The British M Annatto Hair Oil has nearly 200 five-star reviews at Soko Glam and is a Best of K-Beauty Award winner. It’s beloved for its luxurious, non-greasy formula that repairs damage and give strands a silky finish. One Klog writer was curious to find out whether it would be worth the splurge for her curls. Read her review below.
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t until VERY recently that I even realized that K-Beauty also includes hair products. In fact, I discovered this while shopping around on the Soko Glam site but didn’t think I was actually going to find anything for me.
I have naturally curly hair — 3B to be exact. For anyone unaware of curl types, 3B is somewhere in between big loose curls and spiral ringlets. Because my hair is also on the thin/finer side, I look for hair products that are both lightweight and moisturizing. But because, K-beauty doesn’t necessarily cater to customers with curls, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find any formulas that work for me.
After testing a few products – most of which didn’t work for me at all – I was surprised to find one I really like and that actually works with – and not against – my curls: The British M Annatto Hair Oil ($67).
The oil has become a holy grail product in the K-Beauty community but mostly among straight and wavy-haired women. But the formula is made up of a natural oil from the Amazon infused with organic pumpkin seed and argan oil, so the chances of it actually ruining my curl pattern were pretty slim to none. The worst that could happen is that it would leave my hair looking greasy and gross and I’d have to wash it out immediately after.
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Since I don’t normally style my curls with oil, I decided to try the oil as a treatment first. I coated my hair from mid-shaft to ends with a generous amount of oil, put on a plastic shower cap, and left it on for at least 30 minutes before hopping in the shower and washing my hair. I cleansed with my favorite curly hair shampoo that’s sulfate-free but still lathers enough to get heavy products like oil out. Then I followed with my favorite rinse-out conditioner. I detangled while in the shower while the conditioner was still in my hair using a wide-tooth comb and then rinsed it out. Once I got out of the shower I styled with my usual curl cream followed by a light-weight all-natural gel. Once my curls fully air dried they were super soft, defined and also pretty shiny!
I needed to know if there were other ways I could use this oil though, so the next time I washed my hair I applied a little to my mid-section and ends before coating on my curl cream and gel and was surprised that it didn’t leave my hair greasy at all. Again, I didn’t apply a lot – a little goes a long way with this oil – but just enough where it really helped to lock in the moisture from my curl cream.
As someone who is really hesitant and paranoid about trying ANY hair products that aren’t specifically for curly hair, I am shook at how well this worked for me. This oil really does absorb quickly and leaves hair silky soft without the heaviness or greasiness you’d expect from a hair oil. Who would have thought?