Castor Oil - Your experience please

[Dogbones]

Hi, i have alot of broken off ends around my scalp and i'm thinking about using castor oil to help these grow and reach the length of the rest of my hair.

Have you used castor oil, and if so have you noticed a difference in the health of your hair or the growth rate? Thanks. Also include anything else you noticed:cheese:

[cheetahfast]

I think this thread might be what you're looking for: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=18265

I use castor oil and it seems to have made my hair healthier.

[Yame]

Does castor oil really help with hair growth? Would using it once a week be enough? Where would one purchase castor oil?

[YepLilly]

Check the thread cheetahfast mentioned, it's long but it has a lot of useful information! This is the basic stuff:

- Castor oil is supposed to help with hair growth and shedding. Many members have had success with it.
- Castor oil is thick, so mix it with another oil (coconut, evoo, grapeseed, jojoba, avocado, etc). 50/50 is a popular mix (some people add essential oils too)
- Most members found it easy to wash the oil away with CO or CWC.
- You can leave the treatment overnight or for a couple hours before washing your hair. You can do it once a week or a couple/few times a week.

HTH :)

[archel]

I'm on the other thread, but I will put this here just because it is so exciting! I use a mix of 50:50 castor and grapeseed oil and have mixed 10 drops of lavender/vanilla EO blend and 10 of helichrysum EO. I use it every other night on wash nights, massaging into my scalp, combing through with a wooden comb, and then braiding my hair for bed. It washes out easily the next morning.

I got an INCH of growth the first month doing this! My baby hairs are growing, which never happens. I have sprouts of new growth all over my head. I am pretty sure I will get thicker hair out of this and not just more growth. It also makes my hair super luxurious and shiny/soft. Win win!

I'd recommend against the blends at the drug store, most of them look handy because they are solid, BUT they have mineral oil and paraffin and will clog your pores on your scalp and whatnot. I use Home Health brand castor oil, which is cold pressed and has no hexane or parabens. It's really nice.

[Loreley]

I tried it half a year ago. I used castor oil for 3 months, twice a week. I left it on my hair for at least 8 hours then washed it out with shampoo. My hair didn't grow faster at all. I had the usual 1-1.5 cm growth per month and I was shedding a LOT. :justy:I lost a huge ball of hair at every wash, not to mention when I combed my hair out... :rolleyes: Then I stopped using it and as the new strands grew instead of the lost ones I looked terrible. There were whole locks growing back and sticking out of my head everywhere. :mad:
Horrible experience...

[Mairéad]

I couldn't use it long enough to make a judgment on how it affected growth because it started to darken my hair color.

[Yame]

I'm on the other thread, but I will put this here just because it is so exciting! I use a mix of 50:50 castor and grapeseed oil and have mixed 10 drops of lavender/vanilla EO blend and 10 of helichrysum EO. I use it every other night on wash nights, massaging into my scalp, combing through with a wooden comb, and then braiding my hair for bed. It washes out easily the next morning.

I got an INCH of growth the first month doing this! My baby hairs are growing, which never happens. I have sprouts of new growth all over my head. I am pretty sure I will get thicker hair out of this and not just more growth. It also makes my hair super luxurious and shiny/soft. Win win!

I'd recommend against the blends at the drug store, most of them look handy because they are solid, BUT they have mineral oil and paraffin and will clog your pores on your scalp and whatnot. I use Home Health brand castor oil, which is cold pressed and has no hexane or parabens. It's really nice.

Thank you! That's very helpful advice. I think I will try castor oil myself, just once a week the night before wash day (since I wash just once a week), and see if that works. If it helps with growth that's great, if it helps with shedding that's great (I shed a lot), if it helps with both that is AWESOME!

I just went to the supermarket to get some castor oil, and they didn't have any. They did have grapeseed oil though, so I got that so I can do the 50/50 mix. Now I just need to figure out where to get the actual castor oil...




I couldn't use it long enough to make a judgment on how it affected growth because it started to darken my hair color.

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you! That's actually good to know, though. Anything that can darken my hair is a plus for me, since I like very dark hair (my hair is naturally dark brown, but I dye it black once a year with a deposit-only toner), and I'd like to eventually get off the dye and just darken it naturally somehow(without henna/indigo, though).

[archel]

I get mine at a health food store with the other fancy oils in the body care section, but some find it with cooking stuff I think. Otherwise you can always hit Amazon.com.

[ladonna]

Castor oil is found in the laxative section of the store.

[Yame]

I just looked in the cooking oils section. I couldn't find any staff to ask so I didn't look further. But it's OK, I hear they sell it at CVS so I'll check it out there tomorrow :)

[ange1ito]

I have been using it for just over 6 months. Maybe I was due new growth anyhow, but I can definitely say I have loads of new growth all over my scalp. I had a severe shed early last year due to health and stress factors, continuing all the way into August 2010. During this time I had been applying CO with no signs of growth...only until I began the Castor oil deep treatments in Jan 2011, did I I actually see the growth. My shedding calmed down heaps and now I usually have the average 100 if I haven't washed my hair for a few days. I hope it works for you too ;)

[Lianna]

I'm not in the other thread, but I've read some of it. It does speed my growth, from 0.6 to 0.79 inch a month. Don't know about shedding, since it was never a problem for me, so I just don't notice.

[Yame]

I have some pretty major shedding (although it's been going on for so long and I don't seem to have lost any thickness), so it would be sooo nice if I could find something that could help without going to the derm!

[McFearless]

I used castor oil straight for quite some time with very good result: a thicker hairline and overall hair. It is sticky and thick but using a dropper makes it much easier to work with. I wear my hair up in a bun all of the time so I'm able to hide the oil well and I keep my scalp oiled 24/7. I can't say how many times a week it should be used for certain, but in my opinion at least 3. Consistency is important.

If you have a dry scalp make a little effort to moisturize it with an oil or stretch a wash here and there to balance the effects of castor oil. It can be a tad drying for some because of its cleansing properties.

[McFearless]

I just looked in the cooking oils section. I couldn't find any staff to ask so I didn't look further. But it's OK, I hear they sell it at CVS so I'll check it out there tomorrow :)

You can find it in the laxative section.

[co.co]

I found mine pretty cheap on eBay because I couldn't find it anywhere :) I'm not sure what it did for my growth - although, I've had barely any growth this year and I'm thinking of trying it again. At the time I used it however I too had massive shedding as a few other people have said, but I'm not certain if that was due to the castor oil or COing :S

[Allychan]

I have been using a castor oil/grapeseed mix since Jan this year. My routine includes massaging it into my scalp and leaving it in overnight 3x per week. I coconut shampoo it out the next morning. Results...my thin scraggy hair is obserably thicker and I have minimal shedding whereas I was losing notable amounts everytime I washed or combed. Not sure if it has sped up growth because I use monistat on the alternate nights. Religiously. But definately notable change in thickness. I am due for my monthly photo this weekend and I will be interested in any changes. I recently hacked of quite a bit of length because of the thin scraggy ends. Here's my plug about castor oil www.lushlonghaircareguide.wordpress.com/castor-oil

It wouldn't let me upload photos