7 Reasons to Add Marula Oil to Your Hair Care Routine

Choosing the right hair care products for your locks isn’t just about shopping for luxurious deep conditioning masks or leave-in creams that are trending on TikTok. Sometimes, it also has to do with learning about different natural botanical oils that can do your hair some good.

One oil that probably comes up a few times in anyone’s search for the perfect natural hair oil is marula oil. This oil is rarer and more indulgent than the likes of coconut oil or shea butter. That touch of exotic luxury leaves many people intimidated by it. But marula oil is incredibly versatile and can be used by everyone, regardless of hair type.

Today, Nubi Hair will take you through seven reasons why you should consider using marula oil for hair. We’ll teach you all the different ways to use it on your beloved tresses, what benefits you can get out of it, and why it’s a must in anyone’s daily hair care routine.

What is Marula Oil?

Marula oil is extracted from the kernels and husk of the marula fruit from a tree native to southern Africa. Back in the day, the marula tree symbolized happiness and fertility in a home, and was even used as medicine to treat numerous ailments.

In modern times, the once rare marula trees are now cultivated to produce more marula oil, a trendy new ingredient in the cosmetics world. But why are people dying to use marula oil for hair and skin?

The answer lies in marula oil’s composition, which is rich in vitamins and proteins that are insanely beneficial for both the hair and skin.

First, marula oil has a high amount of fatty acids. Around 70-78% of marula oil is made of oleic acid, an emollient fatty acid that helps soften and condition the hair and skin when applied topically.

And second, studies have found that there is a lot of antioxidant activity in marula root extracts. Marula oil is a great source of vitamins C and E, which are natural antioxidants. Antioxidants like these help protect the appearance of the hair and skin from free radical damage from pollution and the sun.

But what are the actual benefits you get out of these antioxidants and vitamins? How do they affect your hair? Let’s take a deep dive into the seven reasons why you should be using marula oil for hair.

1. It Works as a Natural Moisturizer

Marula oil is known to be intensely moisturizing, owing to its occlusive properties that can help lock in hydration in your hair. Plus, all those fatty acids we talked about earlier work to soften and feed moisture to your strands, leaving them feeling smooth, bouncy, and touchable.

And the best part is that marula oil is very lightweight. Unlike heavy oils, like coconut or avocado oil, marula oil has a light, thin texture that never leaves your hair looking greasy. You get all the benefits of a moisturizing hair oil without worrying about making your scalp look oily and unkempt.

One of our favorite ways to use marula oil for hair to maximize its moisturizing benefit is by adding it to a hair care product you already have.

For example, when using the Nubi Nourishing & Moisturizing Conditioner, add a few drops of marula oil to it before slathering it into your hair. The oil will boost the hydrating, hair-smoothing properties of the conditioner, which are already quite powerful thanks to the plant proteins and olive oil in its formula.

Focus the application of your conditioner and marula oil mixture on the mid-lengths and ends of your hair. Applying it to your roots would be a huge hair-washing mistake, as it can lead to a greasy scalp. Then, rinse it out with cool water. The result? Hair that looks soft, smooth, and shiny hair…and never feels dry.

You can also use marula oil as a natural leave-in conditioner after a shower. Just rub a few drops of it into your damp hair to increase the feeling of smoothness as you style it later on.

2. It Leaves the Hair Feeling Protected

Heat-styling tools are a godsend for girls who love to style their hair in different textures depending on their mood for the day. But everyone who uses hot tools knows that styling with heat can lead to hair damage, leaving strands feeling rough, brittle, and extremely dehydrated.

Marula oil can help counter this, leaving your hair feeling protected. Use just a couple of drops of it on your hair. Make sure to distribute it evenly with your fingers before you go in with your Blow Me Away Hair Dryer or straighten your locks with the Soft N‘ Straight Ceramic Styler for the day.

That way, instead of frying off your hair, the heat will “burn off” the thin layer of oil instead.

3. It Helps Damaged Hair Feel Stronger

The simplest things can lead to hair damage. Brushing your hair too roughly, exposing your locks to the hot summer sun, and even something as innocent as styling your hair with a blow dryer every day can take a toll on your hair. When your hair is damaged, it’s left feeling dry, straw-like in texture, and super prone to breakage.

Marula oil is a fabulous way to strengthen the feel of your hair when it’s not looking its best. The fatty acids and antioxidants help to moisturize and fortify the feel of your locks, respectively.

You can even use marula oil for hair when you have split ends. Sure, there’s no way to reverse split ends. But marula oil does help improve how they look.

To do so, take a few drops of the oil and rub it into the ends of your hair. This will conceal the appearance of your split ends and make them feel smooth. That way, they won’t snag onto each other and snap off. Plus, moisturizing them will make them less likely to split further!

4. It Adds a Luminous Shine to Your Tresses When Used as a Serum

Got dull, lifeless-looking hair with no shine or luminosity? Marula oil can help bring its appearance back to life! Since it’s lightweight and has a non-greasy texture, it’s the perfect oil to use as a shine-boosting hair serum.

When you’re done styling your hair, use a drop or two of marula oil and distribute it across your tresses. This adds a little bit of extra moisture to your hair while making it look glossy and shiny.

The best part is that since it’s such a thin oil with relatively smaller molecules, you don’t have to worry about making your hair and scalp look oily. You just get that moisture and shine, making your hair look healthier and more full of life again.

5. It Tames Pesky Frizz Once and For All

If you struggle with frizzy locks that make you look unkempt and disheveled, you’ll be happy to know that you can use marula oil for hair problems like those. Thanks to marula oil’s emollient properties, it can smooth down the look of frizz and flyaways, leaving your mane looking polished and neat.

You can even use marula oil for hair detangling. This is particularly helpful before styling your hair for the day. Apply a drop or two of marula oil to your hair to make it easier to glide your brush through. Just remember to brush from the bottom first, working your way upwards to prevent breakage.

6. It Combats Humidity That Threatens to Leave Your Hair Big and Poofy

Ever wonder why your hair gets super frizzy when you go to a beach or any humid city? This happens when your hair is incredibly dry and porous from heat or chemical damage.

The water molecules in the humid air bind to your hair, which sucks them in easily because of all the gaps and holes in your unhealthy, un-moisturized hair cuticles. The result? Hair that “swells up,” leading to super frizzy hair.

One way to stop this from happening on your next beach trip is to use marula oil for hair. It’s one of our most game-changing tips for the summer months! Just apply a thin layer of marula oil all over your hair before hitting the road, and you’ll find that your hair won’t look as frizzy during your travels.

Since marula oil has occlusive properties, it helps seal your hair cuticles, making it almost impossible for humidity to fight its way in and make your hair swell up and look poofy. The fact that you get hair that looks smooth, shiny, and moisturized is just the cherry on top!

7. It Helps Reduce the Visibility of Dandruff for Those with a Dry Scalp

Although we’ve been talking all about the reasons why you should use marula oil for hair, we also want to touch on a huge benefit of this oil for the scalp — reducing the look of dandruff and flaking.

There are many possible causes of dandruff episodes. For some people it’s because of a naturally oily scalp; for others, it’s because of a nasty fungal infection.

But for a handful of people, their recurring dandruff issues come from an extremely dry, dehydrated scalp. This might be from a harsh winter, a bad habit of over-washing your hair with sulfated shampoo, or even just being born with naturally dry skin. The drier your scalp gets, the more flakes it will shed sooner or later.

Because it has strong moisturizing properties that don’t leave the hair greasy, you can use marula oil to condition the feel of your scalp and prevent the appearance of dandruff. Give yourself a marula oil scalp massage once or twice a week, and you’ll likely see a massive improvement.

And don’t worry! Marula oil is non-comedogenic, which means it’s not going to clog the pores on your scalp. So, you can rest easy about breakouts on your head.

Bonus: Marula Oil Can Also Extend the Lifespan of Your Human Hair Extensions!

But hold up! We’re not done yet. Although marula oil works incredibly on natural hair, you can also use this miracle oil to care for your extensions and make them last longer. All you have to do is use it as a hair serum or conditioner for your wigs, hair pieces, and extensions made of human hair.

Because hair extensions aren’t attached to an actual scalp with sebaceous glands, they don’t get moisturized naturally like your real hair. So, you have to go out of your way to condition them. Marula oil, with its incredibly moisturizing fatty acids, may be the perfect thing to use.

At night, take a pump or two of marula oil and apply it carefully to the mid-lengths and ends of your hair. Use a boar bristle brush to distribute the oils throughout the strands and leave it to sit overnight.

The next morning, your extensions will have absorbed all the moisturizing goodness of the marula oil, giving it a boost of shine and softness!

Conclusion

Marula oil may likely be something you’ve never tried before, especially since it’s so rare and not that many hair products are infused with it. But after reading this list, we hope you’ve found extra inspiration to hunt down a bottle of pure, unrefined marula oil to pamper and care for your hair in a more luxurious way.

There are tons of benefits of marula oil for hair. Not only does it moisturize and add shine to your locks, but it even protects them from the visibility of heat damage, and keeps the appearance of frizz and dandruff at bay. Needless to say, marula oil for hair is a rising trend that you don’t want to miss out on.

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