Is Mineral Oil Really All That Bad?

Does mineral oil really deserve it’s ‘evil to black hair’ image?

So what’s the deal with this oil anyway and why does it deserve our cold shoulder? Mineral oil* or liquid petroleum is a liquid by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline and other petroleum based products. It has a multitude of uses from cosmetics to lubricating machines in the food industry.

Mineral oil* is of relatively low value so it’s little wonder that it also finds it’s way quite often into our hair products with all those companies trying to cut costs and all.

Mineral oil molecules are large compared to other oils and as such it is capable of holding in much more moisture into the hair by reducing the gaps that moisture is able to escape. Great right? Well, there’s more. The film that mineral oil creates on hair is occlusive which means that it prevents moisture leaving your hair but also prevents moisture getting in which is why it’s often included in pressing oils as it prevents frizz. It is also pretty good at curl clumping so sometimes its included in curl enhancing products. Sigh of relief, doesn’t sound all that bad now does it?

However, mineral oil is also a hydrophobe, it hates water so can only be removed with a surfactant and herin lies the problem. The majority of black hair care products will have mineral oil or a derivative in them. The black women who buy these products are the same ones who believe that water dries black hair so avoid washing their locks until abolutely necessary which is usually in the region of once every 1-2 months. Ewww I hear you say? Well even some ladies who are kind of clued up about black hair care may not avoid water as they know that it will hydrate their locks so they choose to co-wash their hair with their mineral oil laden conditioners while shunning shampoo. Both scenarios lead to hair that breaks because it is deprived of moisture.

If you use mineral oil in your hair, you will have to use a sulphate shampoo to get rid of it every couple of days as the moisture percentage of your hair reduces. The problem is, washing your hair with the sulphate shampoo so often will mean that natural hair oils* will become a thing of the past and you are back in breakage city!

So in essence mineral oil isn’t really the evil monster others would have you believe, it won’t in itself break your hair and most hair will tolerate it quite well from time to time. In humid environments, it will also help keep your hair frizz free for longer but in terms of a benefit vs performance ratio, mineral oil* will probably come last against the multitude of other vegatable oils* available on the market.

I am reminded of a tv advert I saw some time ago stating that baby oil holds in 10 times more moisture than the average body lotion. Baby oil is largely mineral oil so the statement is probably true. But we wash our skin with soap or shower gel daily before re-applying the baby oil so our skin remains soft and supple. The same should be true of your hair and mineral oil.

Sorry to be strict but if you are just starting your journey in long hair care then you have no business using mineral oil so put your pink toned hair lotion down and get a nice bottle of coconut oil*, castor oil*, shea butter*, wheat germ oil* etc to use in your hair instead. Until you get used to your new regimen of washing your hair every few days (or at the very least weekly), you really don’t need to be falling back into old habits of ‘moisturizing’ your hair with hair lotion instead of water. Get used to your new regimen first before you can with caution consider using mineral oil again.

If however, you are already well into your hair growth journey and you are retaining length consistently but have this one conditioner with mineral oil* that you absolutely adore then knock yourself out and use it from time to time remembering to shampoo throughly during your next wash.

I’ve spend a good half hour at the beauty supply store looking for a non-mineral-oil containing conditioner before I found one that I didn’t end up buying anyway. I now tend to buy my conditioners from high street pharmacies or the supermarket, yes ‘white girl’ conditioners! Hey, they make my hair feel great without any red flag ingredients. I’d rather have the option of co-washing my hair at the weekend rather than know that I HAVE to shampoo/clarify it so I personally avoid mineral oil.