Coconut Oil Makes My Hair Stiff! (Or rough, brittle, or breaking)

Updated July, 2018

Science-y Hair Blog © 2011 by  Wendy M.S. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Coconut oil is great for hair - some people simply cannot have a good hair day without it. It makes hair less porous so it doesn't get all dehydrated during washing, it makes hair soft, blah, blah, blah. I know, coconut oil is great, I wrote about it here and here.

There are those of us who use coconut oil, and find our hair gets crunchy or stiff or rigid or rough, brittle, even breaking or shedding and we just don't see what the fuss was all about.

Or worse yet, we think there is something wrong with our hair - or maybe we did it wrong. Maybe our coconut oil is the wrong kind. 

Yet another Miracle Product that works for "everybody else" doesn't work for you. Well, that makes a person feel pretty mopey.

Cheer up! There's nothing wrong with your hair. It's the coconut oil.

Coconut oil's "miracle ingredient" is medium-chain triglycerides, a variety of fat or oil. Human sebum (skin oils) only contains around 35% triglycerides in general, and far less (maybe 10-15%) are shorter to medium-chain triglycerides. 

In addition to the somewhat unique medium-chain triglyceride content, coconut oil is also high in saturated fats (those which solid at cooler room temperatures). Saturated fats tend to penetrate hair well also. This is another characteristic of coconut oil which may create a problem for hair. The oils produced on our skin contain some triglycerides and saturated fatty acids. But not as much as coconut oil contains.

Coconut oil is so good at penetrating the hair because the medium-chain triglycerides are both small enough to seep between cuticles and they have polarity (a charge) that attracts them to the protein in your hair. Coconut oil is actively drawn to the inner portion of your hair whereas other oils need to seep through slowly. This is unlike most other plant oils. The saturated fats with short carbon chains can slowly soak in to hair as well. No wonder coconut oil can behave so strangely!

What to Do:

Okay, you don't want to use coconut oil, but you still want an oil that penetrates your hair to prevent swelling and dehydration when you wash. You want an oil that softens deeply. You have options. Other oils penetrate the hair but either are less good at doing that, or may not have been studied in a lab, but still give a good result:

Sunflower oil

Palm kernel oil (not easy to find, contains higher amounts of saturated fat)
Babbasu oil (this stuff is light, but still penetrating)

Olive oil

Avocado oil

Shea butter

One might use one of these oils or a mixture of any of them.

You can use my oil blend recipe which is designed to be similar to the oils from your skin. Use it in moderation.

You can blend a little coconut oil into another oil to dilute it. Or add melted coconut oil to a conditioner. Sometimes you don't need to eliminate coconut oil completely, just don't use it "full-strength."

Don't care whether it soaks into your hair or not?

Then use any oil you like.

Anything else I should avoid?
Fractionated coconut oil, coconut "extract," coconut milk, Caprylic/capric triglycerides.