

I'm a fine haires wavey, and out of all the oils I've tried, sweet almond was my favourite for sealing. It's not too heavy, and not too light. For me, it was just perfect It is fairly expensive and I believe it can go rancid quicker so it's best to buy small batches (someone correct me if I'm wrong)

You can find sweet almond oil for a reasonable price the UK in Asian grocery stores and the World Foods aisle of larger supermarkets - KTC brand £2 for 300ml, East End brand £1.50 for 200ml for example.

sarahthegemini

Firefox7275 wrote: »

sarahthegemini wrote: »

I'm a fine haires wavey, and out of all the oils I've tried, sweet almond was my favourite for sealing. It's not too heavy, and not too light. For me, it was just perfect It is fairly expensive and I believe it can go rancid quicker so it's best to buy small batches (someone correct me if I'm wrong)

You can find sweet almond oil for a reasonable price the UK in Asian grocery stores and the World Foods aisle of larger supermarkets - KTC brand £2 for 300ml, East End brand £1.50 for 200ml for example.

I bought mine from Amazon for about £4.99 for 50ml, I think I'll try supermarketsanext time!


eta: I just had a look on Amazon to check, and it's really cheap on there so I must have been thinking of jojoba oil, d'oh!

bliss611

I could be wrong but I thought almond oil was one of the oils that penetrates the hair so doesn't seal well...

I use grapeseed oil - almost no scent and much lighter than olive.

Firefox7275

bliss611 wrote: »

I could be wrong but I thought almond oil was one of the oils that penetrates the hair so doesn't seal well...

I use grapeseed oil - almost no scent and much lighter than olive.

Penetrating oils tend to diffuse under the cuticle very slowly and they probably won't start whilst the hair is still wet/ damp, so they should make a semi permeable seal fine initially but may be be less effective as the days pass. Any oil coating that does not penetrate will still rub off on the pillowcase or sleep cap, hands and anything else it touches so become less effective also. Many wavies will have rewashed to boost wave before they feel the oil is no longer sealing water in or out, since our curl pattern is easily crushed overnight.


Tonya McKay on one difference between a penetrating and non penetrating oil
"Both coconut oil and mineral oil enhance clumping of adjacent hair strands. This mechanism aids in curl formation, definition of curl pattern, and curl retention. Capillary adhesion, the mechanism by which this is possible, occurs when oils form sufficiently thick films on the surfaces of hair strands and capillary forces between adjacent hairs attract them to one another, effectively binding them into clumps.

Researchers found that capillary adhesion between hair fibers remains constant with mineral oil, but is found to decrease over time with coconut oil, olive oil, and sunflower oil. The reason for this is that the very non-polar mineral oil molecules remain on the surface of the cuticle of the hair. In contrast, the saturated or mono-unsaturated fruit and vegetable oils in this study slowly penetrate into the cell membrane complex (CMC) and are transported into the hair shaft. As this diffusion occurs, the film thickness on the surface of the hair gradually decreases, which diminishes capillary forces. As a result the cuticle scale structure begins to dominate the behavior of the surface of the hair once more, and subsequent tangling and frizz can occur."
Mineral Oil Versus Coconut Oil: Which is better?

Some of the studies
http://journal.scconline.org//pdf/cc1999/cc050n06/p00327-p00339.pdf
http://journal.scconline.org/pdf/cc2003/cc054n02/p00175-p00192.pdf
http://journal.scconline.org//pdf/cc2005/cc056n05/p00283-p00295.pdf
http://journal.scconline.org//pdf/cc2007/cc058n02/p00135-p00145.pdf

Curly Sara

LoveInBetween wrote: »

I haven't been consistent with sealing and my hair is getting a little drier faster during the week than normal. I've used shea and olive oil in the past but I want to use something lighter.

Do any of you high porosity curlies have any opinions on this oil?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using CurlTalk App

Have you tried real argan oil? Its a very light oil but very effective. Its a bit pricy but a little goes a long way. Stay away from the cheap ones if you are cg because they are full of silicones and usually only have a drop of argan oil in it. Try the real stuff which contains only argan oil. Always check the ingrediens list

BotticelliBrit

Sweet Almond is one of my favourite oils. I used to use it on my hair all the time when I was recovering from heat damage / transitioning to natural. My hair was a lot drier back then and it was a life-saver.

I don't use it on my dry hair anymore, as I don't need it (I don't really suffer from dryness anymore) and on my LP hair oils can look greasy. I still use it now in pre-poos though, if I'm in the mood I'm thinking of using it the next time I attempt the LOC method.

greencup13

I really like grape seed oil. I found some in a mist bottle and I love it because I don't have to worry about dumping too much on.