It’s one of those frustrating facts of life that some people’s hair will grow much more quickly. Some people can grow long hair or a big beard within no time at all, while others might take years to cultivate such locks. And, of course, some of us are cursed with hair that stops growing altogether! Whatever your problem, we would imagine that you don’t want to resort to the use of a wig or other hairpiece. So, if you don’t want that, you might want to try some of the methods described below. According to Nisim.com, there are the five proven ways that you can promote healthy hair growth.
1. Try Certain Herbal Oils
This might sound unlikely to some people, but certain herbal oils have been found to promote hair growth. These can be applied externally or internally, and are nearly always safe. There are many herbs that have traditionally been used to treat Alopecia (the technical term for baldness). Here is a list of those whose effects have been tested by science. They include:
- Aloe Vera
- Bathua
- Wild Oats
- Brahmi
- Pigeon Pea
- Carrot
- Akhrot
- Lettuce
- Alfalfa
- Wrack
- Amia
- Pumpkin (especially Pumpkin seed oil)
- Badam
2. Gentle Scalp Massage
Diets and herbal medicines are both good ways to increase the health of your hair, but there is an even simpler method: Regular scalp massage. You can do it yourself or have someone else do the massaging (doesn’t really matter). Of course, it should be a gentle massage, as a more vigorous massage can actually cause hairs to be pulled loose. It is tempting to think that these effects are the result of the power of suggestion (i.e., it works because people think it does), but there is some proven science behind this idea.
According to this study, you can actually increase the thickness and fullness of your hair with regular massage. It might be that the stimulation of moving the skin also stimulates the follicles to grow. The test subjects were given 4-minute massages every day for 24 weeks. Although some of these men showed no improvement, a number of them did come away with measurably thicker hair.
3. Don’t Go On Restrictive Diets
If you are one of those people who is constantly dieting, that might have something to do with your thinning hair. You see, the body uses certain nutrients (particularly keratin and other proteins) to grow new hairs and to “feed” the existing ones. All living parts of the body must receive nutrients in order to continue functioning, and the hair follicles are no different.
Science does not yet entirely understand all the different nutrients that can affect hair growth. As such, any nutrient deficiency will inhibit your ability to grow hair. That’s just one good reason to avoid restrictive diets (sometimes called “starvation diets” because you eat next to nothing). On this same subject, you need to make sure that you get plenty of protein (about 50g per day). These are the nutrients that seem most important to the health of your hair, and keratin is only one of them.
4. Drink A Little More Caffeine
We hesitate to give this advice because too much caffeine is not good for you. Like any stimulant, it can produce neurotic behavior and is slightly addictive. However, even if it does have some problems, it seems that caffeine does help to promote good hair growth.
We should mention that we only found one study to confirm this, but others will probably seek to confirm or refute these findings in the future. The production of testosterone can suppress the ability of the hair follicles to grow, but it seems that caffeine counteracts this suppression. Thus, the caffeine method would probably be more effective for men than for women.
5. Try To Reduce Your Stress
As a final step, you should examine the stress in your life and where it comes from. Try to identify and deal with the root problems rather than just getting angry or flustered. Just remember that raw, uncontrolled emotion doesn’t solve much of anything. The good news is that stress-related hair loss can often be reversed.
Conclusion
Although there is no guarantee that any of the above methods will work, all of them have been shown to be effective. Many of these steps are things that you ought to do anyway, of course (particularly number five). If you do a little more research, you will find that there are plenty of other ways, but most of them won’t be as well-proven as these. Whether you are experiencing a problem with thinning hair or trying to ward off total baldness, we wish you the best of luck.
