Sandalwood oil for hair: what it is, what it does, how we blend it

Sandalwood oil is the soft, creamy wood that lasts longest on the hair: Wash Day carries it at half a percent beside sweet orange, and it is the most expensive wood oil in the library.

Role	Essential oil, warm woody family
On the label	Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil
In our blends	Wash Day 0.5%
Builder limit	Up to 1% of a hair blend (all essential oils together: 1%)

What it is

Steam-distilled from the heartwood of Santalum album, the oil is about 70% or more alpha- and beta-santalol, heavy sesquiterpene alcohols that evaporate very slowly. That is why its scent sits on the hair for a day while a citrus oil is gone in an hour. It is pale yellow and slightly viscous. Real Indian sandalwood is scarce and plantation-grown; the price reflects it.

How it feels on hair

At 0.5 to 1% it gives a soft, milky, woody scent with no sharp edge, and it lasts. The blend's weight and finish are unchanged.

Who reaches for it

Coily and curly hair blends with a rich base, where the scent has oil to hold onto (Wash Day, 0.5%), and anyone who wants a quiet, warm oil for lengths.

Where it sits in our blends

Wash Day carries sandalwood at 0.5% (with Olive 52.3%, Virgin Coconut 26.2%, Jamaican Black Castor 8.4%, and more). The blends with a product page can be bought as they are; every one of them can be opened in the builder and changed oil by oil.

How to compose with it

Essential oils share at most 1% of a hair blend; the builder allows sandalwood up to 1%. Pair it with sweet orange, frankincense or rose over olive, argan or sweet almond with baobab and avocado.

Compose with sandalwood Find your formula

Weighed to the gram and blended to order in New Jersey, with the recipe printed on the label. For external use only; patch test before first use. Every oil, with its INCI name, is in the oil library.