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

Mango Butter is extracted from the fruit kernels of the Mango tree. 

Benefits of Mango 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 oils and butters 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 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:

SATURATED c.50%

• stearic acid (42%)
  
• palmitic acid (8%)

MONOUNSATURATED c.46%

• oleic acid (46%)

POLYUNSATURATED c.4%

• linoleic acid (3%)

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.

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Neno Natural's DIY Hair Recipes


References: swiftcraftmonkey: whipped mango butter, butter tutorial, butter-n-bars.com,

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