Oils (or liquid butters/fats) have very few saturated fats and a lot more unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats have a lower melting point so the fat remains liquid at room temperature.
Butters (or solid oils/fats) have a lot of saturated fats and fewer unsaturated fats. Saturated fats have a higher melting point so the fat remains solid at room temperature. Although we call it coconut oil it's actually a butter as it is almost entirely composed of saturated fats. How does this matter for your hair? You should think about fats as falling into three categories when it comes to your hair:
If you are doing a hot oil treatment you may therefore want to use more penetrating butters. This explains why I use a lot of solid butters in my hot oil treatment recipes. If you are sealing your hair you might want to blend your butters with an oil because the polyunsaturated fats in liquid oils coat the outside of hair and may therefore seal for longer. Most butters usually only have 3-5% polyunsaturated fats. 
I get quite a few emails from people with a scalp problem seeking my input on products etc. Whilst I am not a doctor I have discovered that if you have scalp psoriasis the following carrier oils and essential oils can help to temper the problem.
Keep the lists in mind when you're buying commercial products or whipping up your own recipes using my DIY Hair Product Academy.
Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: Ref: aromantic.co.uk, Carrier Oils by Len Price
Different butters perform each of these functions to a different degree.
Good Substitutes For Mango Butter: In the cosmetics industry, seven butters are considered substitutes for each other: cocoa, illipe, kokum, sal, shea, mango and palm but they are not perfect substitutes. Mango butter has a closer fatty acid profile to shea butter than to cocoa butter so they are better substitutes for each other. That said, mango butter is less moisturising than shea butter. Products containing both mango butter and another soft butter like shea butter will result in a better feel on hair (and skin). Don't blend mango and avocado better - they are not the best combo - they can be a little drying. Fat Composition Of Mango Butter:
Mango butter contains tannins, this gives a drier feel compared to other butters. That said, tannins give mango butter more anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties; this is why I use it in some of my "Soothe Me" DIY Hair Recipes for the scalp. Overall, my reading led me to conclude that mango butter is better for oilier hair types - or for skin butters; to be used in hair I would always combine it with another greasier butter or oil for added moisture.  Kernel inside a mango fruit.
Melting Point Of Mango Butter: 30–37°C (86–99 °F)
It is softer than shea butter. This means it will melt quite easily when you rub it in your hands to put it in your hair. It doesn't smell like mango because it is extracted from kernel not the juicy fleshy fruit. 
Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: Neno Natural's DIY Hair Recipes References: swiftcraftmonkey: whipped mango butter, butter tutorial, butter-n-bars.com,
Different butters perform each of these functions to different degree therefore it is better to compare one butter to another rather than just stating what a butter does. Shea butter offers a little protection from UV light because it contains something called cinnamic acid ester.
Good Substitutes For Shea Butter: In the cosmetics industry, seven butters are considered substitutes for each other: cocoa, illipe, kokum, sal, shea, mango and palm but they are not perfect substitutes. The best substitutes to shea butter are: mowrah, cupuacu and mango butter. Mango butter is less moisturising than shea butter though because it contains more tannins. If you use mango butter rather than shea butter in a DIY Hair Recipe you should add greasier oils to compensate for the less greasy mango butter.
Compared to cocoa butter shea butter has a little more stearic acid, oleic acid and polyusaturated fats but about 3 times less palmitic acid.
I do like cocoa butter but I always use it in collabo with a much softer butter. I use 15% cocoa butter in my "Soothe Me" Whipped Butter and the texture is super, super creamy.  Shea Nut
Melting Point Of Shea Butter: 37 °C (99 °F), i.e. body temperature.
This means it will melt quite easily when you rub it in your hands to put it in your hair. 
Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: Neno Natural's DIY Hair Recipes References: wikipedia.org, swiftcraftmonkey: on various butters and on shea butter (note that swift's focus is skin not hair), lush, hyperphysics, hairloss-research.org, humblebeeandme.com
Different butters perform each of these functions to a different degree.
Compared to other butters cocoa butter is relatively hard. This means that any hair butter or moisturisers with cocoa butter will tend to get thicker or harder over time. Good Substitutes For Cocoa Butter: In the cosmetics industry, seven butters are considered substitutes for each other: cocoa, illipe, kokum, sal, shea, mango and palm but they are not perfect substitutes. Illipe is apparently considered to be the best substitute for cocoa butter because it has a very similar fatty acid profile. However, illipe contains 3 times more vitamin e (tocopherols). It also has higher phytosterol levels so illipe would be more beneficial to you than cocoa butter if your scalp is inflammed or itchy. My research suggests that kokum and sal butter are the next best alternatives to cocoa butter. Sal butter also has a similar melting point to cocoa butter. Fat Composition Of Cocoa Butter:
Melting Point Of Cocoa Butter: 34–38 °C (93–100 °F)
This means it will melt quite easily when you rub it in your hands to put it in your hair. 
Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: References: wikipedia.org, swiftcraftmonkey, |
I now blog about wealth creation - so if you have any money questions meet me there, you can do all sorts of cool things like leave me a voicemail.
By Heather Katsonga-Woodward
I was a natural hair blogger and mixtress living between London & Chicago from 2012 to 2017. I always thought I was 4C but some say 4B; images below - you decide! Heather xx
Categories
All
Click for free eBook!
Check out the podcast!
Archives
November 2016
|
