Hair Products in the Wild, Wild West

He is the best at trying out products

Beka over at The Owls Approve got me thinking about my hair care routine for Courage the other day. I usually just spray his tail down with water when it looks dirty and put showsheen in about once a week to keep it brushable. He has a nice barbie tail coming in, so I like to play with it and keep it tidy.

The routine works for me, but I'll be the first to admit that it's a pretty minimalist approach. I was willing to try something else out.

Beka was talking about the many benefits of coconut oil. My line of thought was this:
"My MIL gave me some of that.
I don't like cooking with it because it smells like coconuts.
LET'S PUT IT IN HIS HAIR!!!!"


Noted: I am informed that coconut oil can also be used on people. Given that I don't like the smell of coconuts and my idea of a skin care routine is applying sunscreen in the summer, I never really pursued that idea.

This is what I used

So. I carefully re-read Beka's instructions on how to apply coconut oil, because there were no instructions on the jar.

I gave Courage a full bath, including a deep clean of his mane and tail.

I then meticulously worked the coconut oil into his tail, starting at the top and working my way down. I massaged it all the way in to the roots and down through the skirt of his tail.

Before. Note attractive rubs from fly sheet.

I don't love the smell, but I really enjoyed the process.

After. Such a pretty tail.

At the end, I had a beautiful, shiny tail. Courage was pretty well dry by then, so I turned him out on his big grassy pasture.

When I came back to check him the next morning, I was excited to see what the results of letting the oil soak in overnight would be. I had visions of silken hair blowing like a shampoo model...











And it was disgusting. Dry, dusty, filthy. It felt worse than some scrub horse who's lived on the range for the past few years.

Unrelated picture of how cute my horse is lately

Seriously, his tail has never felt that nasty. Ever. My theory is that the oil just doesn't do well in our dry, western environment. I didn't even take an after picture because it was too horrible.

I hauled him back to the wash rack and ran the hose on his tail for several minutes. It looked like chocolate milk running out of his hair. Yuck. So gross. (And I even like chocolate milk.)

I washed his tail again with full strength shampoo and then used one of my favorite cream rinses and then showsheened his tail again.

Also unrelated. Also cute.

It's pretty well back to normal now. My theory is that the desert is just too dusty for the oil treatment to work, even if it sounds like a really good idea online. The showsheen must help keep the dust off a bit, because his tail is so much better now.

I am still interested in mixing up the hair care routine a bit. After all that day dreaming about shampoo commercial hair, it seems like I might as well try something else... Plus there's a sale at the tack store this weekend. Stay posted!