Here at ZedHair we love to promote natural products that are indigenous to Africa, so when we heard about a butter that is sourced within southern Africa and popping up on the ingredients lists of popular American brands like Shea Moisture and Ouidad we knew we had to try it.

The Mafura tree produces fruit with distinctive red seeds

Mafura butter is extracted from the seeds of the Mafura tree (Trichilia emetica) also known as Natal Mahogany or Cape Mahogany which grows in southern African countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Mafura, sounds familiar doesn’t it? Many of us use words uncannily similar to mafura in our local languages to describe oil. That’s because mafura literally means oil. It is a butter that has been used to moisturise our skin and hair long before it was introduced to the rest of the world. It’s a little confusing that mafura means oil but we call it butter. This is because mafura, much like coconut oil and shea butter, melts in hot conditions and retains butter like consistency when it is cooler.

So why is mafura gaining in popularity? Well, it has properties that are highly coveted in the skin and hair care industry. Mafura is a light, easily absorbed, softening and moisturising butter that increases elasticity of both hair and skin. It contains essential fatty acids that are touted for their anti aging properties and it is both anti inflammatory and anti microbial. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? But what does this mean for your hair? We’ve been testing Mafura for over a couple of months now and this is what we discovered. It’s brilliant and we can hardly contain our excitement!

Mafura is easily worked into the hair due to its light consistency so there is no need to whip it to make it lighter. We have a new phrase here at ZedHair, “The Mafura Shine”. Mafura provides the hair with a significant shiny effect without having to apply any additional oils. Hair that is moisturised with mafura butter stays moisturised for a prolonged amount of time. We’ve also noticed that mafura is an all in one styling aid. When it is in butter form it has an almost gel like feel. As well as shine, it also provides incredible hold for curly styles such as twist outs, braid outs or bantu knot outs.

Have we finally found the perfect product? Maybe. We often warn against touting products as miraculous. We believe that hair care is far more about how you treat your hair than what you use to treat it. Mafura butter comes pretty close though. It can be used for sealing, styling and deep conditioning. It is worth noting that shea butter probably still trumps mafura for thicker hair types and a more immediate softening effect.

You can find the mafura tree all over southern Africa

We love mafura butter so much that we couldn’t keep it for ourselves so we’re making it available to all of you. ZedHair Mafura Butter will be available to buy at our next workshop on 1^st November 2014; thereafter it will be sold in stores and online. You can thank us later.