Sunday, September 9, 2012

Coconut Oil

A few years ago my [then] hairdresser sat me under a hairdryer with foils in my hair to speed on the lightening process.  This was common practice for her but usually I only sat there for about 15 minutes.  This particular day she had me sit there for close to 40 minutes.  I was confused but decided to wait patiently for her to come retrieve me from the back of the salon since she was giving someone else a hair cut at the front.  While she blewdry (blow dry? blow dryed?..pfff...) my hair I noticed a ton of breakage falling all over the black smock I was wearing.  I thought I was being a little crazy so I decided not to say anything, quickly paid and headed home.  The next morning after my shower while I worked my round brush through my hair while I was blow drying I noticed that my hair was breaking again, about 3 inches from the root. Shit.  My hairdresser had burnt my hair so badly that my hair continued to break for the week following my highlight appointment.  I ended up having a slight mullet since I (thankfully!) only get half head highlights done. Since then I've been working at getting my hair back to its' old healthy self and growing out all of these "layers".  Needless to say I don't go to her anymore (even though I love the colour and cut she used to do!) That happened 3 years ago and my hair is still quite damaged. I use leave in conditioner daily, coat my hair with a heat protector every time of straighten and blow dry it, and use a comb instead of a brush.  Thanks to Pinterest I recently stumbled across a web page talking about the benefits of coconut oil including its ability to restore damaged hair. Cha-ching! Check it out the article here. I ran out to the Bulk Barn and scored a jar for about 7 buckaroos.  I've only used it on my hair once so far but I noticed a slight difference but where I've seen the biggest impact is on my skin.  Since I was young I've had little bumps on my upper arms. I've visited the doctor and was given a prescription for it, which didn't help at all.  I've been using the coconut oil on my arms daily for the last 2 weeks and have seen a huge improvement.  While I've never cooked with coconut oil, I intend on trying it out in the future. It is a saturated oil which is a little bit of a deterrent for me, but I've done some more research and have decided the next time I bake will substitute butter or vegetable oil for coconut oil.  It has an incredible sweet coconut smell so I can imagine that it would only enhance the flavour of a baked good. I will keep you posted.  As for the hair and skin benefits I suggest you hit up bulk barn and grab a jar for yourself.

2 comments:

Cori said...

It's great for diaper rash too!

Carissa said...

Hey, thanks for this tip! I will definitely use this on my skin tonight =)
I have been following your blog since we met at Ryan's house a while back. I see you are interested in cooking with coconut oil. I use it a lot. If you're interested, check out my blog - foodbrain.ca
Carissa