My Current Favourite Hair Oils + DIY Hair Oil

How many of you hated it when your mom sat you down and gave you a nice hair oil champi? I know I did, especially because she used to apply a mix of coconut and the highly sticky castor oil and then tie my hair in one/two tight braid/s. Certainly not very cool. Ironically, I am the person who enjoys hair oil massages now and feel that it is one of the best ways to relax after a long and stressful day. In fact, I personally feel that the more we subject our hair to chemical treatments – colour, keratin, hair spa etc – the more our hair is in need of the rich nourishment that nut and seed oils give.

There have been times when, swayed by the media, I have totally stopped oiling my hair, opting instead, for “hair spas” and “deep conditioning treatments” which resulted in my hair actually becoming drier and frizzier than before. Which prompted me to get back to the traditional hair oil massages and thus, an improvement in my hair health. That is not to say that you shouldn’t go for hair spa etc – all I am saying is I prefer hair oils as a norm with just the occasional hair spa. When I oil my hair at night and then shampoo the next day, there is a noticeable difference in the texture of my hair as against shampooing without oiling.

Needless to say, I have tried several different hair oils over the years and this post is about my current favourite hair oils. Read on to know which ones have worked well for me. And stay tuned till the end for a simple but effective DIY hair oil recipe. Also, this is NOT a sponsored post – all the oils mentioned here are the ones I have used and that have worked very well for me.

Two of these oils are recent additions to my favourites list, and so, I shall start with the oil that I have used the longest and the one that nearly everyone has heard of…

Sesa Hair Oil

Price  ₹245/200ml. Available here.

To be honest, I can’t even remember when exactly I started using Sesa. I think it was after the birth of my elder son that I started using it…or perhaps during my pregnancy. Nevertheless, I have definitely been using it since over a decade and really love this oil. Sesa hair oil has a great combination of 18 herbs and 5 essential oils all cooked in milk as per the traditional, Ayurvedic “Ksheer pak vidhi”. Some of the ingredients in this oil are Jatamansi, Bhringraj, Neem, Triphala, Yashtimadhu etc. While I am not too fond of the fragrance of this oil, I would say it is better than some of the others that smell purely of the herbs.

MABH Hair Oil

Price ₹400/100ml. Available here.

I am pretty sure hardly any of you must have heard of this hair oil. The reason I heard of it and got to try it is because I am a blogger – and the MABH hair oil has been created by a fellow blogger from Chennai – Lancy . This is my 6th bottle of this oil and honestly, it is fabulously effective and really does help you hair grow. While the list of ingredient’s has not been disclosed, Lancy assures that there are no silicones, mineral oils, parabens, colourants or other harmful chemicals in this oil. And after having finished 5 bottles of this oil, I believe here. The only thing I don’t like about this oil is the way it smells.

Kairali Thriphaladi Kera Thailam

Price ₹145/200ml. Available here.

I bought this oil during my trip to the Kairali Ayurvedic Healing Village (read all about it here). The therapists said that this was the oil they had used for my head massage and Shirodhara and so I bought it along with some other products as well. In a base of coconut and castor oils and cow milk, this Ayurvedic concoction also contains herbs such as Amla, Vibhitaki, Haritaki and others and helps keep hair healthy and strong. Again, I am not fond of the herbal smell of this oil but love the effect it has on my hair.

Sova Draksha and Bitter Orange Flower Hair Oil

Price ₹1,500/100ml. Available here.

If you’ve seen  my haircare video on YouTube (if you haven’t, see it here) you would know how much I have been loving the Sova Draksha and Bitter Orange Flower Hair oil. Not only is it beautifully packaged, it also smells amazing. Of course, like all the other hair oils mentioned here, this one too has a great combination of ingredients such as Almond oil, argan oil, macadamia oil, jojoba, neem leaf oil etc.

Shankara Hair & Scalp Oil

Price ₹1,050/100ml. Available here.

The Shankara Hair & Scalp Oil is the most recent addition to my hair care routine and one that I have been loving. Again, like the Sova hair oil, this one too, smells amazing. It has a wonderful blend of sesame, jojoba and avocado oils along with essential oils of lavender, sandalwood, rosemary etc. Of course, I have only been using this oil since 10 days but so far, I am loving it.

That brings me to the end of this rather long post. Oh, and I forgot to mention that most of the times, I take a little of whichever oil I am applying, add a little castor oil to it and then apply it. And oh yes, the DIY hair oil. Well, here it is.

All you need to do is take some coconut oil, add a handful of sweet neem leaves (curry patta – the ones we use in cooking) and a couple of teaspoons of fenugreek seeds. Mix all these and boil on low flame till the neem leaves form a dark residue at the bottom.  Allow it to cool before straining it and pouring it into a bottle. To this mix, add the vitamin E oil from vitamin E capsules and a couple of tablespoons of castor oil. You could add a few drops of essential oil to this mix to help mask the smell of curry leaves. This oil is works very well in controlling hair fall and premature greying and makes hair shiny. However, I had to stop applying it because hubby complained that it makes me smell like Sambar! Not very romantic, is it?

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So, I hope you found this post helpful. Let me know if any of these oils feature on your favourites list. Or if there are any oils you would recommend for me to try. I’m looking forward to reading your feedback. And please do leave your comments here so that I know that there still are people who like to read blogs. I feel these days most people prefer to watch YouTube videos or just scroll through Instagram.