Simple DIY Essential Oils Recipes for Hair Growth
Using essential oils in your hair is a powerful strategy for growing longer hair. There are some very specific essential oils that you can use to help you on your hair growth journey. We’ll discuss them below and then you’ll find some simple essential oils recipes for hair growth that you can start using right away.
How Essential Oils Work to Grow Your Hair
Essential oils help with new hair growth in a few ways:
– Stimulating hair growth by increasing blood flow in the scalp. When blood circulation is good deep down into the depth of your hair follicles, your hair can grow without hindrance.
– Accelerating hair growth. While all hair grows barring any health issues or other interference, you can achieve faster hair growth with essential oils
– Halting hair loss. If you are losing hair at the same rate or faster than you can grow it, you’ll never achieve healthy, long hair
While many of the essential oils can help with dry scalp, the only true help for dry hair is water. Water is the ultimate moisturizer. So, please keep that in mind.
None of these recipes are meant to replace the role of water in your hair care.
However, regularly using essential oils in your hair and scalp will greatly improve your hair health and scalp health.
Essential Oils that Promote Hair Growth
While most all essential oils have some benefit for your hair, there are specific oils that that provide the best results.
Here are ten essential oils for hair growth in alphabetic order:
1. Carrot Seed Oil
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This oil that’s extracted from the seed of the carrot plant has a woodsy and earthy scent with sweet notes. It’s rich in vitamins A, B, C, D and E. The reason it’s a good essential oil for hair growth is it nourishes hair at the follicular level.
It’s rich in antioxidants, but carrot seed oil also has some really great antimicrobial properties which fight off fungi in the scalp. And, we all know a healthy scalp is the first line of defense for hair growth.
2. Cedarwood Oil
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This essential oil is extracted by a steam distillation process from a cedar tree’s leaves, needles, bark and berries.
It’s helpful for hair growth because it increase circulation in the scalp.
I find cedarwood oil most amazing for not just hair growth but other benefits.
Check out this article from Healthline. It mentions a study that was done that helped reverse alopecia areata, a serious hair loss condition.
3. Clary Sage Oil
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Clary sage essential oil has a scent that’s similar to carrot seed oil – woodsy and earthy but slightly fruity. The reason I’m mentioning the scent in some of the summarized oil properties is it’s something to take into consideration when blending essential oils for your DIY essential oils recipes for hair growth.
This essential oil helps with hair growth by reducing inflammation in the scalp as well as balancing the production of your scalp’s natural oils. Clary sage oil is also found to minimize hair loss.
What’s most impressive is it’s connection to our next essential oil, lavender. Both contain an organic compound called linalyl acetate which stimulates and increases….you guess it. Hair Growth.
4. Lavender Essential Oil
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One of the most popular essential oils for hair growth, you definitely want to use this one for your essential oils recipes for hair growth.
Lavender oil can penetrate deep down into the depth of hair follicles to strengthen them. It’s been found to halt baldness and also improve the hair’s texture by reducing the appearance of frizz.
Score for those of us with cotton fine hair!
5. Lemongrass Oil
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Lemongrass essential oil is another popular oil for stimulating hair growth and it just may be my favorite for it’s scent alone. It mixes very well with many other essential oils, especially those with notes of citrus.
This essential oil helps with hair growth by strengthening hair follicles to reduce excess shedding. It also helps with hair fall and cleaning out hair follicles. It’s a very refreshing oil!
6. Peppermint Essential Oil
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Peppermint oil (in my opinion, the moist recognizably stimulating), is rich in menthol, limonene, menthone and other organic compounds. These properties can help stimulate blood flow while also soothing the scalp.
The limonene in peppermint oil can also improve your hair’s elasticity and decrease it’s porosity, both important for being able to retain length.
7. Rosemary Oil
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Rosemary essential oil is often combined with peppermint essential oil to stimulate hair growth. You’ll find them in one of the essential oils recipes for hair growth below.
This essential oil is rich in vitamins A, C, and B vitamins (Riboflavin, Thiamine, Niacin, Pyridoxine and Folate).
It’s high vitamin A content supports a healthy scalp. For those who are deficient in vitamin B, topical support can help some.
8. Spearmint Oil
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Not many people know of the benefits of spearmint essential oil for hair growth.
So, I wrote about it here: 7 Hair Benefits of Spearmint Oil
9. Tea Tree Oil
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With its solid antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, tea tree essential oil is a great choice for your DIY essential oils recipes.
With regular use, it can improve your scalp’s overall health. It’s great for dealing with an itchy scalp.
While the essential oil itself isn’t necessarily increasing your rate of hair growth, it can certainly create the best environment for your scalp to grow healthy hair.
10. Ylang Ylang Essential Oil
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This essential oil has the ability to increase the sebum production in your scalp by stimulating your sebaceous glands.
It’s also a natural conditioner that can smooth out the hair’s cuticle layer.
It contains the organic compound, Linalool which is believed to have anti-inflammatory effects on the scalp. Linalool is also responsible for Ylang Ylang’s floral scent. However, Ylang Ylang can also have a very strong scent.
This oil has 3 classifications that is determined by its steam distillation timing. Level 3 is at its most complete stage and this is what you want when using this essential oil to aid you with hair growth.
You may have noticed that the one property that each of these essential oils has in common is their ability to stimulate circulation within the scalp. Being free of scalp issues and having a scalp with adequate blood flow is essential for healthy hair growth.
Types of Essential Oil Recipes
There’s no shortage of the types of essential oils recipes you can use for hair growth. There are so many recipe blends that it can seem overwhelming.
Not to worry though. Broken down for you below, are the types of DIY recipes that you can make and how to use them. What’s great is there’s a suitable recipe for any hair type.
Each of these types of essential oil recipes will help stimulate hair growth. Some will also help with length retention.
Carrier Oils
Most essential oils are too potent for direct contact with your skin. So, in order to mix them up for use in a natural hair care routine, you’ll need to either add them to other oils called carrier oils (which contain essential fatty acids) or other hair care products.
You’ll find a carrier oil noted in many of the recipes below but here’s a list of some common and not so common carrier oils which you can interchange within the recipes.
Just be aware of the properties of the oils before using them. For example, some oils are too heavy for use in fine hair.
Argan Oil – lightweight
Avocado Oil – moderately lightweight
Babassu Oil – lightweight
Camellia Oil – lightweight
Castor Oil – heavy
Coconut Oil – moderately heavy
Grapeseed Oil – lightweight
Jojoba Oil – lightweight
Olive Oil – moderately heavy
Rosehip Oil – moderately heavy
Shea Oil – moderately lightweight (lighter than pure Shea Butter alone)
Sweet Almond Oil – lightweight
There are other oils you can use but these are the most easy to find.
Hair Serum
An essential oil hair serum is just what you need for stronger hair. Depending on the essential oil blend you create, the hair serum can benefit your hair in myriad of ways including strengthening against hair breakage, frizz fighting, softening and of course, stimulating hair growth
Hair Growth Serum Recipe
Here’s an easy hair growth serum recipe:
- 4 ounces of jojoba oil
- 10 drops of lavender oil
- 10 drops of rosemary oil
- 5 drops of tea tree essential oil
How to use: On wash day, massage throughout the scalp. Leave on for about an hour and then proceed with washing with a gentle cleansing shampoo.
Deep Conditioner or Hair Mask
The easiest way to use essential oils to condition your hair is to add them to a store bought deep conditioner. You can boost the properties of the deep conditioner by adding just a few drops of pretty much any of the essential oils mentioned above.
However, if you want to go the full DIY route, here’s a recipe shared by Doterra, a premium essential oil brand.
Hair Mask Recipe:
- 3 tablespoons of coconut oil (preferably organic, virgin oil)
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 8 drops of essential oil (The recommendations are: peppermint, lavender, rosemary, or clary sage. Use just one or a combination totaling 8 drops)
You can switch out the coconut oil or olive oil for avocado, jojoba or sweet almond oil.
Leave-in Conditioner
Recipe:
- 4 ounces of Shea Butter
- 1 tablespoon of avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon of carrot seed oil
- 20 drops of cedarwood essential oil (or oil of your choice). You can also blend 2-3 oils for a total of 20 drops.
Scalp Massage Oil
Massaging the scalp with a DIY hair oil blended with essential oils is a very popular way to use them for hair growth. In fact, if this is the only recipe you use, you’ll recognize the benefits of essential oils for hair growth.
DIY Hair Growth Oil Recipe:
- 4 ounces of castor oil (or Jamaican black castor oil)
- 10 drops of rosemary essential oil
- 10 drops of peppermint essential oil
You can purchase a product with these exact ingredients here: https://amzn.to/3PEKxWu
Refresher Spray
You can use a refresher spray on your scalp a few times throughout the week. Below is a really easy recipe shared by a Beautiful Mess.
Spritzer Recipe:
- 4 ounces of distilled water (Important. you don’t want any pollutants or minerals in your water)
- 1/2 teaspoon of avocado, sweet almond, or other carrier oil (my recommendation)
- 10 drops of rosemary essential oil (you can amp this all the way up to 20 drops – my recommendation)
Infused Hair Gel
Hair Growth Gel Recipe:
- Inside of 3 fresh Aloe vera leafs (or 4 ounces of fresh aloe vera gel – no additives)
- 1/2 teaspoon of vitamin E (a natural preservative)
- 20 drops of one (or combined between 2-3) of the essential oils listed above
How to Blend Essential Oils
To start, you’ll need to have these tools on hand whenever you are creating your essential oils recipes for hair growth:
- A container to mix your recipes
- A container to store your recipes
Read about the must have beauty tools for DIYs here:Â 7 Must Have Tools for Creating DIY Recipes
Plus, the Top 3 Ingredients to Mix Your Herbal DIYs
As a rule of thumb, you always want to mix essential oils with a carrier oil as mentioned above. However, depending on the essential oil you are using, there is a recommended blending ratio.
For hair growth, the recommendation is 5-12 drops of essential oil (depending on the potency of the oil) for every one ounce of carrier oil.
You can play around with this a bit. Because essential oils are so potent and can cause skin irritation, you may want to use less than the recommendation and see how your hair responds. You can always build up to the recommendation.
For the best results, keep a journal of what you are using and work up to where your hair responds best.
You can also blend your oils by effect, fragrance or notes. As it relates to scenting, the recommendation is:
30% Top Notes
50% Middle Notes
20% Base
There’s more to understand. So, you can check out the essential blending guide linked below.*
*source: Fresh Skin UK
In conclusion, if you want to achieve healthier hair growth, essential oils are powerful natural resources to incorporate into your natural hair care routine.
Next up:
Continuing with the benefits and importance of using oils for healthy hair, you may find these articles helpful:
The Best Essential Oils for Curly Hair to Use Regularly
The “Tea” on Spearmint Oil for Hair
Disclaimer: Links to the essential oils above are affiliate links. Before using essential oils, please check with your doctor. While essential oils are all natural, they may contraindicate with certain health conditions.
Thank you for the wonderful read! I am curious to know how do you incorporate essential oils into your hair care routine? Do you prefer to mix them into your shampoo, create a leave-in treatment, or perhaps a relaxing pre-shower scalp massage?
Hi, i mention in the article the ways to use EOs in a hair routine. I’ve used them in each of these ways which is why I mentioned them
Really excited to come across these simple yet powerful DIY recipes that use essential oils to help hair grow healthier. The clear instructions and natural ingredients make this a great choice for people looking for natural solutions.
Thanks Vinevida!