Did you think that a coconut oil champi was all you needed for growing luscious locks? While you might not be completely wrong, there is an essential oil that you ought to know which not only nourishes hair, but also pampers dry, lifeless and itchy skin, reducing scars, fine lines and dark spots.
Do you want to know which magical oil it is?
Rich in vitamins, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids, it is popularly known as Rosehip Oil. How is this oil beneficial to your skin and hair you ask?
Take a look:
Why Is Rosehip Oil Good For Skin & Hair?
Rosehip oil is a non-greasy oil which comes from the seeds of a specific variety of rose – Rosa rubiginosa or Rosa moschata. It gets absorbed into your scalp and general skin in such a fascinating way, that you will continue to feel moisturized for a long time.
It is the fatty acids in rosehip oil like the linoleic acid or omega-6 and omega-3 (which make 77% of the oil), that help in repairing and renewing damaged hair follicles, skin and scalp tissue. This helps it give you healthy hair and glowing skin, so you never lose an opportunity to flaunt your beauty!
Does rosehip oil have vitamins in it? Yes, in fact the next section gives you a closer look at the connection between rosehip oil and vitamins.
Is Rosehip Oil High In Vitamin c?
Rosehip oil is extremely rich in vitamin C – which is the reason why rosehip oil is a great choice because it stimulates collagen production, penetrates deep into the skin, restores skin elasticity and boosts the immune system of your body. Rosehip oil contains other vitamins, too. For instance, there is vitamin D, E, and B-carotene (did you know it is a form of vitamin A?). All these vitamins are antioxidants that majorly help in fighting free radicals.
[Also Read: Jojoba Oil for Acne ]
15 Proven Uses Of Rose Hip Oil:
Heard of thirst quenchers? Rosehip oil is based on the similar philosophy, except that it cures extremely dry to sun damaged skin – thereby reduces the appearance of scars, burns, wrinkles and stretch marks and restores youthful skin. Rosehip oil has so much to do, but does it in such a way, that you sit back and enjoy the results.
1. Rosehip Oil For Acne:
You know how irksome acne can get. Dry and dehydrated skin leaves behind scars more easily, and healing happens at a slow pace. The good thing about rosehip oil is that the essential fatty acids found in it have a good contribution to make – they help reduce the acne scars through skin regeneration. And you know what? Vitamin A also pitches in by helping improve skin tone and texture.
If you are down with oily skin and have acne, you can still use rosehip oil, as that will create a protective barrier against skin dehydration. Keep drinking plenty of water in order to minimize dehydration of the skin which can fuel acne. But, if you have acne prone skin, please do not give up on your prescription medicine, not when you have not consulted your doctor. Rosehip oil should never be used on active acne.
How To Use Rosehip Oil For Acne:
- First of all, wash off your face. Then blot off some of the water from your face (actually, little bit of water is needed on the face so that the skin absorbs the rosehip oil in a better way)
- Now put a few drops of rosehip oil on your hand
- Apply it on your face and massage it lightly till it gets soaked into your skin
- If there are any oil remnants left, rub them into your skin or rub the remainder of it into your nails or your hair, whichever you like
- Alternatively, you can also add rosehip oil to a carrier oil to turn it into a beautiful facial cleanser
Tip: Mix 50% of rosehip oil with the same percentage of jojoba oil (meaning 50%) and there you are, with a lovely facial cleanser which you now need to massage into your skin. Your skin will be surely better and well hydrated, what you always wanted in the first place.
[Also Read: Proven Benefits of Olive Oil]
If you were to go deeper into the subject, rosehip oil has the following medicinal elements – oleic, palmitic, linoleic and gamma linolenic acid (GLA). Plus it has polyunsaturated fatty acids (vitamin F), which incidentally is also known as essential fatty acid (EFA). When it gets absorbed through the skin, these fatty acids get converted to prostaglandins (PGE), which are active players in cellular membrane and tissue regeneration.
3. Age Spots On Face:
We all know how UV rays of the skin are our enemy. They can damage the skin causing age spots and face discoloration. The antioxidants in rosehip oil fight the free radicals that are responsible for causing sun damage.
4. Works As A Moisturizer:
Rosehip oil reduces loss of water from the skin. It quickly penetrates into the skin and acts as a good moisturizer for normal and dry skin, which work both ways. Just take a few drops of rosehip oil on your palm, and gently massage it on your dry and exposed areas of the skin, during day time and before you go off to sleep.
You can use rosehip oil to even out skin tone, soften dry and cracked heels and so much more. Love or worship, you decide.
5. Sunburn Treatment:
Wanna speed up the healing of sunburns? Apply the master of oils – rosehip oil on the sunburnt area. It will not only give you a soothing and healing effect, it will also reduce inflammation.
6. Reduce Burn Marks:
Irrespective of age and work area, most of us suffer from burn marks. The skin can get seriously damaged. Unfortunately, there are no rapid fire solutions that will make the scars disappear completely.
Hola! There is rosehip oil to lighten scarring, regenerate the skin and help the skin regain its natural colour and tone.
7. Dark Circles:
Under eye circles are a big eye sore, especially on fair skin. And they happen when you haven’t slept properly or are over fatigued. Apply rosehip oil under your eyes and you will see a noticeable change – reduction in skin discoloration. Yippee! When you use a serum having rosehip oil, it helps you hydrate and replenish the skin under your eyes.
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8. Scars Treatment:
It reduces the appearance of scars and injuries so much that you will be happy to find how this miracle happened in the first place! As always, just keep applying few drops of rosehip oil two times a day (or in your free time when you have nothing to do).
9. Stretch Marks:
Stretch marks happen due to many reasons – during puberty, post pregnancy, weight gain. When the elastin and collagen of the skin tear away, these marks form. Since rosehip oil has high levels of linoleic and linolenic fatty acids, not only do you get gorgeous looking skin, you also get the most natural treatment of stretch marks.
In order to do that, you need to use rosehip oil to its full potential, not dilute it. Also, the skin needs to be clean. See to it that you have not applied any creams or lotions on stretch marks prior to applying rosehip oil. Just rub the oil into the skin, and wait. The oil gets absorbed and seeps into the skin quickly.
10. Weight Loss:
Losing belly fat can be quite troublesome. But when you have rosehip oil by your side, you have almost sorted out the problem of obesity.
It works like this: Rosehip oil has 0.1% of tiliroside. This is a major constituent of the rosehip seed, which speeds up fat metabolism. It also inhibits fat accumulation in the body tissues and stimulates fat burning.
11. Rosehip Oil For Hair (Dandruff Treatment):
Right from puberty to the mid age and sometimes beyond the 60s, our biggest ‘foe’ is dandruff. We apply a battery of dandruff fighting shampoos to get results. But fail. How about going the natural way – through rosehip oil?
Apply rosehip oil on your scalp for about 30 minutes and shampoo your hair. You can also mix few drops of the carrier oil coconut oil into rosehip oil. Add 2 tbsp onion juice into this blend, heat it up a little and then apply. Using the same break time of 30 minutes, shampoo your hair. Repeat this procedure few times in a month and watch the results show up.
12. Scalp Treatment:
If you have to shine up your dull hair, use rosehip oil. It has the blessings and support of key vitamins such as vitamin A, C and E and essential fatty acids to get you healthy and bouncy hair. Believe me!
13. Helps For Better Immune System:
Once again it is vitamin C in rosehips which is playing the master stroke when it comes to protecting your immune system. By stimulating the white blood cells, this particular vitamin prevents asthma and boosts the general health of the respiratory system. Respiratory conditions like cold and flu are greatly reduced through the intake of rosehips and vitamin C.
[Also Read: Himalayan Salt Lamp Benefits ]
14. Osteoarthritis:
Collagen and accompanying minerals found in rosehips prevent osteoporosis by keeping your bone mineral density in check right upto your old age. This gives you the passport to lead a strong, flex and active life.
15. Nourish Your Nails:
Just like you nourish your hair and skin, you need to do the same with your nails too. Rosehip oil helps you win this challenge by nourishing brittle nails, making them stronger and healthier in the process. Keep massaging your nails every week before going off to sleep. The only thing you would be doing is paint them blue-red-black-or-polka dots!
Now that you have a fair idea of how rosehip oil helps in beauty and hair tasks, it is time to know how to use it.
How Do I Use Rose Hip Oil?
Here are some tips which will help in guiding you on how to use rosehip oil:
- Rosehip oil is strong and potent enough when it comes to curing skin and hair problems. But given its delicate nature, it can turn rancid. So keep it in the fridge or store it in a cool dark place which can help prevent rancidity.
- Since it is costly oil, go in for cold pressed rosehip which hasn’t been changed by heat and hence retains most of the nutrients (than it otherwise would).
- By its very classification, rosehip oil is “dry” oil. This explains its faster and easier absorption into the dry skin. If you have a dry face, then apply the rosehip oil directly to your face by massaging it slowly and gently for best results.
- When it comes to DIY lotions, rosehip oil is pretty good to use. For instance, Silky Rosehip Face and Body Lotion.
- While you have all the liberty to use rosehip oil on your face twice a day for moisturization, the oil does not guarantee you protection against sun burn. For that, you will have to use a sunblock.
- Yeah, rosehip oil prevents and reduces acne scars, do not make the mistake of applying it directly on the active acne.
- In case you have oily skin, test out the oil on the oily area first, so that it doesn’t end up clogging your skin pores and cause unwanted flare-ups.
- Remember one thing – rosehip oil is best for people with normal to dry skin, since it’s a dry oil which quickly gets absorbed into the skin, without leaving any specks of oiliness on the skin.
Way to go, rosehip oil. But it has a couple of minor side effects which you should be aware of.
Rosehip Oil Side Effects:
You see, most of the unwanted side effects happen owing to the vitamin C present in the oil. This can lead to some amount of complications if you have not attended to your skin at the appropriate time. Here are some possible side effects of rosehip oil.
- Upon application on skin, rosehip oil may lead to skin allergy and irritations.
- Swallowing or absorbing rosehip oil can lead to problems of the gastro intestine. For instance, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.
- Ingesting of rosehip oil can also up the estrogen levels in the body, and may cause drug interactions with contraceptives.
- Vitamin C can aggravate the symptoms of sickle cell anemia by making the blood more acidic in nature.
- For diabetics, rosehip oil could be a problem too. It can cause sugar spikes which in the long run could be detrimental to diabetics.
Now that you know everything you need to know about rosehip oil, I hope you will consider switching to it any time soon. Let me know how you found the goodness of rosehip oil. Fresh inputs, welcome!
Images Source: pinterest
