If you love snacking on sweet, ripe fruit, you’ll agree when I say mangoes are God’s gift to the world. But their deliciousness is not the only thing I love about them. They’re also the source of one of my favorite natural butters to apply on my hard-to-please, low porosity hair.
Yes, I’m talking about mango butter – the lightweight, the ultra-smooth little sister of the ever-popular shea butter.
It may not be as prevalent in the hair world as the latter, but using mango butter for low porosity hair is immensely beneficial.
In this post, I’ll look at how you can incorporate this natural butter into your own hair care routine.
Table of Contents
What Is Mango Butter?
Natural mango butter comes from the big seeds of (you guessed it!) mango fruits.
They’re extracted from these kernels under high points of pressure to suck out all the oil from this scrumptious fruit.
Sadly, it doesn’t have that yummy mango scent.
Sorry to disappoint!
It has an off-white color and smooth consistency, somewhere between coconut oil at room temperature and shea butter that’s difficult to melt.
It’s easy to work with and glides like a breeze across the hair and skin.
This makes for an excellent organic moisturizer from head to toe.
Contains Vitamins And Fatty Acids
Mango butter is rich in hair-loving vitamins.
It has vitamins A and E that strengthen your strands and protect them from heat and UV damage, as well as premature aging.
It’s also rich in vitamin C, an antioxidant that fights free radical damage that can negatively affect your hair’s overall health.
This cult-fave vitamin also boosts collagen production in your scalp, supporting hair growth and elasticity of your skin and tresses.
Mango butter also has a high amount of fatty acids that moisturize the hair deeply.
They help seal hydration in your hair, locking them in to keep it sleek, smooth, and bouncy for longer.
Its moisturizing power also prevents dry scalp, which leads to dandruff and inflammation.
That said, mango butter is relatively lightweight compared to what you’d expect from an emollient butter, so it never leaves your strands feeling greasy and oily.
But more on that later!
What Are The Hair Benefits Of Mango Butter?
From moisturizing to protecting your hair from environmental stressors, mango butter brings many surprising hair benefits to the table.
It’s in a league of its own in the superfood category, almost as high up as the classic coconut oil and shea butter.
Here are some of its key hair benefits you’ll enjoy:
Moisturization
First, let’s state the obvious.
Mango butter is insanely good for moisturizing your hair deeply.
Because of its high count of fatty acids, it works to penetrate your hair and quench its thirst.
It’s perfect for those with dehydrated hair or super-thick tresses that need extra moisture every day.
Needless to say, it’s a must in cold, dry weather when your hair is begging for nourishment.
This butter can also be used to lock in all the hydrating goodness from your other hair care products, the same way you’d end your routine with a finishing serum or oil.
It smoothens your hair cuticles for a sleek, snatched finish to your look.
Strengthens Follicles And Hair Strands
Mango butter does a fantastic job at strengthening your follicles and hair strands.
This is because it’s packed with so many vitamins and antioxidants.
So if your hair is susceptible to heat damage or the occasional highlights job, you’ll love mango butter.
Regularly rubbing a generous amount of it into your hair strengthens it in the long run, which means less breakage and fewer split ends.
The mango butter conditions your strands to boost elasticity, lessening the chances of your hair fibers breaking off at the first sign of tension or environmental stress.
Soothes The Scalp
Mango butter is also excellent at pampering your scalp.
It moisturizes your scalp to ensure it isn’t overly dry to the point that it overcompensates by producing excess sebum, which is a cause of dandruff.
By using mango butter religiously, you can prevent and even reduce existing dandruff.
Good For Hair Color
This butter also prolongs the lifespan of your hair color.
When you moisturize with it, it creates a protective barrier around your strands, preserving and even boosting the vividness of your color.
It also adds more shine to your hair, making your color pop out even more.
Protection Against UV Rays
Lastly, mango butter protects your hair from sun damage.
It’s rich in an antioxidant called mangiferin, which helps fight against the damaging effects of UV rays.
You can use it as a natural heat protectant – one that has no chemicals and unnecessary ingredients that can build up in your locks over time.
When you apply it into your hair as a moisturizer and step outdoors, mango butter acts as a protective barrier for your hair, kind of like sunscreen for your hair.
Mango Butter For Low Porosity Hair: Is It Good?
If you have low porosity hair like me, you’ll know that it takes a good amount of effort to moisturize it.
Low porosity hair means that your hair cuticles overlap and pack on top of each other, creating little to no space for hydration and moisture to enter your hair shaft.
That leaves your hair dehydrated most of the time.
You, therefore, have to take extra measures to ensure your hair gets the nourishment it needs to stay strong and healthy.
When caring for low porosity hair, you have to look for the best hydrators, conditioners, leave-ins, and oils.
However, don’t use anything that’s too heavy or has large molecules, or else they’ll just sit on top of your hair’s surface and weigh down your locks.
That’s where mango butter comes in.
Penetrates The Strands
Low porosity hair needs moisturizers that can penetrate the hair even when the cuticles are shut tight.
Luckily, mango butter is super concentrated and can enter the hair cuticle with no problem.
It doesn’t just sit on your hair strand – it actually penetrates it to moisturize it from the inside out.
It’s Lightweight, Not Greasy
Mango butter is the perfect natural butter to use on low porosity hair because it’s lightweight and never greasy, but it still provides high moisture levels for your dehydrated hair.
It absorbs into your hair fast, so you’ll have no problems with insane oiliness on your scalp and tresses.
It’s not as heavy as shea butter, which tends to be waxy and produce build-up.
This is why it’s not usually recommended for low porosity hair and is typically reserved for those with thick, coarse curls.
Instead, mango butter is lighter, softer, and easier to melt, causing no problems for low porosity hair that is sensitive to heavy oils and butters.
You can even detangle with this soft and light butter without that gross, greasy feeling afterward.
In a nutshell, mango butter isn’t heavy at all, so it’s fairly easy to incorporate it into your low porosity hair’s moisturizing routine.
How To Incorporate Mango Butter Into Your Moisturizing Routine
Just because mango butter is generally compatible with low porosity hair, it doesn’t mean you can just slather it on mindlessly.
You need to be strategic with how you incorporate it into your routine so you can get the most out of its sealing, moisturizing benefits.
The LCO Method Of Moisturization
The best way to include it into your hair care routine is when you do your LCO method – the trifecta of using a leave-in, and then a cream, and then an oil to lock everything in.
It’s recommended for low porosity hair, while those with more porous strands use oil before diving in with a cream.
Now, when doing your LCO method with mango butter, you want to make sure that your hair is completely soaked or at least damp from a water-based leave-in before rubbing that moisturizing, emollient goodness in.
That means that mango butter will serve as your cream – the second step.
Using mango butter as a hydrating cream allows you to lock in all the hydration from your leave-in while moisturizing your hair, especially your ends.
Because of its concentration of fatty acids, it helps reverse dryness, leaving you with smooth, sleek, hydrated hair.
Lastly, you want to finish off your LCO routine with your favorite hair oil.
This will help lock in the moisture from both your leave-in and the mango butter.
The oil makes sure that moisture doesn’t escape out of your strands and leave you with parched locks again.
Low porosity hair needs lightweight sealants, so go for something that won’t be overly greasy.
Argan, sweet almond, jojoba, and grapeseed oils are among my favorites.
Your fine, delicate, low porosity will likely love them too for their lightness.
Conclusion
Just because you have low porosity hair, it doesn’t mean you have to fling yourself as far as possible from moisturizing butters.
All you need is mango butter, and you’re set to enjoy deep and intense moisture without weighing down your hair.
It also doesn’t create build-up on your delicate strands.
Besides moisturization, using mango butter for low porosity hair has many other benefits such as soothing the scalp and strengthening the follicles.
So next time you’re on the hunt for a natural hair product to hydrate your hair, seal in moisture, or even battle it out against persistent dandruff, turn to mango butter.
Your low porosity hair will love how it quenches its thirst and restores its health without being heavy and overbearing.
