Coconut Oil Pros
Can actually moisturize hair
Gives the hair great shine

Coconut Oil Cons
Can solidify in your hair when it's cold
A bit pricey

Coconut oil is one of the few oils that can actually moisturize your hair instead of just sealing it. It's very versatile and gives great shine to the hair. For people with dry scalp issues, it could help tremendously.
The only issue is with coconut oil is that you can really only use it when the weather is warm. When it's below 70 degrees, it can solidify in your hair and there will be white specks all in you hair.

Africa's Best Oil Pros
Inexpensive
Great sealer
Gives the hair a great shine

Africa's Best Oil Cons
Strong smell that some may not like

This oil blend works well as a sealer, and for a hot oil treatment. It cannot moisturize your hair like coconut oil, but it will seal in the moisture you've provided from your leave in conditioner. It provides great shine to your hair, especially if you've applied it before a twist-out or braid-out.


So which should you use? You should use both! You can use coconut oil in the warmer months and use the Africa's Best oil during the rest of the year. Some people also use coconut oil and then apply sealer oils like Africa's Best.

For the purpose of treating a dry scalp and moisturizing the hair, coconut oil wins. For sealing in moisture and for hot oil treatments, Africa's Best wins. But you can get the full benefits by using both in your regimen.

My shea butter before regular use

Price: $5-$15
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Ingredients:
Shea butter

Review:
I regularly use shea butter for my skin and my hair. It provides great moisture and leaves my dense, thick hair looking shiny and healthy.
Shea butter is very thick so a little definitely goes a long way. I put a little in my palm, rub my hands together to let the heat dissolve it, and put it in my hair.
I have had the same two containers of shea butter (one for my hair and one for my face) for an entire year and it's not even halfway done. It's definitely a great value.

Bottom Line:

Great moisturizer for both the hair and skin that will last a long time.

Price: About $15
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Description:
Coconut oil is used in cooking and to moisturize hair. Because the makeup of coconut oil is similar to the scalp's sebum, it can actually moisturize the hair strand instead of just being a sealer. It's also good for those with dry scalp issues.


Ingredients (Whole Food's brand):
Expeller pressed virgin organic coconut oil


Review:
Coconut oil was something I always used in my hair when I first big chopped. My hair loves it and soaks it up. It also adds great shine to my hair.

For my scalp issues it didn't help. At the time I wasn't aware that unlike the average Black person my scalp was actually oily, not dry. Massaging my scalp with coconut oil made my problem worse.

I stopped using coconut oil because when the temperature would drop below 70 degrees, it would solidify in my hair. You could see little white specks all over and it wasn't very flattering.

If you want to use coconut oil, you might want to change it up in the cooler seasons.

Also, it is a bit pricey so as a precaution I don't recommend using it directly from the jar. Get a little plastic jar from the beauty supply store and pour some oil in that for use in your hair. If your hair or scalp doesn't do well with coconut oil, you'll still have a sterile jar that you can use for cooking. I also take a tablespoon of coconut oil daily to get good fats in my diet.

Bottom Line:

Versatile oil that's great for dry hair and dry scalp. Not so great for use in cooler weather since it solidifies in your hair.

Price: $5-$10
My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Description:
Cantu shea butter leave in conditioning repair cream is an intensive deep penetrating leave in cream conditioning treatment that is made with pure shea butter and other natural oils to stop and mend breakage, repair split ends, and add manageability and shine with every application. When used daily, cantu shea butter leave in conditioning repair cream helps promote strong, long healthy hair.

Ingredients:
Water, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Glycine Soja Oil (Soybean), Propylene Glycol, Polyquaternium 37, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, PPG 1 Trideceth 6, Cetyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Stearalkonium Chloride, Trimethylsilylamodimethicone, Panthenol, PPG 1-PPG-9 Lauryl Glycol Ether, Lanolin Oil, Cinnamidopropyl Trimonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Acrylamidopropyltrimonium Chloride/Acrylamide Copolymer, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Benzophenone 3, BHA, BHT, Zea Mays Oil (Corn), Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, DMDM Hydantoin, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance

Review:
This product only worked on certain parts of my hair.
It did moisturize most of my hair well and made it feel soft. However, it made the looser hair at my crown feel stiff and there was also a lot of flaking when it dried.

If you have multiple textures in your hair, then you may have the same results as me. Hair that's in the Type 4 range responded well, but the hair at my crown is 3B and did not respond well.
The other reviews for this product are very good, but it's clear from the bad ones that looser naturals may not find this product to be beneficial.

Bottom Line:

Works great for Type 4 hair but not so much for other hair types.