Ask CurlsBot: Essential oils vs. oils for hair

A reader wrote to me asking about a product with unusual oils. They prefer to avoid oils in their products and didn't know why CurlsBot's new porosity score classified it as low in ingredients like oils.

The product is Chai Latte Hair Cleanser by Ecoslay. Here are the ingredients:

Water, Sodium methyl cocoyl taurate (Coconut-based cleanser), Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate (Plant-based cleanser), Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine (Plant-based emulsifier), Black Tea extract, Slippery Elm extract, Sodium PCA (plant-based moisturizer), Propanediol (Corn-based moisturizer), Panthenol (Vitamin B-5), Peppermint oil, Melissa Leaf Extract, Nettle Leaf Extract, Horsetail Leaf Extract, Peppermint Leaf Extract, Hydroxypropyl starch phosphate (Plant-based thickener), Sage Extract, Yucca Leaf Extract, Burdock Root Extract, Citric Acid, Lexfeel Wow-A (plant-based silicone alternative), Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Oil, Ginger Root Oil, Cinnamon Leaf Oil, Clove Flower Oil, Caprylhydroxamic acid GG (Preservative)

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The oils here are:

• Peppermint oil
• Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Oil
• Ginger Root Oil
• Cinnamon Leaf Oil
• Clove Flower Oil

What these all have in common is that they are essential oils, a type of oil that isn't really an oil, at least in the way that bottle of olive oil on your kitchen counter is.

Olive oil, coconut oil, canola oil, and other regular oils are made out of fatty acids. They feel well, oily.

Essential oils: the oils that aren't really oils

Essential oils are not made out of fatty acids. If you've ever worked with them, they look more like water than like oil. Though like "real" oils, they are hydrophobic, so they won't mix easily with water.

They are also used very differently. Regular oils are primarily used in haircare products for moisturization, detangling, shine, and protection (from water coming in and out). Essential oils are primarily used for scent and purported therapeutic benefits.

McGill's (a University in Canada) Office for Science and Society has an excellent article about how essential oils differ from regular oils. But TLDR is that essential oils in a product are not going to make your hair feel heavy or weighed down.

The Pros and Cons of Essential Oils for Hair

Essential oils are usually made by steam distillation and A LOT of plants. It takes around 300 times the amount of peppermint leaves to produce one unit of essential oil.

Despite their reputation as "natural" ingredients, the process for making most essential oils is a modern industrial process. It's not the same as putting flowers/herbs etc. in regular oil (which makes a scented/flavored version of the original oil).

There are reasons to avoid essential oils. Being so concentrated, they can have potent effects including hormonal disruption and dermatitis. As a child I liked reading my mother's Paula Begoun books (of Paula's Choice fame) and remember reading about tea tree oil being "bad". It's still listed as bad on her site..

I'm not entirely convinced. One study found around 0.1% to 3.5% of people react negatively to tea tree oil but the were testing undiluted tea tree oil directly on your skin, which is not the same as using a product with tea tree oil. One thing you should definitely never do is put undiluted essential oils on your hair, scalp, or skin.

Some people find it helps with their scalp problems, but if you're having scalp issues and tea tree products aren't working, you may have a sensitivity. You should probably see a dermatologist or try a non tea tree oil scalp product.