Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Shampoo or Coconut Oil?


As you know, we are lucky enough to distribute the world's best coconut oil from Tropical Traditions. I recently heard from Brian at TT about a study on the effectiveness of coco oil for hair health. Here's what Brian has to say;

"Coconut oil has been used for hair treatment in coconut producing countries such as India and the Philippines for thousands of years. Studies in India have been done on how effective various oils are on treating damaged hair. The study compared mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil because these were the three most commonly used oils in hair treatment products used in India. The aim of this study was to cover different treatments, and the effect of these treatments on various hair types using these three oils. The number of experiments to be conducted was a very high number, and a technique termed as the "Taguchi Design of Experimentation" was used. Their results:

The findings clearly indicate the strong impact that coconut oil application has to hair as compared to application of both sunflower and mineral oils. Among three oils, coconut oil was the only oil found to reduce the protein loss remarkably for both undamaged and damaged hair when used as a pre-wash and post-wash grooming product. Both sunflower and mineral oils do not help at all in reducing the protein loss from hair. This difference in results could arise from the composition of each of these oils. Coconut oil, being a triglyceride of lauric acid (principal fatty acid), has a high affinity for hair proteins and, because of its low molecular weight and straight linear chain, is able to penetrate inside the hair shaft. Mineral oil, being a hydrocarbon, has no affinity for proteins and therefore is not able to penetrate and yield better results. In the case of sunflower oil, although it is a triglyceride of linoleic acid, because of its bulky structure due to the presence of double bonds, it does not penetrate the fiber, consequently resulting in no favorable impact on protein loss. (Rele AS, Mohile RB. "Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage." Journal Cosmetology Science 2003 Mar-Apr;54(2):175-92.)"

From my own experience, I agree completely. Now if it could only restore hair!

If you still follow the dominant paradigm that insists we use polyunsaturated or trans fatty oils, I'm sure you'd be interested in the book Cassie and I wrote on Coco oil, titled 'The Untold truth About Coconut Oil". We've been using it since we found it and are head over heels in love with it. Cassie insists it has halted her age spots - an interesting observation, given that several researchers have said that trans fats are the cause of skin degradation as they are locked in under the skin, basically turning our epidermis into deep fryers when we are in the sun.

If you decide to order a bottle of our Gold label Tropical traditions Organic coco oil, just ask for our book when you order and I'll ensure you get a copy of our book. It has changed many, many people's minds about the role of fats in our lives by exposing the role of big business in politicising and 'spindoctoring' their unhealthy oil products.


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