Are scalp massages also good when you don't suffer from hair fall?

[Loveletters]

Hello! I've been massaging my scalp for a few weeks now. I want to make my hair thicker, but I currently don't suffer from hair loss. Most articles about scalp massages are about balding men, which in both ways does not apply to me. My hair is not necessarily thin, neither is it extremely thick. Would the massages be beneficial for me at all? Or could it lead to problems on the long term? Thanks in advance~

[MusicalSpoons]

Your hair might already be growing at its optimum. Also, we have a fixed number of hair follicles on our scalps and nothing will create more. As far as I understand, most 'remedies' are about prolonging the growth (anagen) phase of the hairs so they stay in longer and thus you may have more on your head at once ... I think? Some people also try scalp massages to increase the blood flow to the follicles to make them produce hair faster - I have no idea whether that can potentially work or not, but for people with poor circulation it's probably worth a try.

Regardless, scalp massages aren't going to do you any harm :) If you use oil and you find it causes extra shedding, just do it without oil. I actually find that the manipulation itself seems to make more hairs fall out at once but then it seems to all average out over a wash cycle anyway :shrug:

[Haven]

I saw a small study on the effects of daily scalp massage on Japanese men without hair loss recently. They massaged one randomly selected half of the head on each man and used the other half as the control. The results showed the massaged hair thinner after 12 weeks (possibly from increased hairfall after manipulation), but thicker after 24 weeks. It seems that the massage actually caused changes in gene expression in the hair follicles.

It was a small study and I don't know if this translates to actually visible results, but it seems promising :)