Coffee for hair growth?

[battles]

Sorry if this exists, I searched and wasn't able to find anything..

Earlier today I was talking to a friend who had probably close to classic length, he cut it recently. I asked him how he'd managed to grow his hair so long, and he said that he used coffee. He claimed that he was getting a few inches growth per month.That kind of shocked me a little bit, so I wanted to ask about it. Is he just BSing me, or is this possible?

Any thoughts or experience would be lovely. :)

[KellyGormley]

Wow, I'm gonna watch this thread i'm interested to see if this is true or not.

[2peasinapod]

I've always heard that too much caffeine stalls your growth... :coffee:

[silverjen]

Did he drink the coffee or use it on his scalp?

[nazzooyzo]

i assume he rubs it into his scalp. there are quite a few caffeine shampoos around so perhaps it does work...

[bigeyedgirl829]

Oh interesting!

[pixistixx]

caffeine stimulates circulation. I've used coffee grounds mixed with lotion as a temporary cellulite reducer, which actually worked better than expected :)

[battles]

I think he does rub it into his scalp.

Do you think that it could change your hair color? I'm already a brunette, it wouldn't be a big deal to me.. but just in case people with other hair colors would like to try.

[MistyF]

It seems like it would be hard to get coffee grounds rinsed out, especially with really long hair. I would be afraid of staining too. My hair is mostly silvery white. I wonder if it would make it turn brown.

[BLove]

After looking around on the net I learned that it is the caffeine that stimulates the hair growth. It has to be applied to the skin. This can be done with warm tea or coffee and does not have to be the grounds but the tea and coffee can cause the hair to darken if it is light. There is a product out of Germany that is a shampoo and rinse that is called Alpecin that has it all wrapped up in a bottle. It is intended to help stop balding. It looks like it would be cheaper to do a tea rinse but I am a bit afraid that it would make my hair darker.

[TootsieRoll]

Hymmm.... I always thought that coffee was acidic. Like if i drink a couple cups of black coffee I get really bad heartburn. :( I have also heard coffee can weaken the enamel of your teeth. I dont know how that would effect your hair, possibly damaging?
I am for sure too sared to try this, an inch or two of possible new growth doesn't out weigh the risk of frying my hair.
Goodluck to those brave enough to try! I really hope it works

[ChloeDharma]

Hymmm.... I always thought that coffee was acidic. Like if i drink a couple cups of black coffee I get really bad heartburn. :( I have also heard coffee can weaken the enamel of your teeth. I dont know how that would effect your hair, possibly damaging?
I am for sure too sared to try this, an inch or two of possible new growth doesn't out weigh the risk of frying my hair.
Goodluck to those brave enough to try! I really hope it works

Acidity where the hair is concerned is a good thing....hence the popularity of acidic rinses like vinegar ;)

As has been mentioned there are studies showng topical caffeine can increase hair growth. If you search on here there is a thread where the calculations for how much caffeine is needed are explained.
I'm actually going to try the shampoo mentioned by BLove which only works out about a fiver a bottle.

[Avital88]

This is cool, maybe gonna try it some day soon. But how many times a week did your friend do this?

[mrs_coffee]

Maybe that's why my hair grows so fast! It's all of the coffee I drink. ;)

[Lemur_Catta]

I started trying this on March 1st...Until now, I have gelled my coffee with some pectin to make it easier to spread, but it's too much work and I am worried the gel might damage my hair, so I will be trying coffee only...At the end of the month I'll measure and see the results :D Hope it works :D

[Debra83]

Did he drink the coffee or use it on his scalp?

Exactly what I was wondering!!! How many times a week did he apply it to the scalp....and really? a few inches a month?!!!

[bunzfan]

Hmm it would be great if he just drank more coffee as i am a coffee fiend:coffee: but i will be watching this to hear more.

I do think it would actually be quite difficult to apply coffee grounds to your scalp i have enough problems trying to put castor oil on my roots (so far this is working)

[Lemur_Catta]

Hmm it would be great if he just drank more coffee as i am a coffee fiend:coffee: but i will be watching this to hear more.

I do think it would actually be quite difficult to apply coffee grounds to your scalp i have enough problems trying to put castor oil on my roots (so far this is working)

Applying coffee grounds would be difficult, but regular coffee? It should be quite easy. I'll try to put it with my fingers instead of rinsing my head because I know it can be drying and I don't want it on my length.

I'm making american coffee instead of espresso (which is all we drink here) for my hair because I am worried espresso would be too strong :) Is it a good idea or would espresso be better?

[ChloeDharma]

Hmm it would be great if he just drank more coffee as i am a coffee fiend:coffee: but i will be watching this to hear more.

I do think it would actually be quite difficult to apply coffee grounds to your scalp i have enough problems trying to put castor oil on my roots (so far this is working)

You would use the liquid as opposed to the ground coffee bits, or you can use tea or caffeine tablets dissolved in water.

[BLove]

Espresso is better because it has more caffeine. According to the research that I have done it is better to put the liquid coffee on your scalp. Several sights from people who have done it say to brew it and let it cool to warm then soak your scalp in it. Works best when soaked for twenty minutes. Several places say that a tineling sensation may be expected. This method is also good for cellulite on legs and cerculation problems because it speeds up the motabolisom in the skin. According to pharmisists on another sight simalar to this one, it is not recomended to use caffeine tablits because there are fillers in them that are not good for skin. I live in a rural area and I am trying to find light colored tea with caffeine in it so that I can try this with no color effect on my hair.

[BLove]

OH by the way do not use instant coffee, it has something in it that is bad for the hair.

[anilov]

I use coffee to scrub my hands when I've been gardening, it works very well to take the dirt off (I just scoop some of the ground, used coffe out of the brewer, and rub it in with some soap, then rinse). But I used to mix coffee with my henna, to make it a little bit more brown. I think I used both the ground beans and liquid coffee (by the way Lush has coffe in their brown and black henna bars, at least they did back when I used them). It wasn't any harder (or maybe I should say easier;)) to get the ground beans out than it is to get henna out of your hair.

[ChloeDharma]

In this thread caffeine for hair growth (http://www.forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=5958&highlight=caffeine+hair+growth) there is some more information on studies and measurements suggested. According to a member posting on that thread interpreting the studies too little caffeine is not effective enough but too much overstimulates saboutaging the goal.

[In2wishin]

In this thread caffeine for hair growth (http://www.forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=5958&highlight=caffeine+hair+growth) there is some more information on studies and measurements suggested. According to a member posting on that thread interpreting the studies too little caffeine is not effective enough but too much overstimulates saboutaging the goal.

Thanks for the link. If I am understanding correctly, the ideal amount of caffeine is .15% (or 15 ml in 1 liter). I have anhydrous caffeine that I add to an undereye serum I make (to reduce the puffiness) so I am thinking I may add this to shampoo. Does it look like I have my numbers right?

[In2wishin]

Just thought of another question: is this something that should be used every wash? Once a week? Once a month?

[ChloeDharma]

Thanks for the link. If I am understanding correctly, the ideal amount of caffeine is .15% (or 15 ml in 1 liter). I have anhydrous caffeine that I add to an undereye serum I make (to reduce the puffiness) so I am thinking I may add this to shampoo. Does it look like I have my numbers right?

Hmmnnn i'm really REALLY bad with numbers so i'm possibly the worst person to ask lol. 15ml sounds alot of caffeine though.....hopefully someone better with numbers can shed more light on it soon.
As for frequency, i'd say every wash would be the way to go.....the shampoo with caffeine in is recommended to be used every day. I'll struggle with that personally, but hopefully a couple of times a week might help.

[In2wishin]

Hmmnnn i'm really REALLY bad with numbers so i'm possibly the worst person to ask lol. 15ml sounds alot of caffeine though.....hopefully someone better with numbers can shed more light on it soon.
As for frequency, i'd say every wash would be the way to go.....the shampoo with caffeine in is recommended to be used every day. I'll struggle with that personally, but hopefully a couple of times a week might help.

Oops....I'm not the best with metrics :o I finally got the calculator out and the amount I mentioned would be 1.5%. I would need 1.5 ml in a liter for the .15% or, since I calculate everything by weight, 1.5 g in a kilo.

Good thing I calculate my recipes in Excel so it figures it out for me :p

[rocket_surgeon]

Oops....I'm not the best with metrics :o I finally got the calculator out and the amount I mentioned would be 1.5%. I would need 1.5 ml in a liter for the .15% or, since I calculate everything by weight, 1.5 g in a kilo.

Good thing I calculate my recipes in Excel so it figures it out for me :p
That would be correct if your anhydrous caffeine is the same density as water is. It's not. Because the 1.5% number you're looking for is something called a weight percent, it's easiest if you calculate it using masses (that is, in grams), rather than volumes (which are in mL or L). It's easy to figure out the mass of a litre of water, because 1 g of water is generally 1 mL

I did some algebra and found out that you'll want to add about 15.25g of your anhydrous caffeine to 1 L of water. Assuming you have to measure it by volume instead of mass, it's about 12-13 mL of anhydrous caffeine. It's not such a big difference, and might be hard to measure at home, but it I'm a sucker for rigor. :D

[In2wishin]

That would be correct if your anhydrous caffeine is the same density as water is. It's not. Because the 1.5% number you're looking for is something called a weight percent, it's easiest if you calculate it using masses (that is, in grams), rather than volumes (which are in mL or L). It's easy to figure out the mass of a litre of water, because 1 g of water is generally 1 mL

I did some algebra and found out that you'll want to add about 15.25g of your anhydrous caffeine to 1 L of water. Assuming you have to measure it by volume instead of mass, it's about 12-13 mL of anhydrous caffeine. It's not such a big difference, and might be hard to measure at home, but it I'm a sucker for rigor. :D

I'm not putting it in water. I am adding it to my homemade shampoo which is only 33% water.

ETA: it is not a problem to weigh at home because I use a gram scale that measures to .001 of a gram

[rocket_surgeon]

In that case, you can weigh the amount of shampoo you want to add caffeine to, and then determine how much caffeine you need to add like this:

Mass of caffeine needed (in grams) = 0.015 x (Mass of shampoo measured (in grams))

(Though, I can only do it this way because the amount of caffeine you will need is so much smaller than the amount of shampoo you'll be using.)

The only real difference between doing it this way and doing it by volume is that caffeine is denser than water (1 tbsp of anhydrous caffeine does not weigh the same as 1 tbsp of water), and the density of your shampoo is unknown. This means you won't be adding more or less than the amount you want.

[Joules]

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I'm really interesting in coffee treatments for hair growth.

Does coffee really stain hair? I'm a very proud red hennahead and ruining my color is the last thing I want to do. If I apply brewed coffee on my scalp with a spray bottle two orthree times a week before washing my hair, will it darken my roots?

There is a caffeine hair theatment in gel form on the market here where I live, but I would like to be able to DIY it just to save money.

[DryadicSeaNymph]

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I'm really interesting in coffee treatments for hair growth.

Does coffee really stain hair? I'm a very proud red hennahead and ruining my color is the last thing I want to do. If I apply brewed coffee on my scalp with a spray bottle two orthree times a week before washing my hair, will it darken my roots?

There is a caffeine hair theatment in gel form on the market here where I live, but I would like to be able to DIY it just to save money.

I have not read this thread. I have used coffee. I do have dark hair.

However... "Green" coffee may not stain???

[Glitch]

Neat thread, both about drinking and applying coffee!
Personally, I quit drinking caffeine a year ago (only having it very rarely). Since then, my hair's been growing at a very speedy, above average rate, unlike ever before. Of course, it could be due to different factors, but thought I'd share!

[chrissy-b]

Coffee can stain hair, but it doesn't last long. At least for me it doesn't. Here's a long thread on caffeine for hair growth and shedding: https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=121903

[egcmi]

i saw this thread, so has anyone tried it and taken measurements? please share your experiences!