How To Remove Coconut Oil From Your Hair

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Coconut oil is a multi-purpose, au natural beauty salve that has just about a million different uses. Some use it as a moisturizer (be careful as it’s highly comedogenic!), a body moisturizer, and even a hair mask.

It’s super hydrating, locks in moisture, and is insanely affordable. If you need a good hair mask to help revitalize dry damaged hair, coconut oil is a great, effective option.

The only thing you’ll have to worry about is how to completely remove it from your hair!

How to Completely Remove Coconut Oil from Your Hair

The best way to remove coconut oil from your hair is to wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo. There are also methods involving alcohol, lemons and baking soda but save those for the last resort as they are drying and damaging.

How to Get Coconut Oil out of Your Hair- In Detail

Coconut oil is tricky to completely remove from your hair because it’s hard to see and feel on wet hair.

There are a few different ways to remove coconut oil. I think the best way to go about it is to use a soapy, clarifying shampoo and to take your time massaging in the shampoo. Then, rinse your hair for longer than you usually would under warm water.

Coconut water solidifies at colder temperatures so cold water is not as effective.

Last resort, you can also use lemon, alcohol, or baking soda to remove coconut oil. The problem with those 3 ingredients is that they will dry out your hair. They basically counteract all the moisture that was added to your hair from the coconut oil. Sometimes coconut oil can take a few washes.

1. Wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo

clarifying shampoo

Our favorite clarifying shampoo is Oribe’s The Cleanse!

This shampoo works with all hair, colored or not! It contains volcanic ash which polishes away dirt, oil, and product buildup. It won’t completely strip the moisture of the coconut oil. Apply a generous amount of the shampoo onto your scalp and massage it in.

Let the clarifying shampoo do it’s work to get all the coconut oil out.

You can shampoo your hair again if you feel that the oil is not completely out. Be sure to rinse with warm water

2. Use Dry Shampoo

Use dry shampoo if you have small traces of coconut oil left at the roots. Dry shampoo works to soak up access oil in the hair. The will soak up the coconut oil, similar to when your scalp is greasy. Our favorite dry shampoo is IGK’s First Class Dry Shampoo!

IGK dry shampoo

The IGK First Class Shampoo has detoxifying charcoal powder that lifts dirt while absorbing oil and sweat. Cooling, calming white tea powder calms scalp and strengthens hair follicles. This is perfect if there are some traces of coconut oil left in the hair.

3. Last Resort: Eggs, lemon, baking soda and alcohol (not combined!)

Egg: Add 2-3 eggs into 32 oz of water. Beat the eggs to make a fluid mixture and pour this all over your hair.

After 5-10 minutes it should be ready to wash out and all the coconut oil should easily wash out from your hair.

We don’t hate this method because eggs aren’t damaging to your hair! It’s just a little more effort.

Lemon: Mixing the juice from 2 lemons into a cup of water and pouring it on our hair.

Many believe that the acidity helps to remove the oils. The thing with lemon is, the acidity actually dries out your hair and can damage it.

If you color your hair, WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS METHOD! This will seriously strip and damage the color!

Baking soda: Create a baking soda, water paste to massage into the oily areas of your hair and scalp. Then wash it out and all the coconut oil should wash out with the paste.

Beware as baking soda can dry out your hair. But, it’s better than lemons and baking soda is a pretty basic household ingredient that you’ll probably have around.

It’s not the best option for the health of your hair, especially if it’s colored so use this as a last resort.

Alcohol: That’s right, some say rubbing alcohol or vodka can remove coconut oil from your hair. Again, we don’t recommend this option.

There’s no point in adding coconut oil to your hair to then go wash it out with alcohol. This should be a last, last resort because alcohol will very quickly dry out and damage your hair.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I put too much coconut oil in my hair?

Coconut oil is generally considered safe to apply to your skin and hair. However, using too much could cause a buildup of oil on your hair and scalp. This could make your hair very greasy and dull, especially if you have very fine hair.

What’s the best way to apply coconut oil to your hair?

For starters you want to melt your coconut oil or make sure it’s already pretty melted.
Coconut oil has a very low melting point so this isn’t a big deal, it just makes it a little easier to apply it if it’s not completely hard.
Then you want to focus on applying the coconut oil from the ears down.
Unless your hair is completely fried it doesn’t need to touch your scalp. Plus, this will make the washing out process go much smoother.

What happens if coconut oil is left in my hair?

Dr Catherine Borysiewicz, consultant dermatologist at the Cadogan Clinic, explains that, when you leave unrefined oil on the roots and scalp for too long and it’s absorbed into the scalp, it can cause hair growth to slow down. In addition, coconut oil can make your hair greasy and dull if it builds up on your scalp.

Final Thoughts

So, next time you can’t wash out coconut oil from your hair, you’re better off using Oribe’s clarifying shampoo (a few times if necessary) and gently removing it from your hair.

If your hair still feels a little greasy, IGK’s First Class dry shampoo will absorb the excess oil!

Absolute last resort, lemons, eggs, alcohol, and baking soda work well but they sure can damage and dry out your hair.

Again we don’t recommend!

The whole point of using coconut oil is to moisturize and revitalize damaged hair. Using lemons, alcohol and baking soda will negate all the goodness the coconut oil did!