How to Use Red Palm Oil for Your Skin and Hair

You’d be surprised at just how many uses red palm oil has for your beauty routine including hair and skin care. In this blog, we’re going to take some time to discuss these amazing benefits and show you how to revolutionize your body with this one ingredient. 

What is Red Palm Oil?

Red palm oil is obtained from the fruit of the tropical oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), which grows in the rainforests of Asia and parts of Africa. It’s important to be conscious of where you source your palm oil from, since it can have a significant environmental impact. Some producers tend to destroy rainforests in the process of obtaining it, as well as producing unhealthy, refined palm oil whose benefits are not worth the purchase.

Wildly Organic red palm oil is RSPO-certified, ensuring that it’s sustainably produced. We carefully source it from growers that care for the surrounding ecosystem and make sure it stays intact. Our product is natural and unrefined. It is also certified by Palm Done Right®, which ensures that our palm oil is 100% organic, wildlife-friendly, deforestation-free, fairly traded, and socially responsible. 

Red Palm Oil Benefits for Skin

Red palm oil is a great source of antioxidants, which can help mitigate the visible impact of aging on your skin. It’s also high in saturated fat, meaning it can remain fairly solid when cool, unlike many seed oils. Oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids tend to be chemically unstable in large amounts. This includes oils like corn, sunflower, flaxseed and soybean. Many of these oils are also highly refined in a protracted extraction process that includes the use of bleach and solvents, deodorizing, hydrogenation, re-flavoring and adding preservatives.

Our red palm oil is special because it isn’t highly processed unlike regular palm oil or refined seed oils. Instead, it’s a natural saturated fat, like cacao butter and coconut oil. This means our red palm oil offers better benefits for your skin and hair, since it doesn’t oxidize when exposed to air, heat, or your body. It simply soaks in, nourishing your hair and skin.

When choosing skin oils, it’s not much of a contest between all-natural, healthy products and highly processed, toxin-filled products.

Red palm oil is also special because it contains vitamin E in tocopherol and tocotrienol form. These compounds help protect your skin from the sun (along with the flavonoids and squalene found in the oil) and can ease the appearance of scars on the skin.

Another benefit of red palm oil is its powerful protection from UV rays. This is down to its carotenoids, the same pigments that give carrots, tomatoes and sweet potatoes their color. They help protect your skin down to the cellular level as the oil soaks in.

The hue of the red palm oil you buy is also how you can tell if your oil is minimally processed. If it’s been subjected to a harsh refining process, the carotenoids and red color will fade away (along with the tocotrienols and tocopherols). 

Finally, red palm oil has CoQ10, which is naturally present in your body. However, your CoQ10 levels go down as you age. One of the benefits of red palm oil is that CoQ10 can contribute to anti-aging effects. It’s another antioxidant that can protect your skin and help enhance elasticity and collagen. CoQ10 is generally a major ingredient in many anti-aging serums and creams.

Using Palm Oil on Your Skin

Not everyone’s skin can tolerate red palm oil. It can cause breakouts and clogged pores on the face. However, this is subjective and depends on your skin type. Many people who get clogged pores from using coconut oil can often use red palm oil without issues.

You can also apply red palm oil to your skin right after you have a shower (while your skin is still wet). This helps lock in the moisture and nourishes your skin. You might notice that it leaves a light shade of red on your skin, but this washes off easily. You might also find that the red palm oil temporarily leaves a slight yellow tint on your nails.

Red Palm Oil Benefits For Your Hair

There are a few different ways you can use palm oil to moisturize your hair. 

Before a shower, you can take a quarter-sized dollop into your hands and apply it from the ends of your hair up to just below your roots. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then take a shower and wash your hair as usual. The oil might color sheets or clothes, so be careful while you’ve applied it.

Red palm oil also offers benefits as a leave-in conditioner and end protector. Take a dime-sized dollop and rub it into the ends of your hair. This can help protect against frizziness and split ends. It can also leave your hair feeling incredibly silky right after you’ve applied it.

If you have light-colored hair, you might want to test it out on a small section of your hair to make sure it doesn’t leave a tint. With just a tiny bit, you shouldn’t find any orange color visible. If you have extremely light hair, however, you might want to avoid using it as a leave-in conditioner and wash your hair right after applying it.

Anytime you try a new hair care routine, give it about two weeks to see how your hair reacts. If it doesn’t give you the results you want, try changing it to something else. While palm oil has many benefits, everyone is different. Some people have hair that loves oil before each shower, while others find their hair gets weighed down by too much oil. Yet, others need lots of oil after a shower to tame the frizz. Experiment a little to see what your hair likes best!

Try adding Wildly Organic red palm oil to your routine and enjoy the benefits of all-natural red palm oil for your skin and hair. Feel free to reach out to us with questions or feedback.