Here's How to Blend Your Own Hair Growth Stimulating Therapeutic Formula

Essential oils are fast becoming recognized as important natural therapeutic ingredients to personal care products. Extracts of many plants, including Rosemary and Sage (now popular hair care essential oils) have long been used to stimulate hair growth, and promote truly healthy and beautiful hair. Here's a look at creating a personal formula specifically for stimulating hair growth for both men and women. The recipes are easy to make at home, with readily available ingredients.

So What Essential Oils Have The Greatest Potential To Stimulate Hair Growth?

Many essential oils have found a place in today's ultra-high end skin and hair products, often listed as "botanical extracts". The active essential oils will generally fall into one of these categories: Stimulating, which enhance the "throughput" of the follicles — increasing their metabolic rate, and thus hair growth. Then there's Nutrient Providing: several essential oils have a deep reddish or orange color, indicating a high concentration of growth promoting vitamins and vitamin-like compounds. Finally, the all-important Balancing oils create the optimum environment for the healthiest skin, follicles and hair, potentially moving out-of-balance conditions (over-oily, over-dry, or even hormone-deficient) to healthier states.

Revving Up Those Follicles

We'll begin by looking at the "stimulating" essential oils. These essential oils are used in skin and hair care to stimulate cellular metabolism (increasing the oxygen and nutrients used by the cell) or stimulate the growth of new cells. The most popular of these are Rosemary and Sage. Sage MAY be the more powerful of the two oils, but it should not be used by children, or by women who are pregnant — or may becoming so. Rosemary is the most popular, and if you do choose Rosemary, be sure you find the type that's specific to skin and hair care: it's called "Rosemary Verbenone" — and while a little more expensive than the common Rosemary, it'll be far more effective for this purpose. Use either or both of these two essential oils at a concentration of no greater than 1% in your base (we'll talk about calculating this figure at the end).

The Deep Colored Nutritive Oils: Carrot and Sea Buckthorn

The nutritive oils include Sea Buckthorn and Carrot Root essential oils. These are both available as carrier oils as well, and you may choose to use them as a portion of your base, rather than as an "active ingredient". Up to you. Both these oils have high levels of vitamins that can promote healthy hair growth. Sea Buckthorn may be the mos popular and easy to find. Use at a 1/2% to 2% concentration. These oils are safe to use for everyone.

Getting The Scalp Back In Balance for Maximum Hair Growth

Many folks have certain skin conditions which can exacerbate hair loss. Sometimes it's inflammation or irritation due to a mild infection. Sometimes it's an over-production of skin oils that can clog pores and result in thinning hair. Older women may be in need of balancing estrogen on a cellular level. So choose one or more of these "balancing" oils to round out your formula: Lavender is the best all-around balancing oil where no particular skin condition is apparent. Sometimes called "medicine chest in a bottle", it can really bring an overall synergy to your recipe. For over-oily skin types, Myrtle is an excellent choice. Often used in acne formulas, it is thought to return the scalp's oil production back to normal. Finally, Clary Sage is THE choice for mature women with thinning hair, as it may reduce the effects of changes in estrogen levels that have affected hair growth.

Delivering the Oils to Your Scalp: The Carrier Oils

Once you're essential oils are selected, you can create your own oil treatment formula by adding them to one or more carrier oils. The most popular carrier oils for hair care are: Jojoba, primarily used for moisturizing and giving hair a wonderful luster. Virgin coconut, while needing to be gently melted first to blend with other carriers, is fast becoming one of the most highly-praised therapeutic carrier oils. It is thought to have a very positive effect on hair loss all by itself, and like jojoba, will also result in wonderful hair texture. Evening Primrose is a very important carrier, offering essential fatty acids that we may easily be deficient in. This is best used by mature women, and also where the scalp is generally irritated. Hemp may also be used here. Finally, another very therapeutic carrier oil is Rosehip seed. It, like the nutritive essential oils, has vitamin-like compounds in it that have been shown in studies to promote youthful skin development. While it has not been as extensively researched for hair growth, there's no reason to think it shouldn't have as profound an effect on the scalp and follicles.

Getting Down To Business: Mixing Your Hair Growth Elixir!

Often folks are a little intimidated by blending. Really, it's no big deal — far easier than baking virtually anything in your kitchen (and if you're a raw food fan, it's about THAT easy!). First, determine your base mixture. Equal parts of the carrier oils you choose is a fine way to go. If you're using virgin Coconut, Rosehip Seed and Evening Primrose, just use equal parts of each. Making one-ounce of oil treatment? Just estimate filling a 1oz dropper bottle about 1/3rd full with each oil. Then add the essential oils. Each 1 percent essential oil is equal to 8 drops per ounce of total mixture. Using 1 percent Rosemary? Add 8 drops to your blend. Two percent Sea Buckthorn? Use 16 drops. Making 4 ounces instead of 1? Multiply all these numbers times four! Still unsure? Here's some clear recipes…

Great Recipes to Get You Started

These are well-rounded, potent recipes that are easily made — both of these are for two ounces of final blend. For women, use a base of 1/4 Evening Primrose, 1/4 Rosehip Seed, and 1/2 Jojoba. To this, add 16 drops Rosemary Verbenone, 8 drops Sage, 32 drops Lavender and 16 drops Clary Sage. For men, use a base of 1/3rd Coconut, Rosehip Seed and Hemp oils. To this, add 16 drops Sage, 16 drops Rosemary, 32 drops Carrot Root, and 16 drops Lavender essential oils.

Now you can lightly swirl or invert your mixture until you feel it's blended. Don't shake it if you can avoid it, as it's not such a good idea to introduce air into your oils too much (it can shorten the shelf life — which, by the way, should be about six months if kept in a cool, dark spot). The most effective oil treatment program is to first shampoo your hair, or at least moisten your scalp with warm water. This opens the pores and increases absorption of the oils. Then using an eye-dropper, distribute 1 to 2 droppers-full around your scalp and massage the oil in. Wrapping your head in a warm moist towel for the next 20 minutes to an hour can maximize absorption, and/or you can sleep with it on your scalp. And there you have it! A simple, effective means of supporting hair growth with the therapeutic potentials of essential oils.

The author has made available much information about aromatherapy, such as using balsam fir needle and other quality essential oils.