A Pre-Wash Hair Oil Scented With Litsea Cubeba
A pre-wash hair oil is a nice small ritual: a little oil worked through before the shampoo, a fragrant steam in the shower afterwards. Litsea cubeba can lend that ritual a bright lemon-drop scent. How much to use depends less on the recipe than on the number the fragrance industry sets for citral, so that is where we start.
Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil
Our own Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $12.99
Shop Now →Rinse-off or leave-on, the number is the same
The Guidance for the use of IFRA Standards (51st Amendment) sorts hair products into two groups. Category 7A covers rinse-off products applied to the hair with some hand contact, which is where a pre-shampoo oil belongs. Category 7B covers leave-on products, including hair sprays, styling aids, leave-on conditioners and hair perfume. The IFRA Standard: Citral, 2020 (Amendment 49) sets the same limit for both, 0.20% citral in the finished product.
Oil share equals the cap divided by the citral fraction of the oil. Fruit oils from eight Chinese sites measured 78.7% to 87.4% citral (Si et al., 2012), and our Certificate of Analysis lists density, refractive index and optical rotation but not composition, so we plan from the higher figure. 0.20 divided by 0.874 is about 0.23% oil. Our general skin guidance is 0.5% to 2% in a carrier with a patch test first, and for hair and scalp products we would begin below that range, around the figure the arithmetic gives. These limits bind products sold commercially, and for your own bottle they are a sensible guide.
A rinse-off product has less contact time than a leave-on one, so the limit for 7A is not any more generous in this standard. We take that as a good reason to treat the two the same and keep the first batch simple.
The arithmetic
A drop of our oil is about 0.05 ml and 44 mg (the one batch on our COA has a relative density of 0.883, and a milliliter is about 20 drops, though droppers vary). Here is the sum:
| Bottle of carrier | Drops of litsea | Oil share, about |
|---|---|---|
| 30 ml | 1 | 0.17% |
| 60 ml | 2 | 0.17% |
| 100 ml | 4 | 0.2% |
The 100 ml row is 0.2% oil, which at 87% citral works out to about 0.17% citral, inside the 0.20% limit. One drop is a coarse measure, though. If your dropper makes larger drops the 30 ml bottle drifts upward, so weigh when you can: 0.2 g of oil into 100 g of carrier on a scale that reads to 0.01 g.
Making it
- Use a carrier oil you already like on your hair. We do not sell carriers; a cosmetic or soap supplier will have them and can give you a data sheet.
- Pour it into a clean, dry, dark glass bottle and add the drops from the table. Roll the bottle to mix, then label the date and the oil level.
- Keep it water-free. A mix with water or hydrosol needs a preservative system chosen by a cosmetic chemist.
- Patch test the finished blend, not the neat oil, on a small area of skin, using the steps in our skin basics guide, and wait the full time it describes before it goes near your scalp.
- For the first use, start with a small amount on a small section, keep it away from your eyes and face, and shampoo it out thoroughly. Oil does not rinse out with water alone, so the shampoo step is part of the routine.
If your scalp itches, reddens or breaks out, stop, wash it off and see a dermatologist if it persists. The American Academy of Dermatology notes that reactions to hair products can cause an itchy scalp and a rash on other skin the product touches, and that a board-certified dermatologist can help you work out the cause (AAD scalp itch page). Our oil is for external, aroma use only, and our guidance is to keep it away from eyes, children and pets. If you are pregnant, nursing, or making it for a child, ask a physician first.
A scented oil, not a treatment
We offer litsea cubeba as an aroma ingredient. We make no claim about hair or scalp condition, dandruff or flaking, and a scented oil is not a substitute for advice on any of those. The FDA decides whether a product is a cosmetic or a drug by its intended use, shown through labeling, advertising and websites (FDA, cosmetic or drug), and that is a good reason to keep the wording of anything you make for sale to scent and cosmetic purposes.
If lemon-drop scent on the hair is what appeals, our top-note perfume post covers how the aroma behaves and how the limits change by product type, and the face oil post runs the same arithmetic for a smaller bottle. Storage matters too: keep the finished oil cool, dark and closed, as in our storage guide.
Done lightly, a litsea hair oil is a wash-day pleasure: a faint, sunny lemon note that arrives with the first pump and is gone by the time you towel off.
Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil
Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $12.99
Shop Now →Sources & Further Reading
- IFRA Standard: Citral, 2020 (Amendment 49)
- Guidance for the use of IFRA Standards (51st Amendment)
- Chemical composition of essential oils of Litsea cubeba harvested from its distribution areas in China, Molecules 2012
- Is It a Cosmetic, a Drug, or Both? (Or Is It Soap?) | FDA
- 10 reasons your scalp itches and how to get relief | AAD