If you’re looking at trying mango butter for your natural hair, you’ve probably already tried shea butter and coconut oil. Most oils and butters have benefits for natural hair, but sometimes your hair prefers a specific ingredient over another. And this is where the experimenting comes in.
It’s fun to choose and try different creams and butters on your hair, but it can be a strain on your budget when the product doesn’t work as well as you’d hoped. It’s always risky and daring to try something new.
Doing a substantial amount of research before you buy a hair product is a good idea, and it can help you decide before you spend a lot of money on something that may not perform well in your hair.
In this post, I’ll discuss the benefits of mango butter to help you decide whether you should purchase it for your natural mane.
What is Mango Butter?
Mango butter sounds delicious, and you might expect it to smell like glorious mangos, but it has minimal scent. Mango butter is extracted from the kernel of the mango fruit.
It has high levels of antioxidants and vitamins, and it is ideal for protecting against harmful sun rays.
High levels of saturated and monosaturated fatty acids make it useful for hair. The emollience of the butter is helpful for natural hair because it seals and protects the strand.
Mango butter helps the scalp regenerate skin and can be very healing for anyone suffering from a condition like dandruff, eczema, or psoriasis. It reduces the degeneration of skin cells and restores elasticity, creating the ideal environment for hair to grow.
How to Make Mango Butter
is made from the large seed of the mango. If you have access to a mango tree, you can try to make a homemade mango butter by blending the seeds. However, extracting the fat is not an easy process.
On the other hand, mango butter can be purchased rather easily online and added to store-bought products and DIY recipes. Wondering where to buy mango butter? The best mango butter is raw, unrefined, and cold-pressed.
Mango butter melts at 86-98.6, making it easy to blend with other ingredients. The consistency is thick and creamy, yet it is almost as soft as oil. A little goes a long way, so you’ll find it very economical.
Naptural85 has an excellent whipped mango butter recipe on YouTube that you can make in your kitchen. You can use it for moisture, and defining your twists and braid-outs.
The recipe has no coconut oil or shea butter, which is helpful if you’re experimenting or are allergic to both. It contains several ingredients, but you can always omit some for simplicity’s sake. Here is the recipe:
Mango Butter Hair Cream
Ingredients:
- 52 g Raw Mango Butter
- 14 g Cocoa Butter Wafers
- 15 g Cupuacu Butter
- 12 g Kokum Butter
- 15 g Castor Oil
- 15 g Avocado Oil
- 14 g Jojoba Oil
- 6 g Sweet Almond Oil
- 4 g Olive Oil
- 3 g Vitamin E
- 1 g Argan Oil
- .5 g Rosehip Oil
- 27 g Aloe Vera Gel
Instructions:
- Melt the four butters in a small ceramic bowl by placing the container over a bowl of hot water. It may take up to an hour to melt the butters. Let it cool.
- Add all other ingredients EXCEPT the aloe vera gel to the mixture, then place it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour to solidify.
- Scoop the butter-oil mixture from the small bowl and put it into a large bowl.
- Add the aloe vera gel to the mixture.
- Use a hand mixer to blend until the mixture reaches a fluffy consistency.
Here is Naptural85’s helpful video of the Mango Butter Hair Cream Recipe:
Mango Butter Vs. Shea Butter
You’ll find that mango and shea are very similar, but are still different. It’s nice to try both and see which one you like better, but here is a breakdown of their similarities and differences:
The Similarities:
- Both Add Shine. You can rely on both butters to add shine. However, shea butter has a higher melting temperature, which means it may not work to make hair shinier in cold climates. In fact, it may even act as a white film over the strand if it is too cold. Mango butter has a lower melting point than shea, making it easier to melt in colder weather.
- Both Coat the Strand. Mango and shea butters are excellent for their protective qualities. They seal in hydration and work to protect strands from harmful UV rays and wind.
- Both Have an Excellent Profile of Fatty Acids. Both butters contain the same exact fatty acids, in different proportions. They each have stearic, oleic, palmitic, linoleic, and arachidic acids, making the butters very emollient and ideal for conditioning natural
The Differences:
- Mango butter tends to be lighter and creamier than shea. The butters contain the same fatty acids, but mango has much more oleic acid and less stearic.
- The two butters have a buttery smell, but the scents are not similar. Some naturals expect mango to smell sweet, but it doesn’t because it’s taken from the seed and not the fruit.
- Melting Point. Mango has a lower melting point because of its quantity of oleic acid. The lower melting point makes it easy to melt in your hands. Shea is harder, so it may be less convenient, especially if you live in a colder climate.
It’s helpful to compare oils and butters to get an idea of which one you should buy. Here are four more butters and oils you might be curious about, and how they compare to mango butter:
- Mango Butter Vs. Coconut Oil. Coconut oil is used by many women for its conditioning properties, but it doesn’t work for everybody. Some say it clogs pores and causes acne. Others complain that coconut oil leads to brittle and stiff hair. However, coconut is more economical and easier to find than mango butter because it is commonly used in the kitchen. Coconut penetrates the hair shaft and smells better than mango butter. However, mango butter is a useful alternative when coconut oil doesn’t work as planned.
- Mango Butter Kokum Butter. Kokum repairs and strengthens the hair follicle, resulting in healthier hair. It also has anti-aging properties, thanks to its ability to restore hair elasticity, and reduce cell degeneration. It is much harder, dryer, and flakier than mango butter, but works well when blended with other ingredients.
- Mango Butter Avocado Butter. Avocado butter is heavy but easy to work with. It is high in monounsaturated fats, antioxidants, and vitamin E. Avocado’s molecules are small, and you’ll find that it may penetrate the hair shaft better than mango butter.
- Mango Butter Cocoa Butter. Cocoa Butter is known for its moisturizing properties. It is high in vitamin E, so it is healing and makes the hair more flexible. The biggest difference in these two butters is the scent. Cocoa butter has an amazing warm chocolate scent, making it an excellent addition to any hair cream. Mango butter doesn’t have much of a pleasing smell, but you can blend the two to create an irresistible aroma.
Mango butter benefits the hair by working to nourish the strand and heal the scalp. Try using organic mango butter in your deep conditioner to nourish and protect the hair.
All butters have benefits for naturals, but each person’s hair reacts differently to them. You might find that you love the effect of mango on your hair for its softness and ease of use, or you may find that you prefer shea or one of the other butters.
Mango butter’s pricing is comparable to shea butter, and it is a worthwhile alternative if you find that your hair needs something different. You may also enjoy a combination of both butters for maximum benefit. It’s always interesting to experiment with oils and butters to see which one your natural hair loves the most.
What about you? Have you tried mango butter for your natural hair, and if so, what were the results?
Hey Curl Friend, I’m Patrina Haupt the creator and author of Natural Hair Queen. I hope you find my healthy hair care tips helpful in your hair journey. Healthy hair care practices are definitely, what helped me to achieve waist length hair.
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Hello.
I happen to click on your link on Google trying to find products for medium porosity hair. It will be a year since ive been natural. So far its maintaining but my hair dries pretty quickly. May you guide me with some tips?
No problem Jasmine! I just launched my hair care made easy Ebook which gives you a weekly step by step hair care regimen to follow check it out here: https://naturalhairqueen.shop/products/natural-hair-care-made-easy-ebook