The Benefits of Cocoa Butter for All Hair Types

Chances are, if you look in your medicine cabinet or your bathroom shelf, you’ll find at least one beauty or skin product that contains cocoa butter. It is a pale yellow, natural vegetable fat that comes from the cocoa bean, which is found inside the white fleshy parts of the cacao pod.

Cocoa butter for hair is a popular choice for many people, perhaps due to its deliciously sweet aroma that’s faintly reminiscent of a creamy chocolate bar. Cocoa butter is also rife with fatty acids, and when applied to the hair, skin, and nails, it does a wonderful job of coating, sealing, and protecting their surfaces.

It is edible and used in a variety of products, including chocolate, lotions, cosmetics, and other toiletries and pharmaceuticals. Its natural antioxidants mean that it has a long shelf life and will usually last from 3-5 years.

Cocoa Butter for Hair

There is no shortage of hair products that contain cocoa butter as an ingredient. Yet some things are best utilized and enjoyed in their natural, unadulterated state, and cocoa butter is certainly one of them.

Why use a commercially produced shampoo, conditioner, or other hair treatment product when natural cocoa butter benefits are so much better? Plus, it has no additional chemicals or additives!

Cocoa Butter as a Pre-Poo or Deep Conditioning Treatment Mask

Cocoa butter can treat damaged hair. If your hair is getting damaged and dried out from frequent shampooing, treat it with a nourishing dose of cocoa butter applied directly to the ends and shaft.

If your cocoa butter has solidified in the cooler temperatures, scoop out a couple of tablespoons and place them in a small dipping dish (like the kind you use for soy sauce). Heat it with a blowdryer until it melts to a buttery consistency.

Dip a few fingers into the dish of melted cocoa butter and rub it into the palms of your hands. Apply it to your hair, paying special attention to the dry and brittle ends. Saturate the hair with the cocoa butter, making sure that all the strands are coated until no more can be absorbed.

Leave it in for a couple of hours or overnight while you sleep. The next morning, wash your hair thoroughly with shampoo and conditioner and style as usual. You’ll immediately feel the difference.

Fight the Frizz with Cocoa Butter

Apply a light touch of cocoa butter in sections of your hair that are prone to the frizzies. You can use a spray bottle to spritz it on in its liquid state, or if it’s still solid, warm some up in the palms of your hands, and put it on with your fingertips to help calm down the flyaways.

Using Cocoa Butter as a Color Hair Gloss

Hair gloss is a semi-permanent color enhancer that contains natural proteins. The proteins allow the gloss to act as a glaze over each hair strand, filling in the holes of highly porous hair shafts and contributing an unmistakable shiny surface to your tresses.

Cocoa butter is a fantastic option as a hair gloss because it can be mixed with other natural colorants such as cocoa powder, food coloring, and henna. When you add these elements to the cocoa butter, you can create a DIY hair gloss in a customized shade that enhances and brightens your current hair color.

If you want to use cocoa butter as a gloss, be sure not to put so much in your hair that it looks greasy. Apply it as you would a pomade, using your fingertips to gently massage a small amount on the surface of your hair.

Cocoa Butter to Control Dandruff

Dandruff is an annoying and embarrassing condition brought on by scalp skin that’s too dry or oily, causing the dead skin to flake and peel off. One of the ways to combat dandruff is by recalibrating the balance of oil on the scalp.

Rubbing cocoa butter into the scalp’s skin stimulates the production of natural oils in and around your hair follicles, which lubricates the irritated and inflamed skin.

Cocoa butter also acts as a natural antifungal and antibacterial humectant, reducing the itchy discomfort that causes you to scratch your head. Less scratching means less irritation, which also leads to less flaky skin.

Don’t be overly concerned about using cocoa butter for hair anywhere on the length of the strands. While it’s true that in its liquid form, it acts like an oil, it’s relatively light and absorbs quickly into the hair shaft if you don’t saturate your hair (as you do in a pre-poo or a hair mask). Because of its light viscosity, it’s also a good option for fine-textured dry hair, especially if you avoid applying it too close to the roots and scalp area.

Check out more ingredients that help growing healthy hair:

• Rice Water
• Okra
• Flaxseed Oil
• Gelatin
• Glycerin
• Fenugreek Seed
• Sugar Scrub
• Cucumber
• Cocoa Butter
• Onion Juice
• Guava Leaf
• Mango Butter
• Vaseline
• Aloe Vera
• Avocado
• Behentrimonium Methosulfate
• Banana
• Collagen