A frequent joke in beauty circles is that coconut oil can fix just about anything.
Dry skin? Coconut oil. Makeup remover? Coconut oil. Broken heart? Coconut oil. A war ravaged earth? Coconut oil.
One common use for the white tropical stuff regularly recommended by celebrities such as Kourtney Kardashian is as a supercharged hydrating hair mask.
But not all experts agree about its benefits for your hair.
A recent article on Glamour UK detailed why you should never use coconut oil on your hair, after hair expert Ross Charles, owner of Ross Charles Hairdressing, expressed his concerns.
He argued it was more of a quick fix.
"If your hair has been damaged from over-processing from colour, or is weak and fragile, you need to get amino acids into the hair shaft, so definitely don't want to coat your hair in oil," he said.
"Hair oils - and especially coconut oil - tend to seep into every tiny hole in your hair shaft and disguise the real problem to act as a quick-fix; this won't help your hair in the long-run and is one of the main reasons I advise against using oils in your hair."
He argued that given oil repels water, it could actually prevent hair from getting the hydration it needs.
A number of people have also complained that rather than moisturising, coconut oil actually made their hair dryer.
"Anytime I see coconut oil hailed as a miracle moisturiser for locks, I remember my own experience. Dead straw hair, the opposite of my goal. If you've never used it, beware," one Reddit user complained last year.
"The reason some people experience dryness with coconut oil - especially when using it alone as a treatment - is that it can penetrate the hair cuticle, taking up space within the strands," cosmetic chemist Ni'Kita Wilson told Allure in 2017.
"This means that when you're wetting your hair, there's less space for water, which means that hair doesn't get as saturated as it would without the coconut oil."
Ah!
So where do we go from here?
According to Jacqueline Pidd, TIGI National Head of Education, it really depends on your hair type. (Post continues after gallery.)
"Coconut Oil offers amazing benefits in terms of offering moisture. But used directly, coconut oil has potential to become heavy and greasy, especially on finer textured hair," she told Mamamia.
"Pure coconut oil is very concentrated, so when used alone, it needs to be washed out, therefore weakening its potential to repair. So the most effective way to utilise its benefits is within a professionally developed product - Like TIGI's - to ensure longevity on the hair."
If you find coconut oil works wonders for your hair, go, erm, nuts. If not, then that's ok too.
Listen: Another shower lesson we've learnt.
