Rosemary oil for postpartum hair loss

Rosemary oil for postpartum hair loss

Postpartum hair loss? What the heck is that?

I can’t speak for you but before having my lil girl, the only things I heard about being pregnant was the morning sickness and labour pains. When you see women that have more than one child, you think surely it’s not that bad right? Wrong!!!

Whilst pregnant . . .

I was fortunate to not have had any morning sickness but what I did have was a metallic taste in my mouth and for all of the second trimester, all I could stomach was a plain bagel and a mug of hot chocolate and plain flavourless chicken wings from dominos. The first trimester was relatively a breeze . . .

Then came the third trimester . . . my hip bone was deconstructed, talk about pelvic girdle pain. Thinking about it just gives me the shivers . . .

Prior to getting pregnant, I had like 6 strands of grey hair on the left side of the head. I don’t think I had any on my right. I can’t say exactly how much on the top of the head but not a lot. No eyes at my back,  but I don’t think I had any there.

The pictures that were taken a couple of hours after my lil girl was born showed that I had ‘greyed overnight’. My hair looked like I had a soapy patch from ear to ear.

Ah actually, I forgot to mention that whilst pregnant, my afro was shedding significantly more than normal for me. I didn’t notice this before until a friend pointed it out when he visited.

12 months later . . .

I was still grey and my hair growth was very funky. I read somewhere about tea tree oil being good for one’s hair, so I got a bottle. I made my own hair rinse with the tea tree oil, coconut oil and apple cider vinegar. I applied the tea tree oil ‘neat’ to my scalp before applying my usual hair care products.

It is not recommended that you use essential oils neat. I couldn’t tell you why I did it and I don’t recommend that you do either. Tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar have a drying effect, so you need to really moisturise your hair after use.

A few weeks after use, I noticed that the amount of grey hair I had had reduced considerably. It was like magic! I was under the impression that grey hair was not reversible. 6 months later I still do have grey hair but no where near as much as it was before. Phewww one battle won.

A couple of months ago . . .

Whilst chatting with a friend, I mentioned that whilst using tea tree oil, I noticed that the grey hair I had had reduced. However, the grey area seemed to be weak, so it wasn’t growing as well as the rest of my hair. My friend recommended that I tried rosemary oil.

I didn’t initially take my friend’s recommendation seriously, however, whilst walking past my local pharmacy one day, I thought why not and went in and got a bottle.

Within one week of using the rosemary oil in Jamaica black castor oil as the vehicle, I saw an improvement in the thickness of the hair in the grey/weak patch. What I feel is happening now is that the fine weak hair strands that have split are falling off to allow for stronger hair to grow. I made a new hair rinse that I included rosemary oil too.

I wish I understood the science behind rosemary oil’s efficacy. Do you? If so, please do leave a comment below. Have you or do you know anyone who suffered from postpartum hair loss? Did it resolve on its own or was something used to stimulate growth?

In my haircare regime:

1. I do not use a shampoo
2. I take daily biotin tablets
3. Twice weekly, I use a home made rinse made from
   1. cheap supermarket brand hair conditioner
   2. apple cider vinegar
   3. coconut oil
   4. tea tree oil
   5. rosemary oil
4. I use groganics dht blocker deep freeze conditioner weekly
5. groganics dht blocker leave in lotion 3x daily (my hair is quite porous)
6. Jamaica black castor oil (currently, or argan oil) with rosemary oil 3x daily

A little over a year since my last hair cut last year (July 2015), my afro is about shoulder length. I’m having re-growth of my grey hair and thickening, so the length is significantly shorter.

I only started using rosemary oil around the first week of September. If the thickness continues the way it has so far, I am optimistic that by December, there would hardly be any noticeable difference in my hair. What are your thoughts folks on the use of rosemary oil for postpartum hair loss?

PS if you have fine hair, do not use castor oil or argan oil as they are quite thick. I recommend using coconut oil instead.

PS PS I just got a personal fitness coach to help me get rid of my saggy belly in time for the book launch event for Abiku: A Battle Of Gods at the Park Plaza Hotel in London Victoria on the 9th of December 2016. I hope to see you there 😀