What Are The Differences Between Waxes And Oils / Butters? Are Waxes Okay To Use On Natural Hair?22/2/2014
Waxes are actually very similar to butters but the slight difference in their structure makes waxs extremely water-hating (hydrophobic). Many waxes occur naturally in the environment:
Clearly then in a hair product wax can be used to seal hair better and prevent moisture loss to the environment. This is why I use a little wax in some of my DIY Hair Products especially hair butters. Note that some waxes are synthetically made and others naturally occur in the environment. Natural waxes include beeswax, jojoba wax, hemp wax etc. Waxes are derived from:
I use jojoba wax and hemp wax in my DIY Hair Butters and not beeswax because I find beeswax a little hard to work with. The beeswax I have begins to solidify so quickly that you end up having a hair butter with tiny bits of solid beeswax here and there. Not good. Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: Ref: infoplease.com (waxes), wikipedia (wax), swiftcraftmonkey (waxes)
The vegetable butters, oils and essential oils in the "Soothe Me" whipped hair butter are designed to seal hair and also soothe / calm a dry and itchy scalp. Before application make sure you moisturize your hair first.
Ingredients
Butters (80%)
Liquid Oils (19%)
Essential oils (1%)
Wax (0%): None
Method
Storage: The shelf life of this butter is about 18 to 24 months.
There is only one real difference between oil and butters if you're thinking about their usage for hair:
The solid state of butters and the liquid state of oils is also caused by them having different proportions of saturated vs. unsaturated fats. I get into a little more detail in Why Are Vegetable Butters Solid At Room Temperature & Oils Liquid? Besides this there is no real difference as far as your hair (and skin) is concerned. If you want to learn about their impact on the body when you eat one vs. the other then this is not the right blog! lol I use both oils and butters in my DIY Hair Recipes. Are They Both Good For Natural Hair? Yes. Whether you use one or othe other will depend on what you are trying to achieve.
If you have thin/fine hair strands you might want to opt for hair oils and butters that are lighters and don't weigh your strands down.
For thick and normal hair any oil or butter is fine. In my "Adore Me" DIY whipped hair butter for thin hair I use two exotic butters cupuacu/kukui and murumuru as they are both very light. However, those are not the only light oils on the market. Personally, I have very dry hair (& skin) so I am not a very big fan of the less greasy oils, I like some greasiness. I HATE the smell of Macadamia, the taste, pretty much anything and everything to do with Macadamia nuts - don't know why so you will never find me using it.
Note that grapeseed oil has a very short lifespan, it can be as little as 3 months! I learnt that the hard way, I bought a huge bottle and and didn't use it for a while then when I open it it just smelt "off".
If you have shea butter just reduce its quantity in a whipped butter and add more oil to make a creamier blend which is better suited to fine strands. As for cocoa butter, it is much heavier and harder so if you have thin hair I wouldn't use more than 15% in a whipped butter and even less in other DIY products. Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: Ref: SwiftCraftMonkey (Grapeseed) (Oil Guide), EatByDate (How Long Does Oil Last), GardenOfWisdom (Shelf Life Of Oils)
A proper hair butter does not contain any water-based products. It is designed to seal hair after the hair has been moisturized.
A moisturizer is a water-based product. A leave-in conditioner is just another name for a hair moisturizer. If you look under ingredients you will see "water" or "aqua" as the main ingredient. Water/aqua is an ingredient that you will not find in a hair butter. If a product calls itself a hair butter and you see aqua or water, it plain and simply is not a hair butter. Under both the LOC and LCO method used to moisturize black hair:
I teach how to make whipped hair butters and moisturizer in my Hair Product Academy.
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.
The vegetable butters, oils and essential oils in the "Feed Me" whipped hair butter are designed to seal dry hair and help to keep it moisturized for longer. Before application make sure you moisturize your hair first.
Ingredients
Butters (75%)
Liquid Oils (24%)
Essential oils (1%)
Wax (0%): None Optional: Color – I added 10 drops
Method
Storage: The shelf life of this butter is about 18 to 24 months.
Different butters perform each of these functions to a different degree.
Compared to other butters kukui butter is super soft and has a very non-greasy feel. Good Substitutes For Kukui Rice bran oil and sesame seed oil have the same balance of oleic acid and linoleic acid so you can substitute between the three. You can also use kukui oil instead of grapeseed oil or hempseed oil because it has a longer lifespan.
Apparently kukui is/was popular amongst Hawaiians who's dry hair had been overexposed to sun and was therefore sun damaged; kukui is therefore a useful input in any of my "Love Me" DIY Hair Recipes which are designed for weak, brittle and damaged hair.
Because of its regenerative effect kukui would also be a great ingredient in my "Soothe Me" Hair Recipes. Kukui is a relatively new discovery for me but it's becoming one of my favourites. I already prefer it to castor oil and grapeseed oil.
Shelf Life is 12 to 18 months.
Get your FREE ebook on How To Grow Long, Healthy Natural Kinky or Curly Hair. You might also like: Ref: Wayne's World, swiftcraftymonkey on kukui-nut-oil, wikipedia (Candlenut_oil), naturallythinking (Kukui Nut Butter), gardenofwisdom.com/butters, livestrong.com (Benefits Of Kukui Nut Oil) |
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
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