Avocado Oil: Benefits and Facts of Avocado Oil for your Hair and Skin
The Avocado is one of natures super foods. It’s so good for the body it should be given a red S and a cape. Can you image this little green fellow flying around leaping tall buildings in a single bound. That’s how good it is.
Full of everything the body needs and more.
Today we are going to talk about the Super Avocado’s , extra super cousin the “Avocado Oil”. The essential Oil extract taken from this super food. We can only imagine how super-super awesome this stuff is for you.
Lets take a closer look.
Nutritional Benefits of Avocado Oil
1. Strong antioxidant effect
Avocado’s antioxidant properties are due to 3 important substances including omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, and vitamin E.
When consumed or used as ingredients in food recipes, avocado oil strengthens blood vessels by eliminating the existence of free radicals and reducing the level of cholesterol.
Avocado oil fatty acids are able to penetrate deep into the mitochondria of our cells, and protect against damage to these cellular energy units. These units are crucial in energy production for, and regeneration of, our cells.
Avocado oil helps to protect these environments, which is something that antioxidants, found in fruit and vegetables, cannot do.
- http://www.newswise.com/articles/avocado-oil-the-olive-oil-of-the-americas
2. Prevents certain types of cancer
Alpha linolenic acid contained in omega-3 fatty acids is able to suppress the growth of tumor in breast and colon cancer. Vitamin E, being an anti-inflammatory, is useful for preventing and treating prostate cancer and skin cancer.
Since avocado oil can be consumed orally, you can combine it with other substances such as beta-carotene that is naturally present in fruits and green vegetables.
- http://jjbs.hu.edu.jo/files/v4n3/Paper_number1_modified-Final.pdf
- http://www.cancure.org/12-links-page/37-cancer-fighting-foods-spices
- http://www.naturalhealth365.com/reverse_cancer.html/
Consuming a combination of beta-carotene and vitamin E decreases the possibilities of lung cancers in smokers.
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nalini-chilkov/avocados-a-super-cancer-f_b_632985.html
3. Protects cardiovascular system
Oleic acid also exists in avocado oil. When consumed, such substance increases the amount of good cholesterol thus it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Avocado oil contains both mono unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (read the article (link – avocado-oil-nutrition-facts) for detail).
When used as ingredient in cooking, this oil promotes good blood glucose level and decreases the risk of diabetes.
It also lowers the risk of heart disease by reducing the amount of bad cholesterol. In other words, one of the greatest avocado oil benefits is that it is able to protect cardiovascular system by reducing the chances of disease attacks in the related body organs.
As free radicals and cholesterol are eliminated, blood vessel walls become stronger. Therefore, they respond better to sudden changes of blood pressure.
Regular consumption of avocado oil is scientifically proven effective in reducing the risk of heart disease.
Benefits of Avocado Oil for Skin
1. Rejuvenates Dry Skin
Vitamin E has almost everything necessary to rejuvenate dry skin. In fact, this is one of the most important substances for skin health. Avocado oil is rich in vitamin E and it is safe to use as daily treatment.
It is also possible to create a mixture of this oil with other substances such as jasmine oil or lavender oil. The additions of such substances will not alter the chemical structure of avocado oil.
2. Improves skin quality
The most popular avocado oil benefits are improving and protecting hair as well as skin health. The oil contains a high concentration of vitamin E which is necessary to promote skin health.
Vitamin E is also an anti-inflammatory, so, helping skin recover from itches, irritations, acne, eczema and even sunburn.
3. Reduces signs of skin aging
Once again, vitamin E plays the most important role. It is a powerful antioxidant that strongly fights free radicals. Compared to other fruits, avocado has the highest amount of vitamin E.
Applying avocado oil directly to skin can also reduce the occurrence of age spots, wrinkles, fine lines, and other signs of skin aging. Studies also suggest that consuming avocado oil may provide the same beneficial effects.
4. Facial Moisturizer
The most popular function of avocado oil for skin is to make a facial moisturizer. The peel of avocado fruit contains humectants (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11301638) and you can massage your face with the inner side of this peel to help it to hold its moisture condition.
It is best to apply such treatment before bed and leave the oil to cover your face overnight. Immediately wash your face after waking up to complete the treatment.
How to Use Avocado Oil on Skin
There are many possible ways to use avocado oil. It only takes some homemade recipes to gather the entire benefits of avocado oil for skin care.
a. Age Spot Remedy Recipe
The main ingredient of the following recipes is indeed avocado oil, but other necessary substances can also be obtained easily.
avocado facial mask
A mixture of 2-tbsp of avocado oil and 2-tbsp of castor oil is enough to help you to heal age spot. Simply massage the mixture into the spot and leave it for approximately 15 minutes.
Avocado oil contains sterolin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterolin) which is able to penetrate deeply into the skin to moisture it. Studies suggest that sterolin is as well effective to reduce the occurrence of age spots and help to soften the skin.
b. A Facial Mask Recipe
You will need an entire avocado fruit to make a facial mask recipe. Crush the fruit until it becomes soft mass (paste) the add 1-tbsp of avocado oil to the paste.
Wash your face and apply the mixture over the facial skin. Leave the mask for 15 minutes to allow it to penetrate into the skin layers. Do not rinse your face immediately after this treatment.
You will need warm towel to clean the residue of the mask. Soak a towel in a bowl of hot water than place the towel on your face. Apply pressure to the towel, so it can absorb most of the avocado mask. Take off the towel then wash your face as needed.
c. A Batch Oil Recipe
Another recommended recipe of avocado oil for skin is a bath formula. A bath oil recipe requires a mixture of 1 cup of almond oil and 2 cups of avocado oil. Heat this mixture then place 2 teabags in it. A combination of other substances is necessary to create a better formula and for greater results.
You can make another mixture from different essential oil such as lavender and chamomile in another container (bottle). Add avocado and almond oil mixture into this bottle, but you must remove the teabags first.
Shake this bottle well and leave it for a day. Keep the bottle in dark location to ensure its quality. Take a hot bath and pour the mixture from this bottle into the water. This recipe will rejuvenate and moisture the skin well.
d. Skin Soother
The puree of avocado fruit works well to soften rough skin or mask dry skin problem. It only takes a mixture of 1 tbsp of avocado and 1 tbsp of olive oil. This combination can be applied directly (topically) to neck and facial skin to help you to overcome dry skin problems.
For skin softening purpose, however, you will need to make puree of an entire avocado fruit, and then apply it to your overall skin. Leave it for 20 minutes before you rinse it.
Another benefit of avocado fruit is to remove eye puffiness or soothe the skin around eye areas. You need to use a thin slice of avocado fruit then place it beneath your eyes for some minutes.
For better results, you can pour few drops of almond oil into the slice and apply this mixture around your eyes. Leave the mixture on your skin for 5 minutes before you rinse it thoroughly.
e. Facial Cleanser
It does not only function as cleanser, but it also hydrates your facial skin at the same time. To create a cleansing solution, you need to combine half an avocado with ½ cup of milk and egg yolk. Combine and beat the mixture until it creates a liquid consistency of a lotion. Before you apply to your facial skin, it is necessary to wet the face with water.
When you apply this to your face, massage the skin and make sure you reach the entire area. Immediately rinse your face cleanly after applying this mixture. Such treatment will remove dirt, makeup residue, and oil as well.
Benefits for Avocado Oil for Hair
1. Dry Scalp Treatment
For dry scalp treatment, avocado oil works to its full potential when mixed with castor oil (oil extracted from castor bean). Blend 2-tbsp of avocado oil and 2-tbsp of castor oil then warm this mixture.
Use it to massage your head before bed and leave it overnight. Massaging your scalp will stimulate blood flow, and thereby nutrient flow to the fair follicles.
The mixture will penetrate through the hair shaft and provide essential nutrients for scalp as well. Remember to rinse your hair cleanly with shampoo in the morning.
Besides being useful for dry scalp, this treatment can help you to get rid of some hair problems such as dandruff, by unclogging blocked hair follicles, and protecting them from environmental stresses..
2. Moisturizes hair
There are numerous hair treatment products in the market that contains avocado oil. Two important substances available from the oil are lecithin and sterolin. Both are useful for hair and skin treatment.
Lecithin forms protective layer on skin surface and hair follicle, while sterolin moisturizes and softens them. Avocado oil should be applied topically in this case.
3. Strengthens and Shines
If you are not getting all the necessary vitamins and minerals, this can lead to brittle hair. Avocado oil is lightweight, and easily absorbed.
It repairs the damage of brittle hair, and strengthens the hair follical. The humectants lock in moisture, which leads to stronger, and shiner hair.
How to use Avocado Oil on Hair
a. Hair Mask
Besides offering great benefits for skin, avocado also functions well when applied to hair. In fact, numerous hair treatment products such as shampoo and conditioner use avocado as the main ingredient.
You can easily purchase such products, but it is actually easy to create a homemade solution with only little efforts.
You need to create a mixture of 1 egg yolk, 1 avocado, and 1 tbsp of olive oil.
The mixture will basically function as hair mask, so it is important that you perform a cleansing treatment to the hair and scalp first. After the cleansing is done, apply the mixture immediately.
Start from your scalp then move downward to hair. It would be good to make many sections of hair, so you can massage each section more easily and you allow the mixture to penetrate more quickly as well.
Use a shower cap on the head, and then use a hair dryer to dry your hair. Follow this treatment by rinsing your hair with shampoo, applying conditioner, and using styling products.