Updated: September 29, 2021
In this article, we’re going to be going over how to do a hot oil treatment in your natural hair, their benefits, and why you need them in your natural hair regimen right now!
This is especially important if you have hair that dries out easily, hair that’s excessively frizzy or difficult to manage.
Simply, if you feel like you constantly moisturize your hair and it doesn’t “stay moisturized,” this post is for you!
What is a Hot Oil Treatment for Natural Hair?
Hot oil treatment is an act of applying hot oil to your natural hair, to reap the maximum benefits of the oil.
The treatments work because when oil is heated, it becomes thinner and can penetrate the natural hair shaft more easily. This way it can nourish the hair from the inside out.
How to do a Hot Oil Treatment on Natural Hair
You can choose to either do this treatment on wet or dry natural hair. This decision will be based on personal preference. However, your natural hair will reap the most benefits from the treatment if you do it on clean, damp hair.
On Wet Hair
Here are the steps you need for a successful hot oil treatment for your natural hair:
- Pick the oil you want to use and pour a small amount of it into a glass or heat-safe bottle. You can use an herb-infused Ayurvedic oil (find some recipes here), or any organic carrier oil. The best oils for this are Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, or Coconut Oil.
- Heat the oil up by placing the bottle in a bowl of hot water for about 10 minutes. Then, remove the oil from the water so that it can cool down while you proceed with the next step.
- Wash your hair using your favorite cleanser. You can read more about the right way to wash your natural hair here.
- After washing your hair, test the oil on your wrist to make sure that it is warm, but not so hot that it burns you!
- Next, apply the oil to your hair and scalp and cover it with a shower cap for up to 20 minutes.
- After this time, rinse out the oil from your natural hair and continue with your normal deep conditioner. You can pick a deep conditioner from our recipes here!
As a Pre-Poo on Dry Hair
You can also do a hot oil treatment as a prepoo for your natural hair. For this, follow the following steps:
- Pick the oil you want to use and pour a small amount of it into a glass or heat-safe bottle. You can use an herb-infused Ayurvedic oil (find some recipes here), or any organic carrier oil. The best oils for this are Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, or Coconut Oil.
- Heat the oil up by placing the bottle in a bowl of hot water for about 10 minutes. Then, remove the oil from the water so that it can cool down.
- After about 5-10 minutes, test the oil on your wrist to make sure that it is warm, but not so hot that it burns you!
- Next, spray your scalp lightly with water and apply the hot oil to your hair and scalp.
- Cover your hair with a plastic cap for 20 minutes.
- After this, your hair should be more flexible and easy to separate and finger detangle before washing your hair.
- Finally, wash the oil out of your hair using your favorite cleanser. You can read more about the right way to wash your natural hair here.
- Complete washday by following up with your deep conditioner as usual.
Benefits of a Hot Oil Treatment for Natural Hair
Once it penetrates the hair shaft, a hot oil treatment can impart the benefits of the chosen oil into the strand. Some of the benefits of hot oil treatments for natural hair:
- Increases the elasticity of the hair strand.
- Improves the manageability of the hair.
- Reduces dryness and frizz.
- Seals and smoothes the hair cuticle to prevent moisture loss. This is especially beneficial if you have high porosity hair. You can read more about how to care for high porosity hair here.
- Reduces the likelihood of split ends by ensuring that your ends stay lubricated and healthy.
- Combats dandruff and scalp dryness.
- Increases blood flow to the scalp by raising scalp temperature, therefore promoting hair growth.
How Often Should You Do a Hot Oil Treatment in Natural Hair?
You can do a hot oil treatment as often as once a month, to reap the most benefits of the hot oil treatment. We don’t like to prescribe strict schedules for treatments for our readers here at Hibiscus Roots, so feel free to adjust this as necessary.
If you feel like your natural hair doesn’t need this treatment every single month, try doing it once every 2 months.
A hot oil treatment is not going to make your natural hair magically or suddenly grow. However, it’s one more treatment to have in your natural hair regimen to ensure that you’re regularly feeding your natural hair everything it needs.
Hot Oil Treatment vs. Deep Conditioning Treatment
As much as we love hot oil treatments for natural hair, they cannot replace the benefits of deep conditioning your natural hair.
You should always do a hot oil treatment before a deep conditioning treatment.
This is because a deep conditioner is made up of elements that provide moisture, strength as well as conditioning. Deep conditioners do contain oils, but they also contain humectants, proteins, ceramides, fatty alcohols, emulsifiers, and emollients.
Your natural hair needs all these other elements, and will not get them from hot oil treatments alone.
How Long Should You Leave a Hot Oil Treatment in Your Natural Hair?
You should leave a hot oil treatment in your hair for at least 20 minutes. This is about the time it takes for the oil to impart benefits in your hair while it is hot.
There is no risk of leaving the hot oil treatment in your hair overnight. The oil will have done most of the work and cooled down by morning. Afterward, you can simply wash it off and continue your wash day as usual.
Hot Oil Treatment vs. Oil Rinse for Natural Hair
There are a lot of similarities between an oil rinse and a hot oil treatment. However, the major difference is that an oil rinse is done as the final step of wash day, after the deep conditioning treatment.
In contrast, hot oil treatment is done between the wash and the deep conditioning treatment. You can read more about the benefits of an oil rinse for natural hair here.
Oil rinses serve to coat the hair stand and seal all the benefits of the deep conditioner into the hair, while hot oil treatments penetrate the hair strand before the deep conditioning treatment is applied.
You may discover you have a preference for one treatment over another, but you should never do both an oil rinse and a hot oil treatment on the same day.
Best Oil to Use for a Hot Oil Treatment
As we mentioned in the instructions, the best oil to use for this treatment is one that is already deeply penetrating. This is why we highly recommend Olive Oil!
However, you can also try avocado oil and pumpkin seed oil to reap their benefits as a hot oil treatment!
featured image: source
Read Next: Why Olive Oil is so Good for Your Hair
