This past week I have been applying coconut oil to the length of my hair before I go out into the cold dry winter air. In the evening when I return home my hair is really soft and just feels great. I am so in love with coconut oil and after reading about it's capabilities I understand why.
Some key points:
"Historically, coconut oil has been used as a hair dressing in the developing countries in
the tropical regions of the globe where the coconut is cultivated extensively. Prolonged
use of coconut oil has been known to lead to healthy looking long hair, suggesting that
it may prevent damage to the cuticle in grooming procedures involving abrasion."
"It is well known that wet combing is accompanied by the breaking of the surface cuticle cell because of its brittleness"
"...the performance of coconut oil in reducing protein loss was better than that of mineral
and sunflower oils. Coconut oil performed better as a pre-wash rather than a post-wash
conditioner"
"damaged as well as undamaged hair benefits from application of coconut oil as a pre-wash conditioner, whereas in the case of sunflower oil and mineral oil, there was no effect. The effects of coconut oil were also positive in a salon test. In both normal and bleached hair, treatment effects in reducing protein loss were significant, whereas the same findings were absent in the case of mineral oil and sunflower oil."
“Coconut oil is mostly a triglyceride of lauric acid and is hydrophobic. Application of Coconut oil as a pre-wash conditioner coats the hair and inhibits the penetration of water into the hair. A small part of it is also absorbed in to the hair during the wash when the fiber is swollen. Introduction of this hydrophobic component reduces the swelling propensity of the cuticle, which limits the upward curving of the surface cuticle. This reduces the chipping away of the cuticle cells, which reduces protein loss, as observed in this work.”
I strongly recommend reading the research article in its entirety on your own:
Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage
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