TRADITIONS / HAIR OILING
Hair oiling has been passed through families for generations. Now it’s all over beauty TikTok. So what does the tradition actually do for your hair—and which claims are getting a little ahead of the science?
If your first introduction to hair oiling was a perfectly lit bottle of rosemary oil on TikTok, the internet may have left out a few chapters.
For generations, oiling has been part of hair care in South Asian and African communities. Coconut oil, amla, castor oil and other oils have been massaged into scalps, worked through lengths and used before washing long before anyone called it hair slugging.
And unlike a lot of beauty trends that disappear six months after we collectively buy the product, this one has some staying power.
So, where did hair oiling come from?
There isn’t one single hair-oiling tradition.
Different families, regions and cultures have used different oils and techniques, which is part of why describing the practice as one universal ritual gets messy pretty quickly.
But the passing-down part is very real.
A 2026 survey of 1,200 people across southern India found that family tradition was the biggest influence on hair-oiling habits, cited by 80 percent of participants. Coconut oil was by far the most commonly used oil, at 78 percent.
Researchers from the University of Dundee have specifically pointed out the strange full-circle moment happening with hair oiling: a practice that once carried negative associations in the West is now being repackaged into lightweight formulas, luxury bottles and social-media trends.
Same general ritual. Much better branding department.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone who uses hair oil today is participating in exactly the same cultural practice.
Sometimes you are carrying on something your grandmother taught you.
Sometimes you bought coconut oil because your ends felt terrible.
Sometimes TikTok got you.
All three can be true.
Okay, but does putting oil on your hair actually help?
It can.
Just not because all oils perform the same job.
Oil can coat the hair, reduce friction and make strands feel smoother and easier to manage. That alone can be useful for curly hair, where tangling and mechanical damage can make length retention difficult.
But one oil in particular has much stronger research behind it: coconut oil.
In a study comparing coconut, sunflower and mineral oils, coconut oil was the only one that significantly reduced protein loss from both damaged and undamaged hair when used before or after washing.
Researchers attributed that, in part, to coconut oil’s structure and its ability to penetrate the hair shaft.
It can penetrate the hair fibre.
Coconut oil has an affinity for hair proteins that allows it to move further into the strand than some other oils.
It can help reduce protein loss.
That may help limit some of the damage hair experiences through washing and grooming.
It can work well as a pre-wash.
You don’t necessarily need to walk around with an oily scalp for three days to get the benefit.
Does hair oiling make your hair grow faster?
This is where beauty marketing tends to sprint past the evidence.
An oil can make your hair feel softer. It can reduce damage. It may help you retain more length because less hair is breaking off.
Those are all worthwhile benefits.
But they are not automatically evidence that the oil is making your follicles produce hair faster.
Healthier hair and faster hair growth are not the same claim.
The University of Dundee review reached a similar conclusion: although hair oils are marketed for everything from breakage to hair loss, the evidence is much stronger for certain oils and specific benefits than it is for the giant list of claims attached to them online.
Coconut oil, for example? Pretty interesting for protecting the hair fibre.
A universal hair-growth cure?
We’re not there.
What about rosemary oil?
Rosemary oil deserves a slightly different conversation because there is some clinical research behind it.
One randomized trial involving people with androgenetic alopecia compared rosemary oil with 2 percent minoxidil over six months. Hair counts increased in both groups by the six-month mark.
That is interesting—but it is also one relatively small study involving people with a specific hair-loss condition.
So rosemary oil has more evidence behind it than many viral DIY “growth” remedies, but “promising” and “proven to make everyone’s hair grow faster” are two very different sentences.
Should you oil your scalp?
Only if your scalp actually likes it.
This is the part that can get lost when a traditional practice becomes a universal beauty recommendation.
In that same 2026 survey from India, some participants reported dandruff, itching and other scalp concerns. Because the study was based on self-reported information, it cannot tell us that oiling caused those problems.
It does, however, reinforce a useful point: not every scalp responds the same way.
You can oil your lengths and ends without heavily coating your scalp.
You can use oil as a short pre-wash treatment instead of leaving it on overnight.
And if you have persistent itching, inflammation, heavy flaking or another scalp problem, treat the scalp problem rather than assuming more oil will fix it.
And no, TikTok didn’t invent it
This may actually be the most interesting part of the hair-oiling comeback.
Beauty trends have a funny way of making old practices feel newly discovered.
A ritual gets separated from its cultural context. The packaging gets sleeker. The terminology changes. Suddenly something families have been doing for decades—or centuries—is introduced as the latest trick for shiny hair.
That doesn’t mean hair oiling has to stay frozen in the past.
Traditions evolve. People borrow techniques. Products get better. Someone can discover hair oiling tomorrow and genuinely love what it does for their curls.
We can just tell the whole story while we’re at it.
The bottom line
If oil makes your hair softer, easier to detangle or less prone to breakage, there is no reason to abandon it because the internet occasionally exaggerates.
Coconut oil has some particularly good evidence for protecting the hair fibre. Rosemary oil has early research behind it for a specific type of hair loss. Other oils may be useful primarily because they lubricate, soften or seal the surface of the hair.
And sometimes the reason you oil your hair has nothing to do with a clinical study.
Maybe it’s simply what your family has always done.
The science can tell us what an oil does. It doesn’t have to erase the story of how it got into our hands.