What is shea butter and where does it come from?
Shea butter, or by its botanical name Butyrospermum parkii, is the result of the valued work of Burkinabe women. It is raw in quality and handcrafted, which preserves its richness in active ingredients. Shea butter is extracted from the fruit of the shea tree, a tree that grows only in the wild in the wooded savannas of West Africa. It can reach over 12 meters in height and its trunk can measure 2 meters in width. The fleshy fruit resembles a small avocado. Its sweet, edible pulp contains a nut in its center which, once pressed, yields shea butter. This butter has been widely used for its many virtues for centuries in certain regions of Africa. The harvest is then transported to the manufacturing center where the nuts are washed and dried using an ancient traditional technique, before being crushed. A mill is used to produce a paste which is then pressed and filtered several times. Its deodorization process, through simple sun drying using a traditional and ancestral technique mastered by the village women, uses neither solvents nor steam. Thus naturally rid of its sour odor without any increase in temperature, the shea butter retains all its benefits.
Main constituents
Yellow in color, with a sweet, nutty scent with almond notes, this raw shea butter is very rich in active ingredients (terpene alcohols, phytosterols, latex, vitamins A and E...) which give it antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and UV-protective properties. It also contains monounsaturated fatty acids: 40 to 45% oleic acid (Omega 9), polyunsaturated: 5 to 7% linoleic acid (Omega 6), and 35 to 45% stearic acid, 2% to 5% palmitic acid.
Properties
Shea butter has the particularity of being naturally film-forming. It contains nourishing and protective properties that deeply nourish every curl, from root to tip, by sealing in moisture. Shea butter, rich in essential fatty acids, is able to penetrate the hair fiber deeply. This will make your hair soft and silky. Used as a preventative measure, shea butter will protect the hair and nourish it. It will also limit the appearance of split ends. The scalp can sometimes itch and cause an unpleasant feeling of tightness. To regain a soothed scalp, there is nothing like raw shea butter. The fatty acids contained in its formulation, which are anti-inflammatory, healing, and restorative, soothe the skin, which regains all its softness. A damaged scalp can cause flaking and then dry dandruff. In this case, shea butter is the ideal companion to reduce this discomfort and restore healthy hair!
