FATTY ALCOHOL
Oleyl Alcohol
- fatty alcohol
A liquid fatty alcohol that adds slip and helps other oils spread.
- products in our library
- 24
- of researched products
- 0.6%
- on the label, in our conditioners
- usually #14
- most common in
- Conditioner
- in water
- Oil-soluble
At a glance
Four named levels, read from this ingredient’s chemical class, its charge, its solubility, or where it sits on the labels we have. More dots means more of the property named — never “better”.
How much of it is left on hair between washes.
What it takes to get it off the hair again.
Where the class sits between an ester and a butter.
How much it slows water leaving the strand.
| Property | Level | Out of |
|---|---|---|
| Buildup risk | Needs a cleanser | 4 of 5 |
| Rinse-out behaviour | Rinses with a cleanser | 2 of 5 |
| Weight | Medium | 3 of 5 |
| Sealing | Moderate | 3 of 5 |
What it does for a formula
What Oleyl Alcohol does
The general function first, then how the role changes by product type where we have researched it.
Nothing like a drying alcohol: a waxy solid that softens and thickens.
Smooths the feel of the strand without adding hold or cleaning.
It takes a surfactant to remove — worth knowing on a low-detergent routine.
Hair neither pulls it in nor pushes it away.
Charge
Carries no charge, so it neither clings to hair nor is pushed away by it. Nonionic ingredients are the mild, pH-tolerant workhorses of a formula.
Solubility
Needs a surfactant to remove. On a low-detergent routine it can build up over time.
Where it appears
Where it appears
One row per product category in our library: how many products list it, what share of that category that is, and where it typically sits on the label.
| Product type | How common | Typical position on label ? |
|---|---|---|
Conditioner
7 products
|
secondary · #14 | |
Leave-in
5 products
|
secondary · #14 | |
Mask / treatment
3 products
|
supporting · #8 | |
Heat protectant
2 products
|
secondary · #16 | |
Finisher: anti frizz finish
1 product
|
secondary · #16 | |
Finisher: serum
1 product
|
secondary · #14 | |
Finisher: shine spray
1 product
|
leading · #3 | |
Scalp treatment
1 product
|
secondary · #15 | |
Shampoo
1 product
|
secondary · #16 | |
Styler: paste
1 product
|
supporting · #4 |
1 more product type
| Product type | How common | Typical position on label ? |
|---|---|---|
Styler: smoothing cream
1 product
|
supporting · #5 |
| Product type | Products | Share of category | Median position | Earliest position | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conditioner | 7 | 1% | 14 | 10 | secondary |
| Leave-in | 5 | 1% | 14 | 7 | secondary |
| Mask / treatment | 3 | 1% | 8 | 7 | supporting |
| Heat protectant | 2 | 1% | 16 | 14 | secondary |
| Finisher: anti frizz finish | 1 | 4% | 16 | 16 | secondary |
| Finisher: serum | 1 | 1% | 14 | 14 | secondary |
| Finisher: shine spray | 1 | 2% | 3 | 3 | leading |
| Scalp treatment | 1 | 1% | 15 | 15 | secondary |
| Shampoo | 1 | 0% | 16 | 16 | secondary |
| Styler: paste | 1 | 1% | 4 | 4 | supporting |
| Styler: smoothing cream | 1 | 2% | 5 | 5 | supporting |
No product-type differences have been researched yet — the reading below is computed from where it sits on the labels in our library.
Position footprint
Every listing in our library, by position on the label.
| Positions | Zone | Listings |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 | Leading | 2 |
| 4-8 | Supporting | 5 |
| 9-15 | Secondary | 11 |
| 16-25 | Lower | 12 |
| 26+ | Trace | 1 |
How to read this
US labelling rules put ingredients above 1% in descending order of amount; below 1% they may be listed in any order.
So position tells you about relative amount only above that line, and we never convert a position into a percentage.
Who should pay attention
Conditional formulation guidance, scoped to a hair condition and to the positions where it is meaningful. It is not a conclusion about any finished product, and not a conclusion about you.
The waxy solid that gives a conditioner its body. It deposits a soft lubricating layer, which is most of what makes hair feel smooth after rinsing.
Deposits with the cationic conditioners and helps them lie flat along the strand, which is where the detangling actually comes from.
Near the top of a conditioner it is doing most of the conditioning, and most of the weighting, at the same time.
Read where it is listed in the first three ingredients or positions 4–8.Read from this ingredient’s chemical class. Where we have researched the ingredient itself, that reading replaces the class one.
Why it matters to shoppers
What this ingredient is evidence of, what it is not evidence of, and what our own method can and cannot tell you.
- a rich cream texture
- a softer feel
- something that lasts through the day
- moisture that stays on coarse or porous hair
- an exact safety score — we do not publish one, for any ingredient
- how a finished product performs by itself — that is the whole formula, not one line of it
- the exact percentage in a bottle — label position never converts into a number
- a secondary fatty alcohol, listed below the main ingredients in our conditioners
- it was on the label of every product we counted — we read printed ingredient lists, not marketing copy
- dryness — it is a waxy solid, not a drying alcohol
- that a product is right or wrong for you
We do not publish safety scores or hazard grades. Where a regulator has published a restriction or a use condition, we state it and cite it; otherwise we describe what the ingredient does and stop.
Commonly paired with
Ingredients that appear alongside this one most often in our library. Near-universal ingredients are excluded — they pair with everything and tell you nothing.
- Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine · 17
- Cetyl Alcohol · 17
- Hydroxyethylcellulose · 16
- Stearyl Alcohol · 16
- Polysorbate 60 · 14
- Glyceryl Stearate · 14
- Benzyl Alcohol · 13
- EDTA · 11
- Peg-2m · 9
- Quaternium-18 · 9
The number beside a name is how many products in our library list both.
These ingredients tend to appear together to improve feel after rinsing, soften the strand, and give the formula body and hold.
Found in these products
The most prominent placements first. The badge is the position on that product’s own ingredient list.
Coco & Eve · Finisher
Frizz Fix & Pro Shine Mist
#3 on the label · $5.92/oz
Curl Keeper · Heat protectant
Heat Shield Curl Protector
#3 on the label · $2.67/oz
Sexy Hair · Styler
Healthy Sexy Hair Styling Paste
#4 on the label · $8.78/oz
Bumble and bumble · Styler
Brilliantine Styling Cream
#5 on the label · $16.50/oz
Color Wow · Mask / treatment
Dreaming Advanced Repair and Resurfacing Treatment
#7 on the label · $6.00/oz
Living Proof · Leave-in
Restore Repair Leave-In
#7 on the label · $8.50/oz
Miss Jessie's · Mask / treatment
Super Sweetback Treatment - Hair Softening Treatment
#8 on the label · $1.75/oz
Curl Keeper · Leave-in
Moisture Boost - Leave In Conditioner
#10 on the label · $2.67/oz
Wella Professionals · Conditioner
Invigo Color Brilliance Conditioner Coarse
#10 on the label · $1.70/oz
Nioxin · Conditioner
Nioxin System 4 Scalp Therapy Conditioner
#11 on the label · $2.57/oz
Nioxin · Conditioner
Scalp Relief Conditioner
#12 on the label · $1.86/oz
Old Spice · Leave-in
Wavy Curly Leave-In Conditioner with Aloe & Avocado Oil
#13 on the label · $0.70/oz
Identity
What this entry is, and what our references call it.
Oleyl Alcohol
- CAS 143-28-2
- PubChem 5284499
- emollient
- oleyl alcohol
For your hair?
Whether Oleyl Alcohol matters for your hair depends on your hair.
24 products in our library list itWhat this ingredient does, and where it sits on the labels we have researched.
A verdict on any product that contains it, and never a safety grade.
We do not physically test your hair. Everything above is read from the ingredient lists in our library and from published references — the consultation is what turns it into a plan.
References
Sourced Backed by a manufacturer or regulatory source.
This ingredient
- Manufacturer or regulatory PubChem — Compound identity: CID 5284499, CAS 143-28-2, C18H36O · accessed 2026-08-28
How this page was made
- Every number above is counted from the ingredient lists in our own product library — 24 of 3889 researched products list this ingredient. Nothing on this page is written per ingredient.
- The dots are named levels read from an ingredient’s chemical class, charge, solubility, or where it sits on the labels we have — never a score.
- US labelling rules put ingredients above 1% in descending order of amount; below 1% they may be listed in any order. Position tells you about relative amount only above that line, and we never convert a position into a percentage.
- The prominence bands (leading, supporting, secondary) are the same ones the product pages use to read a single label, applied here to the median position across a category.
- We do not publish safety scores or hazard grades. Where a regulator has published a restriction or a use condition, we state it and cite it; otherwise we describe what the ingredient does and stop.
- Identifiers and references appear only when a published source is attached to this entry; where none is, the row is simply absent rather than filled in.
- This is cosmetic information, not medical advice, and nothing here diagnoses or treats a health condition.
- Entry last updated 2026-08-28. Product-page methodology: the product library.