by Masten Dahl

Created on: December 07, 2008   Last Updated: December 16, 2008

Long a staple of Mediterranean cuisine, olive oil has also been a vital part of hair and skin treatments for centuries. Full of anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids, olive oil helps strengthen the hair and adds luster and shine. Best of all, olive oil hair treatments are an easy and affordable way to provide deep conditioning to your hair at home.

An olive oil wrap, much like a hot oil treatment, should only be performed once every few weeks, otherwise, the oils will begin to weigh your hair down and make it look limp and unmanageable. To begin the treatment, shampoo hair (do not apply conditioner), and towel dry until the hair is damp. Take a half cup of olive oil (more or less, depending on the length and thickness of your hair), and warm in a microwave on low/medium heat for about 20 seconds. The olive oil should be warm to the touch, but not hot.

To apply the oil, massage it into the scalp. Olive oil, in addition to being great for the hair, is also an excellent scalp treatment. Comb the excess oil through the dampened hair, making sure to cover the ends of the hair. Applying the oil to the ends of the hair will help to prevent breakage as well as split ends. After the hair has been covered with oil, take a plastic shower cap over the hair. You can also use plastic wrap if a cap is unavailable. The idea is to trap in body heat, since heat will help the oil penetrate into the cortex layer of the hair. To further aid penetration, you can also wear a heated towel as a turban on top of the plastic cap.

Leave the oil on your hair for 15-30 minutes, and then shampoo again with a mild shampoo. If you skip this step, your hair will look quite greasy. One good shampooing will remove the excess oil from the scalp and hair while leaving the nutrients trapped inside of the hair's cortex layer, which is where the hair holds all of it's proteins and nutrients. From my experience, it is quite difficult to style hair immediately after a hot oil treatment, so you might want to skip the curling iron or hot rollers. Once the oil is thoroughly absorbed into the hair (which takes about 48 hours), the hair will be easier to style and better able to hold a curl.

If you have dull or brittle hair, bi-weekly olive oil treatments will make a huge difference in your hair's quality. Like most hair treatments, the effects become more noticeable after a few treatments. Within 2 months, you'll be on your way to having beautiful, strong, and shiny hair.

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