subject: some herbs for hair loss [print this page] Losing your hair at any age is a devastating occurrence. If we could prevent it, we would, and many of us would choose to do it with herbs, especially if you find yourself reading this blog right now.
And fortunately, there are a lot of things we can do to help prevent hair loss at any age, many of them being easily accessible without a prescription or oodles of cash. There are a lot of herbs that can help with hair loss, but mostly it's actually vitamins that help with this psychologically tough fact of life.
One are of herbal medicine that puts a lot of attention on hair loss and even graying of hair is Chinese herbal medicine. A lot of common westernized herbal medicine is actually based on Chinese medicine, since they were sort of the pioneers of it's modern descendant naturopathy here in the US.
One of the most common herbs used in Chinese medicine for hair loss is He Shou Wu. This herb has been around for thousands of years, and is regarded as one of the premier herbs to both guard against and minimize hair loss as it occurs. It is also supposed to have some benefit for thinning, the medical condition of alopecia, which is a certain pattern of hair loss, and graying hair as a person gets older, which happens naturally to all of us unfortunately.
Typically several tablets of He Shou Wu are taken per day. The principles of Chinese medicine may seem slightly crackpot to those of us that believe in modern western medicine, since a lot of their theories are based on to much "heat" in the body, and cooling and heating where needed, depending on where the deficiency is.
A lot of their theories are also based on your blood flow and something called "Qi" which is your life force of life energy, and how it's flow and the flow of blood are interrelated, and how restrictions on this can affect certain parts of the body. So, they have a theory for why hair grays and why hair falls out as well, since the head is all affected by restricted blood flow to this area.
Similar to these types of theories are the traditional Indian medicine of Chakras, or life force energy areas of the body that can be manipulated to help you in different ways. But don't laugh, there are many Chinese and Indian herbs that can help you with hair loss, it's just that there are also a lot of Americanized traditional herbs that can help you as well.
Another topical herb that is used in herbal medicine to promote hair growth is burdock root. Much like birch oil, it helps to promote healthy hair follicles by stimulating the scalp. It feels good too as you shampoo it on your head.
Other herbs that can help with hair loss and thinning are things you could actually eat, and often do as seasonings to make your food more savory. One is rosemary. This is often recommended as a simmered liquid reduction to put on the head as a sort of salve for the scalp to soothe and heal it, making it a more conducive environment to new hair growth. Apple cider vinegar is another that is often recommended, in a concoction with other herbs, to be applied to the head to help stimulate new hair growth.
