Is the humidity making your hair difficult to manage and drowning you in self-doubt? Cocoa butter is packed with high antioxidants and vitamins to nourish your hair from within and leave beautiful and shiny hair that you can flaunt whenever, wherever.
Top 10 Cocoa Butter Benefits for Hair
It would be safe to say that your mood of the day depends on your hair condition. Where good hair days can uplift you, bad hair days can be the #1 reason why you are feeling so moody today.
And somehow, these bad hair days are always present on special occasions (please, let’s not talk about prom photos).
The good news? From today, you get to put an end to such terrible hair days.
Unlike most of the hair products that you add to your hair, cocoa butter uses pure fat and nutrients to help you fight off most of the hair problems that you are currently facing.
Although it has been widely known for its skincare benefits, many people fail to understand that it also offers countless problems for your hair too.
Also Read: Top Cocoa Butter Benefits For Skin And Hair: A Comprehensive Guide!
In no particular order, here are the top 10 cocoa butter benefits for hair you can avail yourself of in just a few washes.
- Adds Volume to Hair
- Cocoa Butter for Hair Growth
- Strengthens Your Hair
- Maintains Hair Gloss
- Can be Used as a Conditioner
- Cocoa Butter for Hair Loss
- Cocoa Butter as a Leave-in Treatment
- Eliminates Frizz
- Repairs Hair Damage
- Hair Protection
1. Adds Volume to Hair
Let’s face it, not all of us are blessed with voluminous hair. It may start out big but as you grow older, the wear and tear (and STRESS) become the excuses behind your thin, limp hair. As cocoa butter has the potential to thicken your hair, it helps add overall volume to your scalp.
This ensures to make you look younger and style your hair however you want.
2. Cocoa Butter for Hair Growth
Are you planning to grow your hair but the hair damage and slow growth are making it impossible to keep up with the long hair trend? We all have been there, I have too! Luckily, cocoa butter is a natural method not only for hair growth but also makes sure your long hair doesn’t end up with split ends.
The fatty acids present in cocoa butter are known for being quite useful for your hair and helps nourish your hair before damaging it in the long run.
The best part?
It only costs a few bucks! So say goodbye to expensive salon treatments and only massage cocoa butter on your scalp for 15 to 20 minutes before shower. This will get the proper hair circulation going and promote healthier hair.
3. Strengthens Your Hair
Coco abutter works by rejuvenating your hair and making each hair follicle strong from its roots. This will give your hair the strength to endure the hectic wear and tear of regular hairstyling and other sun and heat damage.
4. Maintains Hair Gloss
This method can be a great way for brunettes to add colour depth to their hair. For this to work, simply add ½ cup of pure cocoa butter with ¼ cup of honey along with 1 tablespoon of the conditioner of your choice, this will give you an affordable alternative for one of the best hair-gloss treatments that you have ever done before.
5. Can be Used as a Conditioner
Considering how cocoa butter is armed with nourishing properties, it will help smoothen your hair and make it effortless for you to treat damaged hair. That’s not it, if you are struggling with dry and lifeless strands, this butter can be a great way to bring it back to life. It also soothes the cuticle and offers a protective barrier to your scalp and moisturizes your hair from the roots.
6. Cocoa Butter for Hair Loss
We all have gone through a phase where uncontrollable hair loss makes it difficult to style your hair.
And if you are not keen on loading yourself up with vitamins, cocoa butter can be your knight in shining armour to bring back the shine and strength that will keep you away from those embarrassing hair brushes that are filled with your hair right now.
It makes your roots strong and gives the ever-needed nutrients to help your hair thrive strong and moisturised.
7. Cocoa Butter as a Leave-in Treatment
Have you tried a leave-in treatment for your hair? If not, you are simply depriving yourself of enjoying the best version of your hair. This type of treatment involves adding a product to your hair prior to shampoo and washing it off as soon as your hair has taken enough time to absorb it (which is usually 15 minutes).
Here, you certainly don’t have to rush to the grocery store to grab the ingredients. Imply melt cocoa butter and apply it directly to your hair, massage it and leave it for 15 minutes before you take a shower.
Voila, say hello to beautiful, shiny hair!
8. Eliminates Frizz
Frizzy hair can ruin even your fanciest outfits. Since cocoa butter is all fat, it replenishes the lost oils in your hair and brings back the life that hair dyes took away from your hair. With this, you will start to see immediate differences in the texture, perms, and colouring of your hair to help you fix unmanageable and frizzy hair.
To get rid of those flyways, simply mix some coconut or almond oil with cocoa butter and massage it gently to your hair right before you shampoo your hair (two times a week).
9. Repairs Hair Damage
The palmitic and stearic acids in cocoa butter are the epitome of deeply nourishing your hair and repair the year’s worth of damage. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also add your own ingredients like shea butter or oils of your choice to customise it according to your hair type and make use of its wide range of benefits.
10. Hair Protection
Cocoa butter has been widely used as a hair protectant and sealant to aid protection against sun and chlorine damage. It is highly tolerant of heat to use its wax as a shield against any chemicals and heat that you use on your hair. So feel free to rub it to dry and brittle hair to retain its moisture and help lock it in for long periods of time.
Using Cocoa Butter on your Hair: Pros and Cons
If you have reached here, you are armed with the fundamentals to help you weigh all the pros and cons and make the right decision for yourself. Here are some of the potential benefits and drawbacks that you must keep in mind before you dive in headfirst to try cocoa butter on your hair.
Pros
1. Cocoa butter is a Powerhouse of Antioxidants
Okay, let’s admit it, you hear “antioxidants” all the time, but do you really know what it means and why is it so important for your hair?
Let’s start from the beginning, free radicals are unstable atoms present in your body that can disrupt the regular natural balance of your gut and can be the root cause of most of the diseases we suffer today.
And the most common effect of free radicals is ageing and hair fall.
Here, the only way to drive away free radicals from your body is to not only slather yourself with antioxidant-rich products but also have a diet that is high in antioxidants.
By applying cocoa butter to your hair every week, you ensure to get the same youthful and shiny hair that you have been longing for years.
2. Contains Essential Nutrients to Keep Your Hair in Check
Cocoa butter is packed with essential nutrients that will give a boost to your hair.
For starters, Vitamin E can be key to growing healthy hair, and let’s not forget what magnesium, calcium, and Zinc can do to maintain those bouncy curls.
3. Versatile
No one has time to spend hours taking care of their hair.
There! I said it.
Believe it or not, the fast work-life barely spare time for you to take care of yourself. So it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I catch you looking for easy and instant fixes for your hair. Although cocoa butter maybe not be your ideal “instant fix” but it can make your work a lot easier.
Thanks to its versatility, you can use this one product for your hair, skin, and incorporate it into your diet to repair the damage daily life has on your body.
Cons
1. Clogs your Pores
Cocoa butter is a comedogenic product. This means as it has a thick consistency, it makes it difficult for your pores to breathe naturally. It can prevent your hair from releasing its natural oils and cause irritation in the long run. However, you can prevent this by being mindful about the time you leave the butter on your scalp.
Also Read: Does Cocoa Butter Clog Pores?
2. Relatively Less Absorbing
This may not be a life-changing drawback for you, but you deserve to know the real picture of cocoa butter before you put it on your scalp.
Sure, cocoa butter is ideal to moisturize and nourish your scalp. However, if we compare it with other options, there are alternatives like shea butter that is more absorbing and works faster in softening your hair.
Using Cocoa Butter on Hair: What does Research say?
Surely cocoa butter is a highly popular ingredient used in most of your hair products. Unfortunately, unless you are prepared to do research of the last 10 years of medical digging, there is no significant research or scientific study that proves its effectiveness.
According to research done by Kementerian Perindustrian in 2017, shampoos that consist of cocoa butter have better pH levels, cause no eye irritation, and are stable to use.
It can also protect you against the harmful damage hair dyes have on your hair and effectively strengthen hair against frizz and flyaways.
Things to know before using cocoa butter for Hair
Here comes the good news, you don’t have to keep up with a long list of precautions you need to take before using cocoa butter for hair.
Simply make sure to leave it for no longer than 20 minutes as the butter will start to solidify after 20 minutes at room temperature and make it difficult to remove.
This way, you can actually end up having greasy hair after the shower.
How to Use Cocoa Butter on your Hair
Depending on your hair type and problem, there are many ingredients that you can mix and match to use cocoa butter on your hair. Here is the easiest and effective way to do this.
What you need
- Cocoa butter
- Jojoba oil (optional)
- Coconut oil
- Double boiler
Step by step instruction
- For the pre-wash leave-in treatment, melt the cocoa butter using a double boiler into a bowl.
- Add coconut oil or jojoba oil into the mixture and massage it thoroughly into your scalp, going all the way to the tips of your hair strands
- You can leave the melted cocoa butter in your hair for 10 to 15 minutes. Remember no to leave it for more than 20 minutes.
- Wash your hair as you normally do and reveal fragrant, shiny and beautiful hair. Before this step, your hair will harden but it will get better as you wash it.
- For best results, try using a tooth comb while you are shampooing your hair to present tangling once you dry your hair
Try this remedy once or twice a week as it will help you nourish your hair and maintain the natural oils at the same time. You can also add cocoa butter to your conditioner to help speed up the process.
Conclusion
All in all, why go for chemical-based products when you can count on natural ingredients that you can not only avail of at incredibly affordable prices but also DIY at home to give you the ever-needed peace of mind.
Now, everything comes to square one: you can never make sure of the countless benefits of cocoa butter unless you know your hair type and current condition. Thus, it’s never a bad idea to seek advice from your dermatologist for any severe cases.
Until then, see you out there!
