Neem Oil for Color-Treated Hair

If you’re in the habit of washing the gray out of your hair every four to six weeks, the natural oils that give luster to your locks might be going down the drain with it. Styling products may seem to help with damage control, but because they often contain alcohol and other moisture-robbing agents, they can make the problem even worse. A natural plant-based topical treatment called neem oil may be the answer for stressed, colored-treated tresses.

Your Cuticles Are Showing

Not the cuticles of your fingernails, but the cuticle layers that buffer the shafts of the estimated 100,000 strands of hair on your head – more strands if you’re a natural blonde and fewer if you’re a red head. Hair color contains chemicals that lift hair cuticles to allow the deposition of pigment molecules into the shaft. The primary chemical used is hydrogen peroxide, which increases in concentration in the formula the lighter you stray from your natural color. Ergo: The more hydrogen peroxide in the product, the more hair cuticles stand up. Because this is also the vehicle moisture uses to come and go, unsettled cuticles can make your hair look as though it spent time marooned in the desert. Neem oil can help tame the wild in your "do" by smoothing hair shafts down.

The Esteemed Neem

Neem is a tree in the mahogany family and is native to India, where it is known as Indian lilac. Neem is also naturalized in several African countries. “Mwarobaini,” its name in Swahili, literally means “of forty,” a reference to the plant’s reputation for having the capacity to cure 40 diseases. If you’re concerned that your color-treated hair is beginning to resemble straw, consider as a remedy neem oil — which also is sometimes used by those suffering the effects of malaria and hemorrhoids.

Neem Oil Ingredients

Neem oil, obtained from the seeds of the tree, contains a high level of the most biologically active compound in this botanical – azadirachtin. Because this agent is a growth inhibitor and hormone disruptor in dozens of species of insects, it is registered as a pesticide in the United States. Although this substance is toxic to aphids and gypsy moths and causes infertility in mice, it is completely safe for you, your hair and your libido.

Traditional Hair Care

In India, neem oil is a common ingredient in various hair care products, including shampoos and conditioning rinses. Applying a small amount on your head is an inexpensive way to give your hair a hot oil treatment and your scalp a rigorous massage to stimulate oil production. You may even leave it in your hair overnight and cleanse with a gentle shampoo the next morning. On the down side, pure neem oil stinks. The same sulfurous compounds that bug insects and restore life to color-treated hair smell, unfortunately, like rotten eggs. The aroma “cure” for the oil that fixes dull hair and 40 different diseases is a few drops of aromatherapy grade essential oil in your favorite scent.