Onions are a welcome addition to most shopping lists and are commonly used to add lots of savory flavor to a dish. But, an unlikely use of onions according to some anecdotal reports is also to use on your scalp for hair enhancements.
Does something smell a little funny about this natural hair loss remedy, or is it the real thing?
Below, we will take a look at the claims of hair benefits from onions and see if they align with what we know so far about onions and hair health, review any studies done on the subject, lay out any potential downsides, and give you our final thoughts on this potent kitchen staple when it comes to hair loss help.
A quick search of alternative treatment articles can readily retrieve promises of thicker, denser, faster-growing, more voluminous, less gray, more moisturized, and generally healthier hair with the regular use of onion juice.
It can be easy to slap these blanket promises down, and they do sound enticing. But, do they match up with the facts we currently have on onion juice, and any studies that have been done? Not entirely.
Onions, and their juice, are definitely full of lots of good things.
There are almost no studies done looking into the results of using onion juice on the scalp for hair loss. So it is currently unclear whether there are universal hair growth or hair loss reducing benefits from onion juice application.
However, there is one small scale study that was done in people experiencing a form of autoimmune hair loss called alopecia areata. Alopecia areata commonly leads to patchy and sudden loss of hair, due to the immune system erroneously attacking the hair follicles. These losses tend to grow back after the quick fall out, but patches may end up falling out again.
In the study mentioned above, 38 patients were divided into either the testing group where they were asked to apply onion juice twice daily for two months, or the control group where they applied only water twice daily for two months. At the end of 6 weeks, 86.9% of the onion juice group had hair regrowth, as compared to only 13% of the water-only group after 8 weeks.
While this seems promising, and should encourage future studies on the topic. Given the small number of participants, and that it was done specifically on only alopecia areata patients, this is not enough information to conclude that onion juice is good for all hair loss situations.
There is not really a concern for harm from trying out onion juice on your scalp, unless you are allergic to onions. So, if you can’t consume onions, definitely do not try to apply them.
Some people may also experience redness, itching, or irritation from applying onion juice to the skin, so always do a small patch test on your wrist before applying it all over. You may prefer mixing the onion juice with a carrier oil like olive oil or coconut oil as well.
There may also be an issue of the smell. You should probably time out your onion juice application when you will not be out and about, or at least make it before your next shower. Some people suggest mixing onion juice with lemon juice or essential oils to reduce the scent as well, if you decide to give it a try.
Onions are great, but we don’t yet know how effective they are for all forms of hair loss. More studies need to be done to figure out any positive benefits that onion juice may have for those dealing with hair loss.
The one study that was conducted involving onion juice and hair loss did not have very many participants, and it was only looking at help for an autoimmune hair condition called alopecia areata. So, while this may be a good start for identifying if onion juice can be effective for alopecia areata regrowth, this cannot be extrapolated to all forms of hair loss.
Most forms of hair loss are from androgenetic alopecia, also known as male pattern or female pattern hair loss, and have a hormonal and genetic root cause -- not autoimmune like alopecia areata.
That being said, it is unlikely that onion juice on your scalp is dangerous (unless you are allergic or are irritated by it). So, if you do want to give it a try, there is likely no harm in that. But, you probably would not want to choose onion juice over validated and effective androgenetic alopecia hair loss treatments like Finasteride or Minoxidil that can help slow the progression of genetic hair loss.
Here at Strut, we offer a variety of prescription treatments for male pattern hair loss and female pattern hair loss (that can probably be paired with onion juice, if you insist).
We utilize active ingredients like Finasteride, Dutasteride, Minoxidil, Tretinoin, and Biotin, in formulations that can be customized to suit your hair needs, goals, and personal preferences.
If you are interested in seeing if a prescription hair loss treatment is a good fit for you, simply select a product and have a free online questionnaire and image-based consultation with our U.S. licensed doctors in under 15 minutes.
If you are a good candidate for treatment, your medication will be shipped to your front door with our fast and free shipping.
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