Onion as a remedy for hair loss is a type of old herbal folk medicine that is still being used today. In fact, onion juice is an ingredient in several topical hair growth lotions currently on the market. Our early ancestors valued onions for its medicinal properties. During the Middle Ages when our medicines came from nature, physicians prescribed onions for many purposes such as headache, earache, snakebite and to combat hair loss. Patients experiencing hair loss were advised to cut a raw onion in half and rub it on scalp, or to extract the juice by grating the onion finely, then rubbing the juice into the scalp.
Perhaps the reason onion is valued for hair is because of its high sulphur content. Sulphur is known as the "beauty mineral." Sulphur is necessary for formation of collagen and for the maintenance of the skin, hair, and nails. Dry skin, brittle hair, thinning, shedding, balding hair and weak nails could be a sign of sulfur deficiency.
A study from Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Iraq, tested the effectiveness of topical crude onion juice in the treatment of alopecia areata. The group using the onion juice had success in 73% of persons tested in comparison to 13% of the group using tap water. This study was published in the Journal of Dermatology, June 2002.
Several varieties of the original treatment are as follows:
Add small pieces of a medium sized onion to a cup of rum. Leave for 24 hours. Remove the onion pieces and massage your scalp with the rum.
Place ½ cup chopped onion and ½ cup dried nettle in a container. Add vodka to cover. After a few days strain liquid and apply to scalp.
Combine ¼ onion juice with one TBS honey. Massage into scalp daily.
The following recipe is from Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs (Parker 1988) It uses onion skins to make a hair rinse. This recipe claims to make your hair super shiny and soft and to enhance color.
Collect clean dry golden or brown onionskins in a brown paper bag until you have 2 ½ cups lightly packed. Steep the skins in 1 quart of boiled water for 50 minutes. After washing hair, briefly towel dry and rinse several times with onionskin mixture, then rinse with plain water.
Onion is still being used today for many medicinal purposes, including hair loss. It's antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, circulatory and anti-oxidant properties make it a highly valued food source that can be used both internally and externally for healing purposes.
Adding onion to the diet will help supply hair with many important nutrients, health producing phytochemicals and antioxidants.
