Posts Tagged ‘Castor oil’

I opened my CurlyNikki email today, and a woman has a post about proper bun styling and care.  One of the (many) steps said do the L.O.C. method.  I have seen the term around the natural hair blogosphere, but I guess have glazed past it. I click the hyperlink to find out more.

And now I’m kinda tiff.

L.O.C= liquid, oil, cream.  It is a step wise method for moisturizing hair.  The liquid is typically water, but may be aloe vera juice or a water-based leave-in conditioner.  The oil could olive, coconut, castor, etc.  Now from what I have been reading, some say the cream should not have water, others say it should.  I have been using my shea butter mixture.

So why am I tiff… because I have been doing the L.C.O.  Is there a big difference?  I’m not sure, but I plan on reversing my current method to see.  I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.

Alright, so I think this is about week eight.  Here is a picture of my hair.  I had an earlier shot, but thought somehow I deleted ALL pics on my phone.  Turns out, my phone sometimes has all the pictures, others times none at all.  A mess.

To be honest, I am still using the castor oil at least thrice weekly.  But have slacked on posting responses to the questions Kinky Kurly Coily Me! posts.  I don’t know what happened.  I missed on check in and then all of a sudden it was 3 weeks later.  Oh well.

Thus far, I do not see a dramatic length difference (see pic from start of challenge here).  But the castor oil definitely softens my hair.  It feels great.  So for that benefit alone, I will continue to use regularly.

I was browsing through a natural site I like, Kinky Curly Coily Me!, and noticed she has a castor oil challenge, so I signed up (why not).

Castor oil is a triglyceride, comprised of fatty acids, 90% of which is ricinoleic acid.  Ricinoleic acid is a humectant, which means that it helps to pull moisture out of the atmosphere and into the skin and hair.  It has analgesic, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial properties.  Castor oil is used as a home remedy for a number of ailments from arthritis and constipation to acne and ringworm.  Also, ricinoleic acid protects the scalp and hair from infections that can cause hair loss.

photo credit: pmarkham via photo pin cc

Castor oil is pretty viscous, so previously I was only using it sparingly on my edges.  But with this challenge I will use on my scalp, to seal my ends and possibly in other treatments.  Below is my starting length. Here’s hoping for noticeable growth at the end of the challenge.

Let me know if you are in too!

Whit