Beef Tallow Benefits for Hair

Free Range Cows
My neighbor's happy cows

What is Beef Tallow?

Beef tallow is basically beef fat, or lard, that is solid and waxy at room temperature but turns into a liquid when heated. It comes from the inside of cow bones.

How to Make Beef Tallow

If you want the most natural source of beef tallow without harsh chemical preservatives that are so often found in skincare products, click here to learn how to make your own. It’s easy! The tallow can also be used to make tamales!

Beef Tallow Benefits for Hair

Natural Frizz Control

If you have ever used beef tallow on your skin, you already know how incredibly moisturizing it is, but did you know that it also works great as a natural frizz control for hair?

I tried this as an experiment recently and was shocked at how effective it was! The tallow smoothed my frizz and added a healthy shine. 

Dry hair
This is how my hair generally looks without some kind of DIY intervention. The mayonnaise hair mask works wonders on my dry hair!
Beef Tallow Benefits For Hair
After applying beef tallow my hair is less frizzy and more shiny! (And my eyes are less crazy...)

Beef Tallow Provides Healthy Nutrients to Your Hair

The biggest beef tallow benefits for hair are due to its vitamin E, sebum, and stearic acid content. 

(Many sites claim beef tallow has a significant amount of other vitamins, but I couldn’t find scientific sources that provided evidence of this! Seen and Green is committed to rounding up only the most reliable information from legitimate sources.)

Let’s look at how the vitamin E, sebum, and stearic acid found in beef tallow will benefit your hair!

Vitamin E

According to The University of Rochester Medical Center, beef tallow contains an abundance of vitamin E, and Healthline says, “A vitamin E-rich oil can help replace that protective layer and bring back shine. Oil in general also helps seal moisture, reduce breakage, and protect the hair from damage.”

There are many beauty products on the shelves that say they contain vitamin E, but there is a good chance it could come from synthetic sources. There are different names for vitamin E that indicate whether it is natural or synthetic, but it always comes down to trust.

The FDA admits that “cosmetic products and ingredients do not need FDA premarket approval, with the exception of color additives.” 

In other words, cosmetic companies could easily get away with lying about the source of vitamin E in their products. They could tell you it is naturally sourced when it is actually synthetic. If they get caught lying, then they may face fines or other consequences, but until then, trusting a cosmetic company with your skin is a gamble. 

The problem with synthetic vitamins is that they are made in a lab with harsh chemicals, and the body has a harder time absorbing them. What’s more, any amount of those chemicals that your skin does manage to absorb could be dangerous to your health when used in the long term!

Given this information, you may want to use beef tallow for vitamin E on dry hair, because you can trust that it is as safe as it is effective. 

The reason I use so many edible things on my hair is because I am confident of the quality of nutrients, I know exactly what is in it, and I know exactly where it came from!

Sebum

Sebum is an oily substance that your body creates that prevents your skin and hair from drying out. Some people naturally produce more sebum than others. 

The benefit of having a scalp that produces a lot of sebum is that your hair is naturally moisturized and doesn’t dry out easily.

On the other hand, if you don’t produce a lot of sebum, you can end up with a dry scalp that has a tendency to itch, and your hair may look dull, dry, and frizzy (like mine.)

Beef tallow contains sebum very similar to the type of sebum that the human body produces. In fact, the word “sebum” is Latin for “tallow.”

That’s why you should use beef tallow for sebum enhancement on dry hair. If you can’t produce it yourself, just rub it on!

Stearic Acid Benefits for Hair

Stearic acid is a saturated fatty acid that provides many benefits for your hair and can be found in a variety of hair care products. 

However, the version of stearic acid that is used in many hair care items found in stores is synthetic. According to a profile of the chemically altered stearic acid found on SpecialChem, stearic acid is considered safe when used in small amounts. Do you see what they did there? “Safe when used in small amounts,” sounds suspicious.

Chemically altered stearic acid is made from beef tallow, so why not go straight to the source? Make your own beef tallow and get the natural form of stearic acid to condition your hair without worrying about potential health hazards. Beef tallow is safe in all amounts and is about 18% stearic acid.

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