Is Argan Oil Good For My Hair?

The answer is yes, but it's not that simple.

Argan Oil is Moroccan oil and it is from southwestern Morocco. In other words, both oils are the same. The trees (Argania spinosa) are currently an endangered species but used to grow through out North Africa. Luckily, the local Berber women who extract the oil get to keep the profits.

It takes approximately 20 hours of intensive labor to produce one liter of Argan Oil. All of the oil is from Women's Co-operatives in which they sit upon the ground cracking open the pits and grinding the seeds to produce it. This is only part of the multi-staged process.

Using PURE Argan Oil is important to reap the benefits. Most companies, including the well-known, Moraccanoil Treatment, includes Argan Oil but also claims, "We use only the finest cosmetic-grade ingredients in all of our products. Our silicones specifically, cyclomethicone and dimethicone—are both naturally derived from sand and are compliant to industry regulations in the U.S. Europe and Japan."

The issue with these specific silicones is they are not water soluable, therefore they build up on the hair. Pure Argan Oil does NOT build up on the hair. In fact it has the opposite effect. It penetrates through the hair shaft (cuticle layer) over the course of a day.

According to Wendy of Science-y Hair Blog, "Triglyceride components in plant oils can be polar (slightly positively charged) and that allows them to be attracted to the polar (negatively charged) proteins in your hair. Usually oils are non-polar and this is a big difference in chemistry to have an electrostatic (+ and -) interaction versus just having some oil form a film over your hair! This helps those triglycerides be actively pulled through the cuticle."

But the question resides...why even use Argan Oil? Because it is one of the BEST oils, next to coconut, that can penetrate the hair and it is composed of 42.8% oleic fatty acids and 36.8% linoleic fatty acids. Think high Omega's 3 and 9 + high Vitamin's E and A. In a nut shell (no pun intended!), it adds the most natural healthy shine you can find in just a few drops!

©2013 Dianne Nola