Olive oil for skin and hair: the oldest beauty ritual in the Mediterranean

Can you really put olive oil on your skin and hair? Yes. And it is not a fad: it is probably the oldest beauty ritual in the Mediterranean.

Long before creams and conditioners, there was a flask of oil in the bathroom. In ancient Greece, athletes rubbed their bodies with olive oil before exercise, then scraped it off with a strigil to clean themselves. Oil was also the base of the first soaps. It cleansed, it protected against wind and salt, it made hair shine.

Our article on the benefits of olive oil touches on this in a few lines. Here are the details.

Hair: the pre-shampoo mask

This is the simplest and most effective use. Apply the oil to dry hair, before washing, never after.

How much, and where

• One tablespoon for short hair. Two for long hair.
• On the lengths and ends. Not on the roots, unless your scalp feels tight.
• Fine hair: less than a tablespoon, on the ends only.

How long

Fifteen to thirty minutes is enough. Beyond an hour, there is nothing to be gained. While it works, you can wrap your hair in a warm towel.

Rinsing, the step everyone gets wrong

Rinse with lukewarm water, then shampoo. Twice if necessary. Poorly rinsed oil leaves hair heavy, and that is the only reason some people say "it doesn't work". Once a week for dry hair, once every two weeks if your hair gets greasy quickly.

Skin: start with the dry areas

There is no need to cover your whole body. Olive oil is most useful where the skin feels tight.

• Elbows, knees, heels, hands. A few drops in the evening, on clean skin.
• Nails and cuticles. One drop massaged into the base of the nail. A thirty-second habit.
• Make-up removal. A little oil on your fingertips, massage it in, then remove with a cotton pad or a damp flannel. It dissolves make-up very well, including eye make-up.
• After sun. On skin that has been cooled and dried, it brings comfort and suppleness.

An honest caveat: on the face, olive oil is rich. If your skin is prone to clogged pores, choose a lighter oil for your face and keep olive oil for your body. And always test on a small area first.

Why quality matters even more than in the kitchen

In cooking, a mediocre oil shows in the taste. On the skin, you do not notice it, and yet you leave it on.

An extra virgin olive oil is obtained solely by mechanical means, without solvents. A refined oil, by contrast, loses most of its aromatic compounds and polyphenols during refining. For cosmetic use, three things matter.

• Extra virgin, and nothing else. It is the only category obtained solely by mechanical means.
• Fresh. An old oil oxidises and takes on a rancid smell, which you want neither on your hair nor on your skin.
• Clean. What you apply stays on your skin. We have every cuvée analysed after each harvest, pesticide residues included, and we publish the reports. For the 2026 harvest, the screening detected no residues.

Our oils are hand-picked and cold-extracted the same day. That is what preserves both the flavour and the substance. Our cuvées are waiting for you here.

What olive oil does not do

Let us be clear. It is a traditional ingredient, not a treatment. It does not replace prescribed care and does not resolve a skin or scalp problem. If something worries you, talk to a healthcare professional.

What it does, it has been doing for three thousand years: it softens, it protects against dryness, it adds shine. That is already a great deal for a bottle you already have in your kitchen.

In short

• Hair: one to two tablespoons, lengths and ends, fifteen to thirty minutes before shampooing, thorough rinsing.
• Skin: dry areas, cuticles, make-up removal, after-sun comfort.
• Oily-prone face: give it a miss, or test on a small area first.
• Always a fresh extra virgin oil whose origin you know.

For the kitchen as for the bathroom, discover the estate oils of Oikos Antalis among our bottles.

This information is general in nature and does not replace medical advice.