Sunday, March 5, 2017

A comprehensive list of the awesomeness that is coconut oil

I know I'm not the first person to discover how great coconut oil is, but really, WOW, it is awesome.  Here's a list of all the things I use it for:

  • Cooking - especially baking, waffles, and sweeter meals (such as this sausage with grapes dish that I like, or pork chops with apples, that kinda thing)
  • Acne - I have adult acne pretty badly.  Last summer, I wouldn't have been surprised if everyone I met thought I was 15 years old because it was raging so badly.  But if I slather some coconut oil onto my clean face about an hour before bed, then gently blot it off right before I hit the pillow, my acne is much less red, angry, and swollen throughout the next day.
    • 2020 update: DO NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, put coconut oil on your face. Coconut oil is highly comedogenic, which means it clogs your pores. Which means that back in 2017, I was making my acne worse by slathering coconut oil all over it. My acne was honestly always red, swollen, and angry back then. I think I was imagining things when I thought coconut oil was helping me. At least I smelled good though?
  • Chafing - my thighs rub together when I walk.  Sometimes I forget to rub deodorant between them, and sometimes I sweat the deodorant away but have to keep walking.  Which of course leads to chafing.  Coconut oil on my chafed thighs soothes it wonderfully and I'm pretty sure it helped it to heal faster.
  • Shaving/waxing wounds - A few months ago, I cut myself while shaving my armpits.  Since I couldn't wear deodorant over the open wound for a few days, I chafed badly which also kinda made the wound worse.  Coconut oil served to sooth the chafing, prevent it from getting worse, AND help heal the wound.
    • More recently, I've started waxing my armpits. Coconut oil is great for soothing my pits immediately after waxing, and after a few days when my baby hairs grow back and get kinda sensitive.
    • I also dab a little bit onto my eyebrows after I tweeze them.  The swelling goes down quickly and it helps prevent ingrown hairs! 
    • I imagine it would be a really good way to prevent razor burn, too.  I haven't ever used it after shaving unless I cut myself, so I'm not positive.  But probably!
  •  Nails&cuticles - my cuticles barely dried out this winter.  Also, I had damaged nails from too many peel-off base coats in a row; a few days of naked nails in the winter with lots of coconut oil and the damage seemed to disappear.  I highly recommend it for after scrubbing off a glitter polish!
  • Burns - so, I haven't used it immediately after burning myself, so I don't know if it soothes the initial pain.  But the day after my most recent burn experience, when I had tender blisters that didn't ache constantly, coconut oil was wonderful for keeping the skin moisturized and happy.
  • Hair - I use it as a hair mask BEFORE showering every now and then.  It's WAY too oily for me to use it after a shower the way I use argon oil, which I learned via trial and error.  As in, "let's try it!  Ohh, that was a mistake, now I need half a can of dry shampoo because I don't have time to wash it right now."
Seriously, coconut oil is a miracle serum.  If they ever decide that it causes cancer, I'm probably going to be diagnosed at like 30 because I consume and absorb so much on a regular basis!

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