Reclaiming the Ancestral Practice of Hair Oiling as South Asians
Words by Kiran Nyotta
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Reclaiming the Ancestral Practice of Hair Oiling as South Asians
Beauty influencers of all origins are raving about hair oil as their secret to lush, thick hair and accelerated hair growth. As South Asian practices of yoga and mindfulness expand their horizons West, don’t forget that hashtag #hairoiling already has 35.7 million views. The mainstream appeal and trendiness has caused an explosion of content and products from luxury beauty brands coming out with products to young women posting their onion oil recipe and scalp massage how-tos. Without a doubt, hair oil is having a moment, hair oil is on trend, famous on tik tok and the beauty must have.
Yet this is quite an ironic change of fate for hair oil. For South Asian women, the hair oil saga began eons ago. In the last few decades, it hasn’t been exactly accepted to oil your hair as a modern Desi woman because of racist connotations.