Who doesn't love pumpkin? Give me a pumpkin spice latte year round. Keep my enzyme pumpkin mask stocked Sephora! Oh and all the pumpkin spice candles.
Disclaimer: I cannot walk into Target between September- November without coming home with some pumpkin themed something.
So imagine my surprise when I read that pumpkin oil has some pretty great benefits... including but not limited to; being a hair growth accelerator.
Pumpkin Seed Oil Benefits:
Pumpkin seed oil has traditionally been marketed as a urinary tract or prostate health treatment.
When taken consistently it's been able to reduce symptoms like overactive bladder / increased urinary flow.
I however, was most interested in its benefit for hair growth/ hair shedding.
While studies are new and still limited in this area; I was able to find a few small ones that do show that when taken orally or applied topically; pumpkin seed oil was able to score in hair loss improvement and actually had 4x the hair growth in a studied control group when taken orally.
Another study specifically for women comparing minoxidil 5% with pumpkin seed oil ; showed improvement in hair growth when pumpkin seed oil was applied topically over the course of 3 months.
How to use Pumpkin Seed Oil for Hair Growth:
One way to take pumpkin seed oil would be orally via a capsule.
You're looking at 400 mg daily so likely 3-4 capsules daily with oil inside them.
You could also ingest the oil directly about 3 teaspoons worth three times a day but taste might be a factor on that one.
Another way to use pumpkin seed oil for hair growth would be to apply it directly to your scalp.
The oil can be applied into wet hair and scalp and massaged (best applied warm). Next you should leave in the hair at minimum about 30 minutes and works best when wrapped in a warm towel.
After approx. 30 min remove the towel and style like usual. Do this process 2-3 times a week for hair growth and watch over 3-6 months for improvement in shedding, hair health, and growth.
Note: Unless you have an allergy to pumpkin this really should not have an adverse side effect.
Trichologists & Dermatologists tend to agree studies are limited on pumpkin seed oil for hair growth but in what limited studies have been done there really seems to be significant improvement.
I'm kinda thinking once Tik Tok gets wind of this , we might have a lot more 'before and afters' of whether it's worked for the majority or not.
I'm definitely sticking to my Baby Blues max strength hair vitamins that have proven to get my hair growing at a much faster pace really simply (2 gummies a day is ridiculously easy); but since there really is no downside I'm giving this one a shot too!
Let me know in the comments if you try it and what your results were.
