Hair Oils Series: Introduction

Hair oils have flooded the market in the past years, particularly those containing the ''new'' wonderful argan oil. Words like elixir, miraculous and extraordinary are very freely used by brands. All promise you the ultimate hair care product that is going to transform your hair into silky heaven. Exaggerations just pour from the lips of advertisers, with such extravagant descriptions, I wouldn't be surprised if they claimed it also cures cancer. Almost every brand came out with their version, each with a more dazzling name. Just add the new marvelous argan oil and maybe mix in a few other oils to the cheap silicone based serums that have been around for years, include words like miraculous, elixir or mythic and sell it for a hefty price tag. A bit cheeky if you ask me.

Here are some of them in the 20€+ range: (from the left): Marrakesh Oil, Agadir Argan Oil, Osmo Berber Oil, Macadamia Natural Oil, Kérastase Elixir Ultime, Shu Uemura Essence Absolue, Redken All Soft Argan-6 Oil, L'Oreal Professional Mythic Oil and Orofluido Beauty Elixir.

And some cheaper drugstore versions: Lee Stafford Arganoil, Klas Argan, L'Oreal Elvive Extraordinary Oil (ingredients), Fructis Miraculous Oil (ingredients), Gliss Kur Daily Oil Elixir (ingredients), Balea Oil Repair Haaröl, Avon Advance Techniques Moroccan Argan Oil, Syoss Beauty Elixir (ingredients).

Are you  familiar with these?:

These are all silicone based hair serums that have been on the market for years. Sure they don't contain argan oil, however some of them contain other oils, like grape seed, jojoba, avocado etc. I don't recall anyone advertising them as miraculous oils.

It sounds like I all over this argan craze, but I'm not. I'm just fed up with the over-the-top advertisement. It's all about the luxurious oils and making it sound like they're the only ingredients, but they conveniently forget to include it also contains a bunch of cones, fragrances and dyes. But the truth is: Silicone serums with argan oil are brilliant. Of course, nowhere near miraculous, but really, really good (at least for my hair). I've had a lot of silicone based serums (actually all apart from two in the upper picture) and honesty, they leave much to be desired. My hair is very dry and it needs that little bit of extra help to keep it moisturised. I guess that few drops of added argan oil does the trick.

I've been using Ororfluido for two years now and I still love it. However, there is so much talk about Moroccanoil, Macadamia Natural oil, Kérastase Elixir Ultime and others that I started to wonder: Is the grass really greener over there? I ordered small bottles of the most popular brands to compare. I will do a post on each individually and then do a short recap post as a conclusion There will be seven posts in including this one and I'll post one review per day, so keep your eyes peeled. I'll have links in every review to keep it organised. I used the same hair care routine with all of them - shampoo, conditioner (drugstore one, Dove Oil Care) and heat protection- to really see the difference.
Reviews will be posted in the following order:

1. Kérastase Elixir Ultime, 2. Moroccanoil Treatment Original, 3. Macadamia Natural Oil Healing Oil Treatment, 4. Osmo Berber Oil, 5. Orofluido Beauty Elixir.

Links:

What is the deal with argan oil? (feel free to skip this part if you dislike geography and sciency stuff)

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of argan oil. If you're anything like me, you found it at least a bit curious how this argan oil craze came to be. I mean, until two years ago I've never even heard of this ''groundbreaking'' oil. It's like it just dropped out of the sky and now is added to almost every cosmetic product. Here are some benefits of using this oil on your hair:  

Argan oil penetrates into the hair pores or shafts and enhances the elasticity of hair. It restores the smoothness of hair and makes them manageable again. Vitamin E present in argan oil is very useful in restoring the natural hair and renewing and repairing the damage caused by destructive agents. It is an additional benefit of argan oil that it cures the brittle hair and increases the life of color treated hair. In this job it even surpasses in competitiveness from Jojoba oil. 

Argan tree is native to North Africa, the Atlas region to be precise. It is now an endangered species and under protection of Unesco. It grows wild in semi-arid areas, is adapted to drought conditions and has a deep root system, making it the perfect tree to protect from soil erosion and desertification (I hope you know about the problem of the advancing Sahara desert). Because argan oil's popularity is increasing, these trees became valuable and more effort is given to protecting them. Not to mention the social impact of oil production on local communities, with new jobs and a steady income. So every time you buy argan oil based product don't feel too bad. At least something good came out of trying to satisfy human vanity. 

Thanks for reading!