8 Best Coconut Oils For Hair In 2023

Looking after hair is a difficult challenge at the best of times, but it can be even more difficult when you can’t tell which products are actually useful for your hair and which products are better off being avoided for your hair type.  

Most people who have been relying on the internet to learn how to take care of their hair have probably come across at least a dozen people swearing by a miracle ingredient that instantly tamed and repaired their hair. But when you go to try it yourself, it turns out to be lacking.  

Coconut oil is often thought of as a one of those miracle ingredients that’s overtaken the world. However, it actually can be really good for the hair because it’s able to provide moisture and nutrients.  

Some people think that coconut oil alone is the best thing for hair, while others think that coconut oil is a useful product for hair, but shouldn’t be the main ingredient. Yet more people think that coconut oil is a completely useless product that actively damages hair, and these are all based on their personal experiences.  

We can say that coconut oil can be useful, but that the efficacy of the oil depends pretty heavily on how your hair looks, and the composition of the oil that you’re using. Thus, we’ve created this list of the eight best coconut oils for hair (including one that has no coconut oil at all).  

1. Blu Atlas Hair & Body Oil 

This product is our one that has no coconut oil in it, but we’ve included it because we think it is the best hair oil out there, hands down. This product is designed by Blu Atlas and is a hair and body oil that’s been created in consultation with a panel of dermatologists.  

Instead of coconut oil, this product gains all the benefits of coconut oil with none of the risks through a combination of other oils and vitamins and minerals. This includes saw palmetto oil, which is an anti-inflammatory oil that’s even able to counter the DHT, a compound that contributes to hair loss.  

Another oil present in this blend is argan oil. Argan oil is a universally loved oil in the hair and beauty community because it’s full of vitamins, antioxidants, and nutrients for the hair. It helps promote repair of damage and smoothes the hair and creates shine while taming frizziness.  

The final star ingredient (but by no means the last ingredient) in this product is sweet almond oil. Sweet almond is an excellent oil for hair care because it’s full of vitamins E and D. These vitamins help protect the hair from environmental concerns like UV radiation and other irritants. It also helps strengthen the hair and retain moisture.  

2. Palmer’s Coconut Oil Formula Moisture Gro 

If you have your heart set on using coconut oil, products with that oil comprise the rest of this list of the eight best coconut oils for hair. Palmer’s Coconut Oil Formula Moisture Gro has been specially formulated as a great coconut oil for curly hair.  

Coconut oil is rich in conditioning and hydrating agents. This is excellent when acting as a conditioner for curly hair as curly hair is often tangled or knotted and can accumulate damage when brushed without a detangler.  

Using coconut oil as a detangler can help curly hair reduce damage during the time it's being brushed as well as promote hydration of the locks. Curly hair is more likely to be dehydrated than other forms of hair, so using coconut oil can be a great help.  

This product also uses a moisture boost system, which helps restore hair moisture so it doesn’t become damaged from dryness. It helps lock the moisture from the coconut oil into the hair so it can improve the hair's condition.  

3. Niucoco Renewing Coconut Oil Hair Serum 

This hair serum uses coconut oil, but it's not nearly as heavy as the product in the number two spot above. This is because this hair serum has been designed for straight hair, not curly hair. It's also designed to help protect the hair from heat and other damage.  

This product is made from cold-pressed coconut oil, along with guava fruit extract and sunflower seed oil. It helps protect the hair from damage while also adding texture to the straight hair.  

This oil also includes shea butter, so it's high in vitamin E, hydrolyzed proteins, and fatty acids that help promote hydration and hair health. It can make the hair strands stronger by reducing damage through antioxidants and through giving the hair the nutrition it needs to be strong.  

Ordinarily, coconut oil would be a heavy product on straight hair and get rid of the comparatively little volume and texture straight hair has. But this product uses coconut oil in a way that makes it suitable for any hair type. 

4. SheaMoisture Leave-In Treatment 

This product has been designed to be suitable for wavy hair, and you can see how it's an oil that's between the heaviness needed for curly hair and the lightness needed for straight hair.  

This product acts as a spray in hair conditioner, which is able to act as a moisturizing product. It can also provide nutrients to the hair, so it can help soften and smooth damaged or dry hair.  

SheaMoisture Leave-In Treatment also contains shea butter and coconut milk, which help the product act as a detangler. The shea butter gives the hair enough nutrients, while the coconut milk relieves friction between hair strands as they slide between each other.  

This product can also be used as a de-frizzer as it can be extremely hydrating on hair. Hair that's well hydrated is less likely to be frizzy, so you can rule out one method of causing hair frizziness by hydrating your hair prior to styling and drying.  

This makes the product suitable for wavy hair as this hair type is prone to being tangled, frizzy, and dry. Wavy hair is arguably the most difficult hair type to look after, as some parts of the hair need more moisture than others. Therefore, the use of a spray in product like this gives you more control over where the product is going in the hair.  

SheaMoisture also has all cruelty-free products, and doesn’t include parabens, phthalates, sulfates, or mineral oils in their products.  

5. OGX Coconut Miracle Oil Extra Strength Damage Remedy+ 

This product has been designed to help repair hair that's dry. As you can tell from the packaging, OGX is of the belief that coconut oil is the best oil for helping to repair dry hair. It's able to revive hair by giving it extra hydration.  

This product is suitable for hair that's medium to coarse and shouldn’t be used by people with fine hair. This is because coconut oil can be quite heavy, so a coconut oil like this one would just weigh down fine hair.  

This product mixes coconut oil with vanilla bean extract and essence of tiare. However, the coconut oil is by far the stand out ingredient in this mix. Coconut oil is hydrating and is able to nourish hair and tame frizziness or unmanageable hair.  

Coconut oil is well suited for dry hair, so long as the hair is strong enough to withstand the weight of the coconut oil. This may be why some people, for instance folks with thicker hair, swear by coconut oil, while others think that it's far too heavy of a product and causes a loss of volume and an oily look.  

6. Nae Nae’s Hair Boost Hair and Body Butter 

This product is unusual in that it's formulated for both the hair and the skin. It’s also been formulated to help restore damaged hair. Hair can become damaged through chemical processes like dyeing, or through processing treatments like chemical straightening.  

This product can help relieve common issues with damaged hair, which includes helping to heal a damaged scalp. The product is particularly helpful in cases when hair has been bleached and then dyed, as the bleach is often applied directly to the hair.  

Most repairing products run the risk of ruining the color or chemical treatment of your hair by being too repairing. This product is balanced so it's able to treat dandruff and a dry scalp without destroying the hairdo you’ve worked so hard to perfect.  

7. Ayurvedashree Bhringraj Hair Oil 

This hair oil has been designed to be suitable even for hair that's already oily. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t recommend that people with oily hair use coconut oil because it's likely to overload the hair with oil and make it visibly weighed down.  

However, this hair oil is made of a combination of ingredients including bhringraj oil, amla extract, kalonji oil, avocado oil, thyme oil, walnut oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and coconut oil. Because coconut oil isn’t the only ingredient, or even the main ingredient, it brings less heaviness to the mix.  

This lets people who have oily hair still access the hydrating and repairing powers of coconut oil, without having to look like they doused their hair in oil. This product is also anti-inflammatory so it can help soothe the scalp and reduce excessive oil production as a result of scalp damage.  

In addition, this product can help reduce the amount of dandruff or flakes in the hair. It also helps the hair gain a beautiful shine that's just the right level of oil spread throughout the hair.  

8. Four Reasons No Nothing Hair Oil 

This coconut oil has been formulated to be specifically suitable for fine hair. This is quite a feat as coconut oil is extremely heavy, which can be an issue for fine hair. Fine hair is particularly likely to be weighed down, causing the hair to look flat and like it has no volume.  

And honestly, if your hair doesn’t look fab after you’ve added a product to it, what's the point of having the product at all. This product helps enhance and smooth curls while taming frizz.  

Some curly hair is fine, and it's this hair type that particularly struggles with coconut oil. People with thick and curly hair are likely to use coconut oil and have a great experience whereas the same product suggested to someone with fine and textured hair would likely result in a flat mess of a hair style.  

However, this product has managed to make coconut oil in a smoothing serum suitable for even the finest of hair. It helps revitalize dry and damaged hair without weighing the hair down or getting stuck in the hair for days.  

It's full of argan, jojoba and coconut oils, which contain loads of vitamins, healthy minerals, and antioxidants. This means that they’re able to be used for nourishing the hair, smoothing it and taming it. These oils also repair and revitalize the hair, and even protect it from premature aging.  

This hair oil is also vegan, cruelty-free, and has no common allergens like parabens, sulfates, dyes, glutens or soys.  

Frequently Asked Questions 

What's in coconut oil? 

Essentially, what's in coconut oil is coconut. Coconut gets crushed up and pressed until the oil is pushed out. This is called extraction, and along with the oil come all sorts of good nutrients.  

One form of extraction is known as cold-press extraction, and this form of extraction is one that's commonly used for making oils like coconut oil. This is because it (like the name suggests) uses no heat, which means that it's able to take all the nutrients out of the coconut without destroying them through contact with heat.  

So, what are these nutrients in coconut oil? They fall into fat and fatty acid categories. Fat is, in fact, mostly what coconut oil is made out of. It's between 80% and 90% saturated fat, which means it's generally a solid at room temperature, unlike most other oils.  

This gives coconut oil a robustness and an ability to form a waxy sheathe that other oils simply can’t compete with. It's also why the coconut oil is so heavy and can weigh down hair that’s more on the fine side.  

Fatty acids in coconut oil are mostly made out of lauric acid. Lauric acid is an antimicrobial product, which means it can help kill bacteria. However, if lauric acid is ingested, it can be especially bad for your cholesterol levels, so absolutely don’t take it orally.  

How does coconut oil help my hair? 

Coconut oil can help hair in a variety of ways. This includes through providing a physical barrier against entry of harmful agents. (For instance, it prevents bacteria from entering the scalp.) Coconut oil also moisturizes the hair.  

Moisturization happens when lauric acid from the coconut oil moves into the strands of your hair. This happens relatively quickly, which  causes the hair to be less frizzy in a short time.  

Because coconut oil is easily absorbed, it's better as a moisturizing agent than other types of hair oils. In particular, it's great for being able to take other moisturizing agents deeper into the hair by clinging to them and taking them along on its deep moisturizing trip.  

Can coconut oil be bad for hair?  

In order to answer this one, we’re going to need to delve a little bit more into the structure of the hair and how each strand interacts with coconut oil.  

To start off with, hair is made out of three distinct layers. These are called the medulla (the core of the hair), the cortex (90% of the weight of the hair), and the cuticle. When we talk about hair health, we’re mainly talking about the cortex and the cuticle.  

The cortex makes up the vast majority of the hair strand. Within the cells that contain pigment are woven strands of keratin. Keratin is a protein that's made up of amino acids, which are what all proteins in the body are made of.  

The cuticle protects the cortex by acting as a sort of sheathe. It's a waxy layer of interconnected scales that help the hair keep in things it wants (like moisture) and keep out things it doesn’t want (like pollution).  

If the hair is damaged, this could be because the cuticle has been damaged and broken apart, or it could be because the keratin fibers in the cortex have been broken. Both of these issues result in frizzy, dry, damaged looking hair.  

If you have a problem with the cuticle, adding a product like coconut oil could help regulate the hair and protect it. This is because coconut oil can carry hydration to the hair to replace the moisture that’s been lost during the time the hair has been damaged as well as forming a protective sheath over the area that's broken.  

However, if the cortex has broken keratin fibers, adding coconut oil won’t help repair your hair, and will in fact make it worse. This is because, to repair this kind of damage, the keratin needs to be repaired. If you add coconut oil to the strand, it can block keratin treatments from getting to the hair where they need to go to do the repairs.  

So, to answer the question, it depends on why your hair is damaged as to whether coconut can be bad for your hair. Coconut oil can definitely be bad for the hair if you’re using it as a treatment for something that it shouldn’t be used for.  

Coconut oil shouldn’t be used if you’ve treated your hair with color, even if the coconut is an ingredient in a color safe oil. This is because your hair will be damaged from the cortex, by strands of keratin breaking when the dye entered the hair strand.  

It's totally possible to have both the cortex and the cuticle damaged at the same time, which can also be a point against using coconut oil. Because coconut oil is so heavy, it can hide some problems that are potentially much worse for the hair than just the cuticle being damaged.  

This includes the coconut oil running into the pores of the hair shaft and weighing it down to make it appear that the hair shaft has been repaired. In this case, you would just keep adding coconut oil to the hair even though it wouldn’t be fixing anything.  

If you do decide to use coconut oil in your hair, you should also be sure to use the right kind of coconut oil. This includes any of the products we’ve listed above because they’ve been tested for safety in hair care products. Just be sure to choose the right product from this list for your hair.  

However, if you’re just grabbing some product with coconut oil that hasn’t been through testing for its effectiveness or health and safety, you need to make sure that it's extra virgin coconut oil. This means that it won’t have been processed using bleach or other irritants that could cause damage to your hair or scalp.  

Can coconut oil cause hair growth? 

Coconut oil is great for a lot of things, but even coconut oil can’t do everything. It can’t stimulate the growth of hair follicles. Instead, it focuses on providing smoothness and a beautiful shine to the hair.  

If you notice that your hair has gotten longer after using coconut oil, don’t be too quick to attribute that to coconut oil causing hair growth. In fact, it's probably just that your hair isn’t as damaged anymore and isn’t breaking off at the ends.  

This would make your hair appear to be growing faster whereas in actuality, it’s just that the hair growth is visible because it isn’t being lost at the same rate at the ends of the hair.  

So if coconut oil can’t cause hair growth, what can? If we had the answers to every hair loss question like this, no one would suffer from unwanted baldness anymore. However, if you’re merely trying to stimulate an already active follicle to grow a bit quicker, try using a product that contains caffeine.  

Caffeine is able to stimulate increased blood flow to the scalp, which means that the blood is able to carry more nutrients to the head, which increases the rate at which hair is able to be created by the hair follicle because it has the nutrients it needs.  

How does coconut oil relate to hair type? 

As we’ve established, plain old pure coconut oil may be too heavy for fine hair and cause the hair to be weighed down. However, are there any other hair types for which coconut oil may not be useful? 

Coconut oil helps trap nutrients in the hair and stop things like moisture from moving freely out of the hair due to porosity.  

Coconut oil has no protein in it, but it can stand in the way of hair getting more proteins by creating a physical barrier. That means that it may not be suitable for people who have low protein in their hair unless they use a protein treatment and then use the coconut oil afterwards to keep the protein in the hair.  

However, people who have high levels of protein in their hair and struggle with keeping the water in may find that they have great results with coconut oil simply because they’re treating their hair for the problem that they have, not relying on coconut oil to be a one hit wonder for every hair problem known to humankind.  

Ultimately, whether coconut oil works for your hair is dependent on a variety of factors, like your hair thickness, porosity, protein level, humidity of your environment and more. A good starting place is the above list as it only includes products that have been properly vetted for quality and for their effectiveness on different hair types. 

You can also branch out into products that don’t contain coconut oil if it doesn’t suit your hair type, as is exemplified by our number one choice on this very list. Everyone’s personal hair routine is different, and you can’t expect something that worked for someone else to automatically work for you. If you do decide to branch out, Blu Atlas Hair & Body Oil is a great starting point.