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

Helichrysum, or immortelle, is the honeyed, hay-like herb of the Mediterranean coast and one of the most expensive essential oils in the library, used in a hair blend for its scent at a few tenths of a percent.

Role	Essential oil, fresh herbal family
On the label	Helichrysum Italicum Flower Oil
In our blends	Not in a signature blend yet
Builder limit	Up to 1% of a hair blend (all essential oils together: 1%)

What it is

Steam-distilled from the small yellow flowers of Helichrysum italicum, the oil is rich in neryl acetate with italidiones and gamma-curcumene, a profile unlike any other herb oil. The flowers yield very little, so the price per gram is high. It is pale yellow, thin and volatile, with a sweet, honeyed, slightly curry-like scent. We describe the scent and leave the folklore out.

How it feels on hair

At up to 1% it gives a warm, honey-and-hay scent that reads as expensive. The blend's weight and finish are unchanged.

Who reaches for it

People who want an unusual, warm, herbal scent on a lengths oil, and anyone who already knows the smell from skincare. It is not in a signature blend yet.

Where it sits in our blends

No signature blend uses helichrysum yet, which makes it one for the builder: start from a blend that is close and swap it in, or build from scratch. Every blend is weighed to the gram and the recipe is printed on the label.

How to compose with it

Essential oils share at most 1% of a hair blend; the builder allows helichrysum up to 1%. It pairs with lavender, clary sage or frankincense over argan or camellia with baobab and marula.

Compose with helichrysum 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.