What Is Cupuacu Butter? What Are Its Benefits To Natural Hair?

Like murumuru, cupuacu butter (theobroma grandiflorum) is native to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. It is pressed from the seeds of the tree.

Benefits of Cupuacu Butter to Hair:

All butters that can be used for hair have more or less the same benefits. They:

• Nourish hair and the scalp with vitamins and minerals thereby helping to keep both healthier for longer. This nourishing feature makes oil great for treating dry, damaged and frizzy hair in hot oil treatments and for massaging the scalp. 
• Have moisture sealing properties thereby keeping hair softer for longer. However, all liquid oils (except coconut oil (which is actually solid anyway) and jojoba (which is actually a wax and not an oil)) can seal hair better than butters because they have a higher proportion of polyunsaturated fats – the type that cannot penetrate the hair cuticle.
• Penetrate the hair cuticle to fortify hair from the inside; they do this better than oils because they have a higher amount of saturated fats and monounsaturated fats.
  
• Help to boost hair’s shine but not as well as liquid oils.

Different butters perform each of these functions to a different degree. 

Good Substitutes For Cupuacu Butter

Cupuacu butter is somewhat similar to cocoa butter but has less palmitic acid (a good moisture sealant). I don't think cocoa and cupuacu butter are perfect substitutes by any stretch of the imagination especially as they have very different consistencies to each other. I would say mango butter is a better substitute for cupuacu than cocoa. However, mango butter is less conditioning/softening and is drier than cupuacu.

As a very nutrient rich butter cupuacu is good for weak, brittle and damaged hair (e.g. in my "Love Me" DIY Hair Recipes). It's a especially good if you are spending a lot of time in the sun as some of it's constituents provide natural protection from UV-A and UV-B rays. Both hair and skin need that protection. 

SATURATED c.54%

• Stearic acid (36%)
  
• Palmitic (10%)
  
• Other (c.8%)
  

MONOUNSATURATED c.44%

• Oleic (43%)
  
• Palmitoleic (0.4%)
  
• Gadoleic (0.4%)
  

POLYUNSATURATED c.2%

• Linoleic (2%)
  

I plan on using it in some of my DIY Hair Recipes for dry hair ("Feed Me") because it is reputed to be a good softener; and in my hair retention DIY Hair recipes ("Grow Me") because it is so nutrient rich.

It has a melting point of 25 – 35°C and a shelf life of 2 years.

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You might also like:

• Neno Natural's Free DIY Hair Recipes

Ref: 
gardenofwisdom/butters, fromnaturewithlove/cupuacu, 
lush/Cupuacu, amazonoil/cupuacu, skincare-amazonia/cupuacu, presentwoc/cupuacu 

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