Olive Oil + Hair

I saved my life. More like my hair’s life. I have super long, thick, blonde hair that has been severely neglected since my move to Dubai.

I rarely wash it, which is a good thing by the way. I try to go as many days as possible in the most extreme ways not to wash my hair. (The key is finding different ways to wear your hair the second & third/fourth/fifth day without a wash. You can do it!)

BUT, the problem comes the days I choose to wash my locks. I’ve been using a shampoo that I believe physically assaults my hair. I’m nearly positive it’s crying when I put the shampoo through it & it continues to cry until it gets oily again. In truth, my hair has probably been crying since I landed in Dubai.

I used to buy expensive shampoo + conditioner because I spend a lot of money highlighting, therefore I need to make it last as looong as possible. I also don’t want to waste the money I spent highlighting, by ruing my hair with bad product. Miss High Maintenance, Hiiii 🙂

Well, that all went out the window when I got to Dubai. I RARELY do my hair. And when I do put in the effort, it pretty much means half blow drying it & leaving it down. Most often I braid it or put it up in a bun.

The neglect started because I ran out of shampoo & couldn’t find the one I was previously using. Then, I found some pieces of my hair that I think missed my last trim so I cut them myself..? I’ve never done that before. Between nasty shampoo and a self-trim, I pretty much thought my hair was treacherous. I started putting it in a ponytail every single day, which again I don’t think is good for your hair. The color started fading (probably just in my head) and it turned into rapunzel length. Ew.

So I booked an appointment to get my hair cut & highlighted. BUT, I was completely terrified to show up to a nice salon with my hair being dried out & disgusting. I went to Pinterest in last-minute efforts to find a solution that could fake maintained looking hair until it was fixed.

Olive Oil.

That was what I kept finding. Olive oil with eggs, olive oil with water, 1 tablespoon, warmed up, towel on your head, 30 minutes, twice a week, clean, dry hair blah blah blah. The timing never worked for me. When would my head be completely dry? I barely know what a blow dryer is at this point and after the 2 days, it takes to air dry I usually work out, then immediately shower. Finding the right time was just exhausting.

One day, I had it. I couldn’t believe I was surviving day to day with hair like this. What has happened to me?! I had nothing to lose because my hair was a complete disaster, it couldn’t get worse. SO, I walked into the kitchen. Took out the olive oil. Poured a HANDFUL of olive oil into my hand. Slathered it all over my hair. Everywhere. Roots, ends, and in between. Underneath, on top, I mean everywhere! My hair was GREASY. It was drenched in olive oil.

: …This is an example of what I probably should have done. Found on Pinterest.

I looked in the mirror. I was happy.

The hair was out of my face & felt smooth.

Great.

Grease head. This is new.

I like it.

I think I left it in for half a day. Several hours. I exercised with my hair like this (the sweat rolled off my head into my eyes more than normal, later realizing this was because it didn’t sit in my hair, it ran off because of the oil 😉 ). I watched TV, sent some emails, spoke on the phone, cooked. Half of the entire day my hair was drenched in olive oil.

There were only a few points I stopped to think – what if I can’t get this stuff out? Screw it, then I could go to the salon and say I tried doing this olive oil hair mask I saw on Pinterest and it failed miserably. That would be much better than the truth: My hair looked like s***. I panicked. Poured all the olive oil from my kitchen on my head… and left it for the entire day.

When the sad time finally came to shower and wash out this new grease head, kitchen smells, style of mine I was feeling sadness. Back to the dry, nasty, straggly strands. I’ll have to put olive oil again tomorrow 😉

Here’s where the pleasant surprise comes. When I shampooed my hair with the same life-sucking shampoo that I normally use I noticed a difference. Once I got out of the shower I didn’t notice my hair crying as much. I could brush it a little easier. The smell wasn’t the greatest but it could brush through, it had moisture. What’s going on here? Did olive oil bring life back to my hair?! Couldn’t be.

YES! People, yes it did. This half-day of cheap knock-off olive oil completely saved my hair. I’m serious when I say I felt a HUGE difference. I don’t even want to cut it off anymore. It’s so precious and moisturized! I love it! How did I not think of this earlier?! The oil seemed to wash out just fine, my hair isn’t extra oily or gross, it’s perfect. Just perfect. From the roots to the ends.

I must say – I have really dry skin and dry hair. I don’t have oily hair at all so I don’t know what this would do for someone who does. If I were you, I would still try it but I’m a risk taker. Maybe just at the ends? I also highlight my hair & I’m not sure what olive oil does to the color? For all I know, it strips the color right out of it. In my excited opinion, the moisture it provides is worth it. If you have all grey/white hair and it strips all the color out, at least you can thank me for making it the most moisturized, slamming hot, shiny grey/white there is! And that’s hard to buy.

I left out the heated, eggs, water, towel parts of the directions and put way more than a tablespoon in my hair for much longer than 30 minutes… But it still worked miracles!

P.S. Sorry I didn’t take photos. I never imagined this post existing prior to this experiment. Couldn’t imagine it actually working!

Anyone else slathers olive oil in their hair? Just me?

Have a light day, stay creative & be thoughtful!