I love discovering one simple, natural, affordable solution for multiple needs! Did you know that one jar of coconut oil can replace multiple bottles of lotion, shampoo, conditioner, diaper cream, moisturizer, shaving cream, and more? Here are 5 ways coconut oil has helped my family:
1. Lotion – We’re plagued with dry skin at our house. Lotions either don’t work, are a temporary fix, or we have an allergic reaction to them. My poor daughter’s skin refused to be hydrated until we started using coconut oil as a “lotion.” This works best post-bath. Hydrate that skin with coconut oil, put on some pjs, and wake up with smooth, soft skin.
2. Hair Conditioner/Detangler/Frizz Buster – My daughter has beautiful, soft hair with a hint of a wave and some curls underneath. Unfortunately, it is also heavily impacted by humidity and prone to fly a-ways. A friend recently recommended limiting the number of times we wash her hair to 2x per week and adding coconut oil (mixed with a small amount of olive oil) before bed. While this is a messy process, it’s well worth it! The coconut oil eliminates frizz and fly a-ways and encourages her natural wave.
3. Lice Treatment and Repellent – When lice hit our home for the first time recently, we were completely overwhelmed. Treating those nasty bugs required chemically-laden shampoos and comb out sprays, plus 2 weeks (!) of combing for nits. While a combination of apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, and tea tree oil did not eliminate the lice completely for us, it provided an excellent, natural comb out solution.
When those scary notes come home from school or daycare warning about lice exposure, you can also use a combo of coconut oil and tea tree oil as a preventative measure. Lice love clean hair and seem adverse to the smell of coconut and tea tree oil. Plus, it’s a great natural hair conditioner and detangler for your little one.
4. Diaper Cream – Commercial diaper creams are hit and miss for us, plus many of them create an unwanted film on cloth diapers that makes them repel. Coconut oil is great for hydrating the skin and helping to eliminate redness. It’s all natural and safe for regular use on baby’s delicate skin. I find that it works best when you first see redness and is less effective when a rash escalates.
5. Natural Facial Moisturizer and Shaving Cream – I asked my Facebook followers about their favorite natural skin care solutions and people overwhelmingly responded with coconut oil. It can be applied to your face and body in the shower as a natural moisturizer and even double as a shaving cream before rinsing. Changing to coconut oil has really helped my sensitive skin stay moisturized naturally, without worrying about reacting to chemicals and dyes.
This is just a few of the many uses for coconut oil. What do you replace with coconut oil in your daily life?
Very interesting! I knew some, but not all. I love looking into household items to see what other uses they have that I didn’t know about. For example, vinegar has many uses as well! 🙂
I have NEVER used coconut oil. But I really want to try it. I would never have thought that it could be used as a lice repellant. Simply awesome!
I’ve started using it as an eye makeup remover. I just take a little bit of it on a cloth and it moisturizes while removing stubborn makeup!
We use coconut oil all the time here. It really helped clear up my son’s cradle cap.
We have used Coconut Oil for a long time. It is a very versatile product.
I’m going to try it as a moisturizer in the shower! I’ve used it as a lotion but not moisturizer! We already use it as a diaper cream.
I too, LOVE finding simple, natural, solutions to problems. But it’s only a concept I’ve been introduced to recently.
I have very sensitive skin, which is prone to ingrown hairs and dryness. No amount of any commercial lotion seemed to help; it either exacerbated the problem, or needed to be reapplied by the truckload!
Then I read in a book, that shea butter was a good moisturizer. So, I bought a large jar of unrefined shea butter from the internet, and…it worked!
It floored me, that I had been spending so much money on cheap and expensive solutions, multiple times a month, and all I needed, was this one ingredient, natural product!
So, I LOVE hearing about other products that might help. It’s so much more cost effective, and better for your body than all those chemicals used in store bought products.
I will have to keep that coconut oil in mind for lice! Yikes! We have not had that issue yet, and crossing my fingers we never do. But, just in case, it’s good to know that coconut oil can act as a deterrent!
That’s great to know that coconut oil can be used to deter lice! I will have to keep that in mind for the future! Hopefully we never have to use it (fingers crossed), but just in case, it’s good knowledge to have!
I would love to try using coconut oil as a lotion. I’m having trouble affording large amounts of it unfortunately but it sounds like it is well worth it! Thanks for the post!
I have never though of using coconut oil as a diaper rash treatment! I use it in my kitchen all the time. Thanks!
I bought a huge tub of coconut oil at Sam’s Club for use as a moisturizer and diaper rash treatment… Glad to know these other uses so I can actually do something with all this!
I use coconut oil for my hair since it’s so frizzy and I tried using it as a deodorant but think I’ll have to stick to something stronger.