Hair loss home remedies: the normal and the not-so-normal

Losing your hair can be frustrating, especially if you’ve always had thick, enviable locks. The sad truth is, all of us will experience hair loss as we age, with some people losing the thickness of their hair as early as in their teens. Understandably, the market for hair loss products is more competitive than ever these days, and it’s not unusual to spend a fortune on a product that promises to work miracles but actually makes no difference whatsoever to your hair. For that reason, we’ve searched out the best- and most unusual- home remedies for preventing hair loss, so that you can save a bit of money and try a natural alternative. Here’s what we found:

Eat your protein

This isn’t so much of a home remedy as a daily essential. A poor-protein diet may result in limp or weak hair that breaks and splits easily. Hair strands are made up of a strong protein called keratin, and it’s important that this protein is maintained through diet in order for hair to stay healthy and not fall out. Good sources of protein include eggs, chicken, fish, and nuts. You don’t have to eat meat at all to get your protein intake; if you’re a vegetarian, you can still consume the daily required amount of protein in brown rice, beans, lentils, soya, tofu, grains and Quorn.

Use oil masks

Oil masks, such as argon oil or coconut oil, contain vitamins and essential fatty acids that nourish the scalp and help to remove sebum build-up from hair, keeping it healthy and less likely to split. An oil mask will require massaging into the scalp on application, which will stimulate hair growth by increasing blood flow to the hair follicles. You can make your own coconut oil hair mask by warming a palm-sized amount of the oil and gently massaging it into your hair. Leave for thirty minutes and repeat once or twice a week.

Eat Indian gooseberries

Never heard of them? Nope, us neither. But Indian gooseberries- grape-sized fruits with a sour taste- are apparently a superfood for hair. This is because the oil in Indian gooseberries has anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory properties which strengthen your hair follicles thereby facilitating hair growth and strengthening of the hair. If you don’t fancy eating the berries, you can grind them to a paste and apply it to your hair as a mask, leaving it for twenty minutes before washing off with a mild shampoo.

Fenugreek seeds

Fenugreek seeds might not be something you happen to have lying around in your cupboard, but chances are, you’ve read somewhere about the wonders they can apparently bestow on your hair. Fenugreek seeds contain hormone antecedents that enhance hair growth and help rebuild hair follicles. They also contain substances that stimulate hair growth. If you want to give these a chance, unfortunate the process is a little less simple- you have to take two tablespoons of fenugreek seeds grind them as powder, adding a tablespoon of coconut oil or olive oil to it. Then mix the both ingredients well and apply this paste on the hair loss and hair damaged area. From all of our research, fenugreek seeds were the most highly-acclaimed hair-loss home remedies, so if you’re serious about growing your hair, it might be worth giving them a try.