Why Put Cocoa Butter in Hair Care Products?

What happens to the cocoa butter that is extracted from cacao beans? Some of it goes into chocolate and frankly I think when it does it makes a superior chocolate product compared to fat substitutions. But a lot of cocoa butter is sold at higher prices to manufacturer makeup and personal hygiene products such as shampoo and conditioner. I'm sure you may find some of these products in your house with cocoa butter. Today I want to compare one variety of Garnier Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner that uses cocoa butter to two varieties that do not. Granted these are supposed to tackle different hair issues but I'm going to compare them to each other as well as to my regular shampoos and conditioners. I received samples of these three shampoos from Garnier via the Crowdtap program that I am a member of. No other compensation was received for this review.

My regular shampoos and conditioners go back and forth between Quantum Riveting Reds from Zotos and Suave Professionals Moroccan Infusion Shine Shampoo. The Quantum helps maintain the general color of my hair which is fading in the front but not the bulk while the Suave is a nice break. Over five years I determined these work the best for me but I'm open to trying samples of other things. Here's a starter photo of my hair as I usually wear it with my usual routine. Once a week over the course of three weeks I used one of the three Whole Blends samples I got from Garnier. Here is my hair as normal.

Let's start with the Smoothing Coconut Oil and Cocoa Butter shampoo and conditioner. The shampoo itself is a light tan color while the conditioner is off white; neither smelled like much of anything. The shampoo created a good amount of suds while the conditioner was easy to evenly comb through my hair. Here's a photo of me after using it once. I could only use it once because the other samples I was sent I had to give out to friends.  Here is my hair with the product - -caution the lighting seems to be different or perhaps it was just shiner? I frankly didn't notice much difference in terms of looks or feel.

Next I tried the Hydrating Coconut Water and Vanilla Milk shampoo and conditioner. I did NOT like the scent of this one at all. I didn't think it did much more than regular shampoo. I also felt like this really weighed down my hair and left a film on my skin; I had to wash off a second time. Finally I tried the Repairing Honey Treasures shampoo and conditioner whose scent I liked better. But let's be blunt -- you cannot test if such a product repairs your hair with only one usage? I didn't see any difference between these two so I only took one photo. Do you see any difference between the three hair photos that I shared?

I prefered the Smoothing Coconut Oil and Cocoa Butter over the other two Whole Blends varieties that I was sent to try out.









I also shared some other samples with some friends, one of whom uses Garnier products often.

Yes, the cocoa butter sample did what it claimed it would but what it claimed was easy to judge from just one usage. Was that because of the cocoa butter? I have another shampoo I use regularly that does as well but without cocoa butter. But cosmetic companies pay big buck for cocoa butter and to save money some "chocolate" makers out there substitute other oils for the natural, delicious cocoa butter because this cosmetic use drives up the price. But it isn't just the cosmetic uses of cocoa butter that drive up the price... perhaps I should write an article about that, huh?

Bluntly I'd prefer my cocoa butter as part of chocolate whether it is a drink, a bar, in a baked good, a frozen treat, or candy. But what did you think? Leave a comment and let me know.