Dry hair may be caused by genetics, overprocessing, overuse of harsh products or styling methods, or simple oil production decrease in middle age (because getting old sure is a lot of fun). No matter the cause, the results are always the same: dull, lank, flyaway hair that looks and feels like straw.
Product reviews for dry hair care remedies often get distressingly repetitive: The general advice is to load up on plenty of oil-and-silicone-containing hair care products. Sadly, many old-fashioned formulas overcompensate, leaving hair limp and greasy. Dove Nutritive Therapy Nourishing Oil Care with Weightless Nutri-oils is a brilliant exception. These Dove dry hair care products use just the right combination of silicones and highly saturated oils to smooth the hair cuticle, impart plenty of shine, and actually penetrate the hair shaft and lubricate it from within without making the hair lose volume or feel heavy or sticky. If you hate dry hair, you'll love this product line.
Which Hair Oils Penetrate the Hair?
Any review of Dove Nutritive Therapy with Nourishing Nutri-oils must begin with a discussion of which hair oils work best. If "nourish" is taken to mean "sustaining life," Dove's claim of "nourishing" hair is a bit exaggerated (hair is dead and cannot be fed or kept alive). Nonetheless, the idea of fortifying its strength from within with certain types of oil is perfectly true.
Some oils actually penetrate all the way into the hair shaft, lubricating hair from the inside-out and making it stronger; others can only stick to the outer cuticle; still others just wash right off, accomplishing little or nothing. Oils contain fatty acids, partly made up of carbon atoms that are linked or "bonded" together. If a fatty acid has only single bonds between these carbons, it is called "saturated." If it has one double bond, it is "monounsaturated;" those with two or more double bonds are called "polyunsaturated."
In general, saturated and monounsaturated fatty-acid-containing oils penetrate right into the hair shaft, but polyunsaturated oils cannot penetrate as well. Thus the monounsaturated oleic acid in olive oil is known to be very good for dry hair, while polyunsaturated jojoba oil is not as effective in a hair oil treatment.
The Dove Nutritive Therapy Nourishing Oil Care shampoo and conditioners use sweet almond oil, which is monounsaturated and penetrates hair, and hydrogenated coconut oil, which is highly saturated and gets down into the hair shaft as well ("hydrogenated" means hydrogen was added to any double bonds, making them into singles and "saturating" the fatty acids). It is believed that mixing saturated and polyunsaturated oils allows them to penetrate even better than if either one is used alone.
Dove Nutritive Therapy Shampoo and Daily Treatment Conditioner contain smaller amounts of these beneficial oils; while the Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner offers quite a lot of coconut oil, as it is specified fifth on the ingredient list. The two conditioner types may be alternated or mixed together, depending on how dry/damaged the hair appears. Extremely dry hair types might wish to mix a small amount of olive oil with the Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner once a week or so.
As a side note, the Daily Treatment Conditioner comes out of the tube in yellow-and-white striped form, like toothpaste; for some reason, I just liked this aesthetically.
Mineral Oil and Silicones in Dove Hair Care: Don't Believe the Scare Tactics
Mineral oil is listed as the eighth ingredient in the Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner; despite being highly saturated, it is mostly useful to coat the hair somewhat and prevent moisture from escaping. Because it is derived from petroleum, mineral oil has earned an absolutely awful reputation in the world of hair care products. Ethnic hair care websites in particular claim it can utterly destroy hair by overdrying or even pulling it out.
Mineral oil in a hair conditioner is not crude oil pumped straight out of the earth; in fact, cosmetic grade mineral oil is highly refined and (in the U.S.) regulated by the FDA. The stuff in petroleum that causes cancer is removed during the refining process, leaving the final product safe to use. The only proven risk of applying mineral oil is that some skin types with acne may break out more if it is left in contact with the epidermis, because the same occlusive properties that seal in moisture can seal in irritating skin oils, too. So keep the Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner off the scalp if you have a tendency to break out.
Silicones are another unjustly despised ingredient. They impart incredible shine to the hair; efficiently smooth down rough, damaged hair cuticle; and may serve to help hair color stay vibrant for longer periods of time. They neither suffocate nor destroy hair; but if overused, they can make it look greasy or cause it to lack body.
The Dove Nourishing Oil Care Conditioner contains dimethicone, a fairly "heavy" silicone; the Dove Daily Treatment Conditioner contains a lot of dimethicone along with a lesser amount of a moderately heavy silicone called amodimethicone. Once a week or so, users of this product line should wash a couple of time per week with a simple detergent shampoo like Neutrogena Anti-residue to make sure the silicones don't build up too much on the hair.
Dove Nutritive Therapy Moisturizes Dry Hair Yet Retains Its Volume
Surprisingly, even though the oils and silicones might be expected to weigh down the hair, the Dove Nutri-oil line permits it to retain its volume while feeling soft and smooth and appearing shinier. Consumers with dry hair should be very pleased with these results. Those with extremely dry hair will probably want to also use the line's leave-in conditioning treatment for extra moisturizing benefits.
A few caveats: All the products are highly fragranced, and the scent lingers nicely on the hair; so fragrance-sensitive consumers will want to avoid them. The Nourishing Oil Care Shampoo and Conditioner contain DMDM Hydantoin, a formaldehyde-releasing preservative that may irritate the skin of sensitive individuals (plus some consumers seem to want to avoid even tiny, evidently innocuous amounts of formaldehyde on general principle). If neither of these statements apply to you, and your hair is drier than the Sahara, Dove Nutritive Therapy Nourishing Oil Care Shampoo and Conditioners are very good, relatively inexpensive hair care choices.
Sources
- " Fats and Fatty Acids," chemistryexplained.com.
- Moss, Brett, Ungvary, Vince, and Marchioretta, Sabrina, "Silcones as a Color Lock Aid in Rinse-Off Hair Care Products," Dow Corning Corporation, 2004.
- Romanowski, Perry and The Creators of TheBeautyBrains.com, Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm?, Ontario, Canada: Brains Publishing, 2011.
- Winter, Ruth, A Consumer's Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009.
- Warber, Adrienne, "Is Mineral Oil Bad for Skin and Hair?," Suite101.com, April 14, 2010.
- Thomson, Stuart, "Mineral Oil Vs. Plant Oil as Carrier/Spreading Agent in Cosmetics: a Modern Reappraisal," Gaia Organics, 2006.
Amy Sillup - I have a B.S. in Chemistry from Delaware Valley College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. I have worked as a ...
