Why olive oil and not something else?
My friend swears by castor oil. My sister won’t use anything except argan. My colleague at work discovered rosemary oil six months ago and has not stopped talking about it since. There’s no shortage of options and everyone is convinced theirs is the right one.
The reason I kept coming back to olive oil specifically is something I read about how it interacts with the hair shaft. Most oils sit on the outside of the hair and coat it. Olive oil along with coconut oil actually gets inside. The structure of oleic acid is close enough to your hair’s own lipids that it absorbs rather than just sitting on top.
The squalene in olive oil works similarly it soaks in. The Vitamin E is doing something different: it’s protecting against the daily damage from sun, heat, and pollution that makes hair look dull and feel rough over time. Not immediately. But consistently, over weeks.
Pakistani hair deals with a specific combination of problems. The water in most cities is hard enough to leave white residue on your taps that same mineral buildup goes on your scalp and coats your hair shaft. Karachi and Lahore especially. Then there’s the dust, the heat, and the sun that just doesn’t let up from April to October. I’d never really thought about how all of that accumulates until I moved cities and noticed how different my hair felt.
What it does and what it doesn’t — being honest
A lot of olive oil content online is either overselling it or dismissing it completely. Neither is accurate based on what I experienced.
What genuinely improved:
Breakage was the first thing I noticed. Within three weeks, maybe a bit less, my hair stopped snapping when I combed it. The difference was obvious enough that I actually started paying attention to whether it was consistent or a fluke. It was consistent.
My scalp was a mess when I started dry, irritated, flaking at the hairline. That settled down noticeably within the first month. I’d read that olive oil has some antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties but I wasn’t expecting to feel a difference that quickly. Whether it was the oil specifically or just the regular massage improving circulation, I can’t say for certain. But something changed.
The shine thing is real but it’s different from the shine you get from a serum. Serums make hair look shiny by coating it with silicone. Wash it out and you’re back to square one. What olive oil does is improve the condition of the shaft itself, so the shine comes from the hair being healthier rather than being coated. Three or four people commented on my hair in month two without me mentioning anything. That was when I felt confident enough to write this.
What it probably won’t do:
I see claims online that olive oil regrows hair, fixes bald patches, reverses hair loss. I’m skeptical of all of this. What it can do is improve scalp conditions and reduce breakage so the hair you have is healthier. But if you’re losing hair due to hormonal issues, iron deficiency, thyroid problems which are all extremely common in Pakistani women no topical oil addresses that. The root cause is the root cause. Worth seeing a doctor rather than just adding more oil.
Also it takes time. This isn’t a one-application thing. I noticed small improvements within three weeks but meaningful change took six to eight weeks of doing it properly every week.
The actual method — what my nani did and why it works
Most people who say olive oil for hair didn’t work for them are making the same mistakes. Too much oil. Not warming it. Not leaving it long enough. Washing it out wrong. Here’s the version that actually works.
Warming the oil.
This step matters more than people think. Cold oil just sits on the hair surface. Warm oil opens the cuticle slightly and actually gets in. I use a small katori, pour maybe a tablespoon for my shoulder-length hair, and set it in a bowl of just-boiled water while I do something else for a few minutes. You can also give it 10 or 12 seconds in the microwave if you’re in a rush. Test it on your wrist before applying warm, not hot.
Applying it.
Section your hair first. Use your fingertips not a brush, not cotton and start at the scalp. Work in small sections. Then bring it through the mid-lengths and ends. The amount matters. You want a light, even coverage, not saturated hair. I used to use way too much in the beginning and it took three shampoos to get out. One tablespoon is genuinely enough for shoulder-length hair.
The massage.
Ten minutes. Circular motions with your fingertips. This is not just a nice thing to do the massage is doing real work. Blood circulation to the scalp is directly connected to follicle health. My nani did this every single week for decades and I think the champi itself, separate from the oil, is part of why it worked for her.
Wrapping it.
Wet a small towel with hot water, wring it out, wrap it around your head. Or a shower cap if you don’t want the mess. The warmth helps the oil continue penetrating while you wait. Leave it at least an hour. My nani’s habit of sitting in morning sunlight with the wrap on is genuinely a good call gentle warmth from the sun does the same thing.
Washing it out.
This is where people go wrong. Don’t wet your hair first water and oil don’t mix and you’ll just spread the oil around your scalp without removing it. Apply shampoo directly onto the dry or barely damp oiled hair. Work it through. Then add water. Then rinse. You might need a second shampoo. That’s fine. This method actually gets the oil out instead of moving it around.
Once a week is enough for most people. Twice if your hair is really dry or you’ve just done a chemical treatment. Daily oiling is too much — your scalp produces its own oils and needs to breathe.
For specific problems — what to add to the oil
Olive oil on its own works well. But for specific issues, a small addition makes it more targeted.
Hair fall:
Mix castor oil in with your olive oil for hair about 70% olive, 30% castor. Castor oil on its own is too thick to work with comfortably but this ratio is manageable. The ricinoleic acid in castor oil specifically drives circulation to the scalp in a way olive oil alone doesn’t. This is the combination I used. It’s what I’d actually recommend.
Dandruff:
Tea tree oil, a few drops mixed in, works for fungal dandruff. If your flaking is more from dryness than fungus which you can usually tell because dry dandruff tends to be smaller and more powdery just the warm olive oil massaged in regularly usually sorts that within a few weeks without needing to add anything.
Dry, breaking ends:
On non-wash days, a tiny amount on the ends only works well as a leave-in. We’re talking a drop or two on your fingertips, smoothed through the last few centimetres of hair. Nothing on the roots. I made the mistake of going higher up the first time and my roots looked greasy by afternoon. The ends absorb it, the roots don’t need it.
The oil quality thing worth saying again
I mentioned this earlier but it keeps coming up when people tell me olive oil ‘didn’t work’ for their hair. Nine times out of ten they were using refined olive oil from a grocery store.
Refined oil is clear and light and has basically no smell. That’s because the heat and chemical processing removed the antioxidants, vitamins, and phenolic compounds that make olive oil useful. What’s left is essentially a neutral fat. It will moisturise the surface of your hair slightly. It’s not doing much beyond that.
Cold-pressed extra virgin has all of it still intact. It’s slightly coloured, has a faint smell, and costs a bit more. That’s the one that actually works for olive oil for hair. Locally grown Pakistani EVOO like Ecolivia’s is worth using specifically because freshness matters for these compounds. An oil that was pressed six months ago and stored well has more intact nutrients than an imported bottle that sat in a container ship for weeks.
Four months in what I’d actually tell someone
My hair is better. Not dramatically, not overnight, just genuinely, measurably better than it was four months ago when I was stressed about what was coming out in the drain.
The breakage is the biggest change. Then the scalp. The shine came later. Hair fall is still there but less some of that is stress-related and life didn’t stop being stressful, so I’m not giving olive oil full credit for that part.
What I’d tell someone starting out: do it properly, do it consistently, and use the right oil. A half-hearted application of refined olive oil once a month won’t tell you anything. Eight weeks of proper warm champi with cold-pressed EVOO, once a week, will.
My nani didn’t have a shelf of products. She had a katori and a routine. I understand now why that was enough.
Quick Reference
- Warm a tablespoon of cold-pressed EVOO in a katori
- Apply to scalp first, then work through lengths
- Massage 10 minutes, circular motions
- Warm towel or shower cap minimum 1 hour, overnight better
- Shampoo into dry oiled hair first, then add water and rinse
Once a week consistently beats twice a week randomly. Quality of oil matters more than quantity. Cold-pressed extra virgin only.
